Preschool Pool Party/Missing Max

So after getting back from our camping trip, we had a Sunday at home then Max had to leave early Monday morning for a High Adventure camp with the older boys from church. It was an awesome trip  where they hiked Mount Batchelor (twice) and one of the times they played frisbee golf down the mountains. They explored caves, explored the Lake and went white water rafting. Max was so excited that he got to go and enjoyed his time with the young men. While he was away we found ways to entertain ourselves. We missed him quite a bit but we kept ourselves busy with fun activities. 

Day 1 was the hardest, Miles refused to nap so we had an early dinner and made doughies on the fire since we had all the ingredients that we never used on our camping trip.

 

They ended up tasting decent but we didn't really eat much. I don't remember what else we did that week but I do know that we planned a Pool/ice cream party for preschool since it would be the last preschool day with Lacey and William before they moved to Nashville. 

We updated our pool too since my boys were not getting along so well in our mini 3 ft diameter pool. It has been so worth it. Sadly, Tali and Alisi became super sick and weren't able to come. We still had a fun party with the pool, water balloons and ice cream.

We had some lunch and ice cream then played some more!

Some times pool parties are tough especially when you sometimes want to be splashed and sometimes not, and your friends can't keep track of when you want to be splashed.

Miles took a lot of time mowing down on his ice cream before he passed it off to Charlie. 

It was a fun party and Lindsay and her girls were so missed. 

Max came home the next day as the boys were lying down to sleep they were so excited to have their daddy home and hear his camping stories. It's hard being away but there is part of me that loves the excitement of reuniting. It just brings back the memories of reuniting after my mission. 

And then we were on to our next camping trip a couple days later...stay tuned!

Fishermen's Bend

 We've been so busy having an adventurous summer that I've gotten behind on updating our blog, (and housework, and a bunch of other things...) But our non stop adventures started a month ago with camping at Fishermen's Bend for the Wilcox family reunion. We love this camping trip, we still fee somewhat civilized with access to running water, electricity, and bathrooms. We still slept in a tent so we were still definitely camping. We left on a Thursday afternoon, we recently just got a bike rack for Max's car so we were pretty excited that we could actually bring our bikes. All of the cousins brought bikes to so we had a huge assortment to play with, and a huge area to play in. (and if you know our house, we have NOWHERE to ride bikes, so this is a big deal) It was the first thing the boys set off to do, after we made them help us set up our tent. Miles had his first try at skateboarding.

Charlie thought Kaden's bike was so much better than his slightly bigger bike, so he rode that most of the time.

Miles liked trying it out too!

 And he was doing tricks in no time.

We had a delicious dinner of stew and salad, followed by homemade, dutch oven apple cobbler, made with fresh apples that were just picked that morning. 

 The camera was put away but the evening was filled with a short post dinner bike ride and throwing some rocks in the river, and s'mores. The night wasn't too cold so the boys slept great and I slept decently!

In the morning we had yummy waffles and sausage. Shortly after Max sent me back to the tent to nap, (since I had a lack of sleep the night before) while he played at the park with the boys. We then switched when it was Miles nap time and I went kite flying with Charlie and Kaden. We didn't have much wind so there was a lot of running!

 

Then I made a sidewalk chalk bike town. Complete with a bike wash, school, gas station, grocery store, fire station, park, and houses. I was pretty proud of it, my boys were mildly interested. Chloe and Lexi and Kim were bigger fans.

 

And really, camping is great because you don't have to wear a shirt or shoes and you get to be outside all day.

 He always says "take a picture to me mommy!"

We did another family bike ride through the forest and to the river to throw more rocks.

  and we stopped at a drinking fountain where I had taken a photo of my boys a year earlier that I loved, So I took way too many picture of them again.

After a fun time playing in a drinking fountain, we continued on our bike ride.

We ended up at the river again for some rock climbing and rock throwing. some of my boys' favorite things .

He thought it was absolutely hilarious that his belly button disappeared.

Then he "found" it!

Kissing owies!

Charlie was explaining how big his splashes were when he threw a big rock.

And this water was really cold, but the boys likes splashing in it.

When we got back, Kaden wanted a ride but my legs were done! So he and Chloe rode around with Stephanie.

Then we had a nice dinner, I can't remember what it was but I'm sure it was great.

It was then s'more time.

Then we out our exhausted kids to bed and Max and I came out to play games with the other adults.

The next morning started with personalized pancakes and sausage. And shortly thereafter the boys were riding bikes. Max helped Charlie ride with no training wheels They didn't really get that far with it.

But Max is pretty good with no training wheels.

We celebrated Kaden's birthday with water balloons and a pinata.

 

We then packed some lunches and made our way to Detroit Lake!

Max took them out in the little raft in preparation for the upcoming rafting trip. They both loved it, Miles did great and would probably be ready for our rafting trips since he was so content in the boat. It's too bad I make them wait until they are 3!

Zach and Austin would go swim underwater and creep up on people to splash them.

Some drying off time in the sun with Daddy,

Exhausted!

Both boys fell asleep on our drive back to our campsite. We left them in the car while we worked on packing up our camping gear. They woke up shortly after though and started playing with bikes and kites. We made tin foil dinners and then packed up everything else and drove home.

It was an excellent camping trip. We would have loved to stay longer but we needed to get back in time for Max to leave for a week long camping trip with the older scouts in the ward.