Campin' 2022

 We went camping last week. There's a cool campground in Kernville called Rivernook. It's right along the Kern River. We went last year in May and liked it. Dan called a couple of months ago to see if they had anything available on the river and they happened to have a cancelation that same day. So we took it. It was only 3 hours away so we brought two cars again and slept in two tents. Dan and I had our own. It was pretty lovely. And hot. But it rained all day one of the days so we weren't hot that day. 

They make you camp a minimum of 4 nights in the summer so that we did. It's not what you call roughing it with lots of restaurants within 1/4 mile of the campground and showers and bathrooms a few feet away. But I'm down with halfway roughing it. 

We ran into one of Dan's firefighter buddies who happened to be camping at the same time. Small world. It was fun catching up.

Winter built a baby fire and was very proud of it.

Lots of fishing. We even caught a few and ate them for dinner.

We tied some floaties together with a rope and tied it to a tree so we could lounge in the river.

Winter's living her best life eating cereal in a floatie.

Angus is always so sweet and Addie is always so fiesty.

Not sure when they snuck these pics but I found them when we got home.

Addie made a friend.

Card games...

One can never have a moment alone in a tent.

We wanted to get out of the sun one day so we headed to a nearby bowling alley. It was so fun. We're going to do that again soon. Dan, Mya, and I shared a lane with no bumpers, and Winter and the littles were happy to use bumper assistance. Dan is literally good at everything and earned the best score by 50 points. But I was happy to beat Mya at least =)

Back to beauty

Dan found this powder that you throw on the fire and it turns colors. Pretty cool. He didn't get to enjoy it unfortunately because he's color blind, especially when it comes to lights. But he was happy that the kids loved it.

It was a nice trip. We saw 3 dear, 2 skunks, 10 frogs, many ducks, lots of fish, a few roaches, and hundreds of red aunts. Dan may have been attacked and bitten several times. But that's the great outdoors for you. The kids complained minimally and I really enjoyed myself. I'm a big fan of camping. Especially now that I'm a mom with a pile of laundry that seems as though it's reproducing every day. When you camp, you just sit around and make the occasional bathroom trip with a kid 5 minutes after you return from the bathroom after asking if anyone else needed to go.

Well, that's it for now!

Happy Wednesday night!

hey may, bye may

 Is it just me or are we moving in slow motion while the time speeds up? May was nice. May is always nice. While it's a crazy time for graduates and teachers, it's pretty mellow around here. Highlights included Angus's birthday, camping in the backyard, swimming and LOTS of board games. (More on that later)

Favorite quote of the week:

Me: Do you guys know what Memorial Day is about? 

Angus: Nope

Mya: It's when we honor all the people who died fighting for our country.

Me: That's right Mya. Thousands of men and women have died over the years fighting for our country.

Angus: Wait. Is Miss Elder okay?!  *Confused looks from everyone*

Ms. Elder is his teacher. She's never been a soldier but it's nice that he always wants to make sure she's good.

We went to see Sonic the Hedgehog for Angus's birthday. It wasn't terrible. I didn't know that Jim Carey was in it. He's the villain. I didn't even recognize him for the first 15 minutes of the movie. I guess we're all getting older, including Jim.

She's a good dog.

Mya's not on board with Angus's emptying the whole bottle of sprinkles onto his cake.

Angus invited Ms. Elder teacher to join the festivities.

May 1st birthday buddies 💕

Happy 16th Rylie!

The kids have been asking if they could camp in the backyard for months. We finally did it. And we occasionally adopt Kendall, our sweet neighbor and Mya's bestie to join in on the Wag chaos. They actually slept out there all night and didn't come in. I was impressed. We left Otter outside so she could guard the tent. Not that she makes the best guard dog. She's deaf and blind but it's better than nothing.

After the color run at school =)

This might be one of my favorite pics of me and these dear ones. Three of us have our eyes closed. Happy birthday Elizabeth!

I love these two together. Zoom in for a close-up of their sweet faces.

A visit with one of my favorites, Karlita. Palm Springs was lovely as always.

When any two of my kids sit on the couch, they sit right on top of each other, like puppies. They definitely don't get that from me. 

She's such a good dog.

Winter read the scripture in church. She wasn't nervous at all. What kind of kid whispers random questions about heaven 2 minutes before she has to read 17 verses from Luke in front of the entire congregation? MY heart was beating fast for her though.

This guy was sick last week. I definitely have my favorite sick kids. Winter's probably at the top. She just lays around, watches TV, and never asks for anything. Addie's like that too. Angus and Mya aren't. They whine and complain and get extra needy. Love you Mya. 💕 Angus is needy anyway so he kicks it into high gear when he's not feeling good.

He always says goodnight to Otter.

The roomba often finds toys to eat. This horsetail was a doozy. Took me like 10 minutes to unclog.

Angus got two new hand-me-down costumes from a friend last week. It was like Christmas.

He isn't the biggest fan of the pool. He does enjoy laying in a raft when everyone else gets out and it's peaceful and there's no splashing and no waves. 

When everyone is in the pool, he prefers to lay around in his spiderman costume.

I love having friends on staff at the school. They send me the best pics throughout the day.

So, about those board games we've been playing. We still love Ticket to Ride but our current favorite is Wingspan. It's not easy for littles to play. I think the suggested age is 10+. But it's so fun. Dan and I are obsessed. Dan usually wins which is annoying but I still love it. We bribe Winter and Mya to play with us when they'd rather be watching TV or something. I highly recommend this game.

Happy Summer! 🌞