Have I mentioned how fun it is to be back in our home town this summer? I am really loving it and all the family traditions we get to participate in. Don't get me wrong, I really loved being away from it all for our first couple years of marriage, I loved making and trying new traditions for our little family. It is just exciting to blend some of those traditions now!
Since we were home this summer we got to attend our family camp out with my mom's side of the family. Another tradition that I haven't been able to participate in for 8 years. Max has never been so we were pretty excited. I have to back up a bit to start the story though because the day before we went camping, my beautiful nieces came over and played with me. James and Elizabeth came into town so they could go camping too. It also happened to be Elizabeth's birthday so after arriving late and spending the night, we all woke up the next morning and I got to watch the girls while James and Elizabeth went to the temple. I was a little nervous to watch all 3 kids...Charlie alone is one busy kid! I also wanted to attempt to prepare a luncheon while they were gone as to give Elizabeth a little birthday celebration. It ended up being great. Grace and Gwenevere are wonderful kids that really know how to entertain themselves and play well together.
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| we had some balloon fun |
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| ...but mostly we played out on the deck! |
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| Cute cousins! |
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| Sweet Sisters |
My favorite Gwenevere quote of the day was when they were playing pretend doctor and Gwenevere asks Grace to hit her head on something so she can fix it. Grace proceeded to hit her head on the chair and then the door. What an obedient little sister! We were able to get a nice little luncheon together and even gather some fresh flowers as a center piece. I think it turned out great. After lunch, James and Elizabeth left for the camping trip.
Max and I left the next day after he got off work. We also brought Justin with us because Aunt Val invited him and he's a good kid!
We arrived in the evening greeted by the whole family who was out in the parking lot riding bikes and playing games. Charlie was excited to see all the little kids to play with.
I was really bad at taking picture throughout the weekend. I've stolen some photos from Elizabeth and my cousin Stephanie so hopefully that will help fill in some of the blanks.
After setting up camp it was time for Charlie to go to bed so Max kindly took him and got him to settle down while I was able to play games with my family until nearly midnight. Max was working on getting Charlie to sleep until nearly midnight. He came out of the tent and we got some nice campfire time before we went to bed.
Charlie woke up nice and early with the sunlight. Max and I were definitely not ready to be awake so we let Charlie loose in the tent. He was free to play with the tooth brushes and flashlights. Max fell back asleep, I rested, but knowing how busy (and sometimes destruction) my boy was, I couldn't fall back asleep. But then, the next thing I knew, I heard a child, outside the tent, I thought to myself that it sounded like charlie but told myself that that would be impossible because Charlie is in the tent and I never heard him playing with the zippers. I heard the voice again and I was sure it was Charlie. I scan the tent to notice my son was missing and there was a TINY portion of the door unzipped. Max was startled awake at this point. We unzipped the window to see our boy standing in the damp grass in his footie pajamas with a huge proud grin on his face. Once we saw him, he started running towards the other side of the field. I was able to jump out of the tent and catch him before he got too far. He is such a sneaky little guy!
After that, we were all awake so we got dressed and went outside. We were able to help with some breakfast prep and play with the bikes.
After a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes, eggs, and sausage. We got to go ride some bikes in the parking lot.
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| Charlie trying out Lexi's bike. It was definitely too big for him but he still thought he was pretty cool |
And of course all the cousins and second cousins loved playing in my mom's tent trailer.
My favorite part of this day was the time we got to spend at the lake. The weather was hot and the lake felt great. Our neighbors even let us bring their blow-up kayak and some other great water floaties.
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| Lexi and Gwenevere! These girls are so cute! |
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| Charlie and Grace had a great time floating around. |
Max gave Charlie his first rowing lesson. It won't be long before he is on the rafting trips with us, and then he will be rowing his own boat.
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| Snapped a shot of my beautiful sister-in-law. She will not lot pregnancy slow her down! |
We stayed at the lake for most of the day, I got a little burnt on my shoulders and Charlie got his first little sunburn on his nose.
We came back and Charlie, of course, fell asleep in the car so we let him continue to sleep in the car while Max and I took a nice nap in our tent. We set up our phones as a baby monitor so we weren't totally neglecting our son.
After nap time we had a delicious stew with rolls. Then, Uncle Bryan had brought a whole bunch of Krispy Kreme donuts. Charlie was not interested in his stew so what do I do?..I give him a donut. And he finished that donut in less than 30 seconds. It was so fast that these are the best pictures I could take of him inhaling it.
Later that evening we got a great 2 on 2 volleyball game going it was Max and me against Justin and Uncle Jay. Max and I totally won although it appeared that we were all at a similar skill level which wasn't too impressive. We then had some fun playtime on the playground with all the kids. Elizabeth prepared an awesome scavenger hunt for all the little ones. In the end, they got to dig for treasure in the sand and found some candy. So fun!
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| Charlie and Gwenevere holding hands. Precious! |
After the hunt it was time to settle the kids down for bed, Max volunteered to put Charlie down again so I could spend more time playing with my extended family. What a sweet man! A couple hours later I hadn't seen Max so I assumed he had fallen asleep too. I sat by the campfire with my family and my sweet Gwenevere on my lap. Gwenevere kept asking to hear us tell different stories, She wanted me to tell about the day Charlie was born and she wanted my mom to tell her about when James and I were born and she wanted her mom to tell the story of when she and Grace were born. She is such a fun girl. We also indulged in some s'mores (redundant?)
Max eventually showed up around the campfire, he had fallen asleep so we stayed up even later sitting at the fire together. We went to bed late, then lucky for us, Charlie slept in a tiny bit later than the morning before. We'll take it!
We got to eat a wonderful dutch oven breakfast made by my mom.
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| Charlie and Lexi played with the great swords made by uncle Doug. |
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| My red grandma with 2 of her grandchildren and a bunch of great grand children. |
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| Sometimes it's fun to think of all the posterity that has come from this lovely lady! |
After the sun came out and it started getting hot, we decided to have some more water fun. Stephanie brought a sprinkler and we set up two of Aunt Val's rafts as little pools for the kids.
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| Charlie of course has to check out how things work. |
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| More bike riding. |
After the busyness of playing in the water, Elizabeth brought a fun craft for all the little kids. They got to paint little animals. They had a lot of fun with that.
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| Gwenevere took this picture of us eating our delicious dutch over, marionberry cobbler. |
At this point in the day Charlie was getting pretty exhausted. Max carried him back to the tent and by the time they got to the tent, Charlie was basically asleep in Max's arms. That doesn't happen much anymore. Max put him down in the tent and we set up our phones as a baby monitor again. We didn't want Charlie breaking out of the tent without us knowing again. While he was sleeping we got to play a fun card game with the family. It was kind of fun that Max and I were both able to play. Throughout the game he listened closely to the monitor and went to check on Charlie several times. We were surprised that Charlie was taking such a long nap. At one point Max went to go check on Charlie, he looked in the tent and saw that Charlie wasn't in the bed anymore, Max moved around to another window to see if Charlie had moved to another part of the tent. He quickly realized that Charlie was not in the tent despite all our precautions. Max's heart dropped realizing that Charlie could be anywhere and we had no idea how long he had been awake and out of the tent. Max followed a path that he thought Charlie would have taken and LUCKILY he found Charlie, barefoot, in the parking lot playing with the bikes. Charlie still looked dazed so we assume he had just woken up. Luckily I didn't know Charlie was lost until after Max had already found him, I would have freaked out much more than Max. Anyway we squeezed him tight and are now on the hunt for a tent that zips up to the top.
We enjoyed another dutch oven masterpiece from my mom for dinner. It was Chili and cornbread. Charlie ate 4 bowls. Then it was time to pack up and go home.
We caught Grace jumping in the pool before she went home.
Also, James and Max played a quick game of horseshoes, Charlie really seemed to like playing on the pole...hmmm
After that it was really time to go. We were really excited to spend all this time with our family. Charlie loves camping and we do too.
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| Homeward bound. |
