Family Reunion (#2)

Family reunion #2 of the summer took us back to camping at Outlook which we were really looking forward to. All of Daniel's immediate family were there as well as his Grandma so it was nice to all be together. The kids of course had a great time - more time with their trucks, tractors, shovels, pails and then of course the playground and swimming pool. The nights were pretty cool but thankfully we have a heater in the trailer that keeps us all warm.

This is our setup in the trailer for the kids. I absolutely LOVE our Pea Pod Plus's!! I really don't think camping would work right now for us without them. So Mitchell and Maggie are in the bump-out and Casey is on the table bed. It works well for us, except when they are wired at night and jump around in their tents and fall down onto each other or the floor. I cannot imagine what chaos there would be without the tents.





Everyone squished into our bed first thing in the morning. Notice Mitchell's long string that he's hanging onto? He will pick at his blankie until he gets a piece loose like this and then carries it around by that string - until I cut it off, tie it and then he gets another.

Maggie does the weirdest thing with her blankie - kind of gross really. I want to document this so she can read this someday for herself! Ha ha! She has two specific corners on her blankie that she now calls her"crusty corners". Yes, our sweet little girl shoves the corners of her blankie up her nose and no matter how often I wash her blankie she still has these crusty corners - Ewww! When she first started doing it and I switched blankies on her she was ticked off when she couldn't find those two corners. Now however, she has "broken in" two blankies. Sorry, I'm sure you could have done without reading this but as I said I want to have it in writing so that when she's 15 and saying, "I didn't do that" I can show her this.

With all of us at the playground, 7 kids + adults, we pretty much took the place over.




We had a great time at the pool too. It was a great weekend!

August was an absolutely awesome month for weather. We spent a lot of time outside going for walks or in the backyard. The boys, especially Mitchell, always go for the sand first.

Maggie was our little ball player this day, look at that stance. Move on over Lisa Fernandez!


Keeping her eye on the ball.

Daniel has taught the kids well - often when they throw a ball they'll say, "Step and throw", practicing stepping with the proper foot when they throw. Maggie and Casey are righties, but Mitchell does most things left although he does well with his right too.

Camping, Camping, Camping....!

...this what the kids scream anytime we mention camping. Even when we don't talk about it they (especially Maggie) ask at least every other day if we can go camping again. They LOVE it! This trip we went on in July was a lot of fun because we went with our friends Jen and Sheldon and their kids Jordyn and Luke. It works out great because Luke is just a few months older than our kids and Jordyn is 6 so the kids love to follow her around and listen to her and of course as any 6 year old would, she loves to tell them what to do. Ha! It's great!

Group hug! So Cute!!!

It started pouring just as we pulling in to set up our spot but thankfully it didn't last long. The kids waste anytime getting into the trucks, tractors, pails and shovels - staples for our camping trips.


Love Maggie's curls here...


Just playing around the campsite. It was so cute to watch all 5 of them holding hands and going exploring as they called it. The Friedt's binoculars were a huge hit!






Jen and Sheldon let us take their bikes and trailer out for a ride with the kids. I've always thought about getting a chariot and putting 2 of the kids inside and one on a bike seat with Daniel or I, but it's just something I haven't looked into any further. Anyways, the kids LOVED it and we enjoyed it too! Biking with 3 kids up hills is quite the workout!



All of the boys playing football.

We camped at Outlook Regional Park and it was a fantastic spot, with a great playground and pool.




Jordyn and Luke - awesome kids!


I had a scary experience with Maggie in the pool! She had her life jacket on already and Daniel and I were getting the boys' jackets on. She started walking to the other end of the kiddie pool where the small slide was. I saw her standing at the top of the slide and though to myself, "That's not good...but she has a life jacket on and it's not too deep". I saw her go down the slide, she fell forward on her tummy as she went into the water, and because she wasn't big enough (or strong enough) to flip herself over she was stuck face down in the water. I jumped in with my clothes and ran across the pool to grab her. When I lifted her up she was sucking for air and startled but within a few seconds she was asking to go back down again. Needless to say I felt sick and was on edge the rest of the time! It was a clear reminder how easily tragedies could happen. As you can see, it didn't phase her.


Thanks for the great weekend Friedt's - looking forward to doing it again next summer!

Family Reunion (#1)

Last month we went to a family reunion on Daniel's mom's side in Unity. I wasn't too sure how things would go seeing as that was only 4 days into potty training, but they did awesome! We carried those potties with us everywhere: to the ball diamond, the hall, the playground, etc and it went really well - I think only 1 accident.

The kids put on a bit of a piano performance. If any of them actually do have any musical talent they definitely didn't get it from Daniel or I.




Our attempt at a picture of the 5 of us. Some day this should be a simpler process.


The kids had a great time at the playground, they recruited Auntie Robin to join in too.



I think Mitchell thought he died and went to heaven - there was a do-it-yourself excavator - his favorite thing!





With all of the travelling that we've done with the kids, this is the first hotel that we've stayed in. They had a lot of fun in the BIG beds but actually slept in their pea pod tents on the floor and finally crashed around 11:00pm.

We are heading off to family reunion #2 tomorrow. The kids are SO excited to go camping again, each day they ask if today is the day that we go and then they list off everything that we are going to do and eat, like have a campfire, go swimming, eat marshmellows and hotdogs. It's so cute!