Camping....take 2!

After the rocky start to our camping season, I have to admit I didn't go into the second camping trip full of excitement. It was more excitement/worry over how the sleeping situation would go. Hills Creek is a completely different climate than the beach, but still I packed lots and lots of extra blankets and clothes because by golly being cold wasn't going to happen!! Fortunately for us, the weather was beautiful. Warm enough during the day that you enjoy being in the lake but not too hot that you are miserable sitting at camp. Its always fun to get to camp with most of the family (we missed you Uncle Jason, Auntie Sarah, Jude, Jenna and Selah!).

Aubrey is our spunky girl. She will be the class clown/goof ball/smiley girl. Usually she just goes along with Ella in her pretend play or story lines and has the very laid back, I'll-be-whatever-character-you-want-me-to-be player. Then while we were camping, this other little person emerged. The day we arrived at camp, we were sitting down to dinner and Amah swatted away a fly from dinner. Instantly Aubrey chimes in, "That's my cousin, don't hurt him." We chuckled then moved on with dinner because we've all heard Aubrey's crazy comments. But then the story continued.... I look over and her hands are cupped together and she says:
"I caught one of my cousins."
Me- "You caught a fly?"
"Yep. Its invisible."
"Oh wow."
"It was in my cupholder of my carseat the whole way here."
For the rest of our camping trip, Aubrey and her invisible/visible fly cousins had a blast ;-)

Kneeboarding. Last year the girls gave kneeboarding a try and did really well. This year, they did AWESOME!! Not only did both of the girls kneeboard, but they kneeboarded across the the lake, turned the corner and then kneeboarded back to the shore. I was so proud of both of them. And judging by the smiles on their faces, they were pretty proud too!!

Ella kneeboarding

Aubrey practicing and then kneeboarding.

Neal dusted off his kneeboarding skills this summer too =)

G-daddy let Aubrey drive the boat back to camp all by herself.

Ella was born with such a loving big sister heart. Each time I catch moments like this, my heart just bursts and I remember that the difficult times are far less than these!

Our sweet camping babies

Ainsley loved her independence to be able to explore around the campsite. The hike up the hill was fairly steep and she attempted a few times and had a tumble or 2. Then one morning we catch this...Ella taking Ainsley by the hand to help her make it up the stairs.

Notice the arrow. That would be the hiney trail Ainsley is leaving behind as she slides down the campsite. Ainsley thought that was SO.MUCH.FUN!

For 4 days straight Ainsley was a filthy, dirty baby. Fortunately dirt only adds to the cuteness of these 2!

On this particular day, Ainsley had gotten so dirty by the end of lunch that she required a bath BEFORE naptime.

Camping casualty--- Don't worry, the actual injury was pretty minor. It all started as a friendly stick-hunting expedition. Well, as with any activity that involves 4 children usually goes, suddenly we had an "oops! It was an accident!" Ella ended up getting her eye scratched and in typical eye-injury fashion, that annoying feeling that something is still in your eye feeling wouldn't go away. And poor Ella, she has her daddy's picking genes. She couldn't leave the eye alone. Amah had an eye patch so we could keep her little fingers out of the eye. It was cool and exciting to have the patch on for about 2 minutes. She tried every tactic under the sun to get me to remove it. She told me she had been miraculously healed and it felt wonderful. She cried and screamed that there was something stuck inside the patch. She bargained that if I would just take it off then she promised she would not touch her eye (the solid dirt covering over the once white patch told me that her promise wouldn't last!). We took the patch off for our evening water activities and Ella's eye was all better!

Everyone kisses a toad!! The first toad caught on our toad hunt was lucky enough to get a kiss from Logan, Quin, Ella and Aubrey!

Last year Aubrey was afraid of going on the toad hunt. She was so excited and loved every minute. Logan was our great white toad hunter. She found both toads for us.

This was the first year that each of the kids rode in individual biscuits behind the boat. It wasn't planned, but the "big blog" popped its seem on our first day of camping. Each kid had a preference on how they liked to be pulled. One wanted fast, one wanted inside, one wanted bumps, one wanted no spray....poor G-daddy had just 1 boat to try to meet all those wants! The order of children in this picture is Aubrey, Quin, Logan and Ella.

This picture doesn't do justice to the amount of stuff stuck to Ainsley. She has leaves, twings, grass, dirt...you name it, it stuck into that cute little once pink coat! But no matter how many times she fell down, she was determined to walk by herself anywhere and everywhere she could.

True Aubrey style right here!

Ella was "building Mt. St. Helens" out of dirt on the shore. She often surprises me with her knowledge that she has retained from reading books and magazines.

I DID IT!!! I first attempted to waterski 9 years ago on my first camping trip with Neal. Off and on during the last 9 years I've tried, got close but never actually got up on the ski and stayed there ;-) This trip, I got up on the 1st day I tried (not the first try, but I need a few good drags behind the boat to really get my bearings!) and then I did it again the next 2 days. Now next summer I get to work on not being so afraid of being up once I get there.

Life has been busy around here and I hope you enjoy our sporadic, picture heavy glimpses!