Family Campout

A little later in July, we had our family campout at Fishermen's bend. I always look forward to this trip because its a good balance of roughing it...and luxury. We loaded up Max's car since his car was the once that could carry the bikes. It was pretty packed, but we got everything we needed in there!

  Once we arrived, we ate some dinner that was already prepared by my Auntie and family then unloaded our car and set up camp. This little man was super excited for his first night camping.

 Shortly after we arrived, I realized my camera was broken and the shutter was jammed. So I was super bummed about that and that I had to take the rest of the photos on my phone. (I found out later that it was a super cheap fix and have since fixed my camera! hooray!) The boys played until dark then passed out. Max and I stayed up a little later playing games with the cousins, aunts, and uncles! The night got cold and I didn't sleep great...but the boys all did great! The next morning, we had a magnificent breakfast and then the boys were off playing again.  Right in our vicinity there was a volleyball court (sand pit from the boys' perspective) a playground, and a huge area for riding bikes.
He's happy in the morning...and pretty much all the time!

Edwin got good morning naps before the tent got too hot. I also sat in the tent with him pumping some milk at this time...which I really don't miss at all! OH and he always wakes up happy!

 And with all these boys...there was a whole lot of this...

 
Living in dirt and swim suits! The good life!

 They got a whole lot of biking in. At one point Max took off Charlie's training wheels and peddles to turn his bike into a balance bike which helped him work on his balance to transition back to a two-wheeler with no training wheels...which he has since done.

 Roughin' it!

  By dinner, the boys were so tired. They had played in the water and then in the sand and Charlie ended up getting pretty chaffed up which caused him to be in a lot of pain and really grumpy. Luckily there were showers and he was able to get all cleaned up.

 Caked on sand!

 Chloe

  I liked seeing them snuggle when they were sleeping

 There was also sword fighting.

 we went down to the little water hole on the side of the river, there are no pictures but the boys had fun and Charlie practiced fishing a bit! We like to take pictures at these fountains each year...it just wasn't the same without my good camera.

 Uncle Austin getting Charlie all set up for fishing!

 Miles was rockin' the bike too, I'm not sure who he stole this bike from. I think it was Chloe or Kaden's

 And then there was more fishing time

And minutes after we left after 3 days of roughin' it!

It was so much fun and we wished we could have stayed longer but there was more summer fun to be had.  Next up-Charlie and Max go rafting...

Cousin Day

When I was growing up, I was lucky enough to have a bunch of girl cousins my age. It made up for not having a sister. There were countless slumber parties, birthday parties and even a handful of boy band concerts that are among my best childhood memories. With the growing up and having our own families, we don't see each other as often as we would like. Luckily most of us still live relatively close (ahem...Kim) Thanks to my awesome sister in law...we actually get together sometimes!
We scheduled a cousin day where the husbands would take on the kids all day and the girls would have fun together. We started our day with a session at the temple. It was a beautiful peaceful way to start our day.

After a lovely session, we made our way back to my house to eat lunch. and change our clothes. We met up with my cousins Callie and Julia as well. We then piled in Brittany's van and made our way to hike Multnomah falls.

 

At first we hiked a short loop to Wahkeena Falls, then hiked to Multnomah Falls, once we got to Multnomah Fall we decided to just make the whole trek up to the top. It was a busy day at the Falls

 
You can see the very busy it was by the crowded bridge


 
And we huffed and puffed to the very top of the falls! Aren't my selfies awesome?

 Looking over the edge

We made our way down and decided on Mother's Bistro for dinner. We had never been there but I had heard great things. The food was delicious. 

 

 After that there was talk about going to Salt n Straw to get ice cream, we went and the line was incredibly long and we weren't that set on getting ice cream so we made our way home. It was a good day reconnecting with my childhood friends when we haven't made the time in forever! Thanks to Elizabeth for organizing such a wonderful day! And to the husbands for taking on the kids. ( Max braved taking all 3 boys to a 6 year old's birthday party!)

5 months

Our little Edwin was 5 months old....3 months ago. And I took a bunch of photos of him. He was an awesome sleeper back then and very mellow and delightful. The whole crawling thing has made him a little more wild these days. And the fact that he climbs up in his bed now makes him not the greatest sleeper. He's actually still pretty good...I just got spoiled for the first 7.5 months of his life. So here's our Edwin.

And Charlie was helping me out with the photos by making Edwin smile but then wanted to be in some photos with him.

Which then reminded me of Charlie's 5 month photos...

 

Charlie can get the biggest laughs and smiles out of Edwin and it's fun to watch, except I'm just waiting for Charlie to figure out how to be more gentle.  

And here are Miles 5 month photos for comparison...