March - Fun times

March 2nd - T's class had a party for Dr. Seuss' birthday. I signed up to make Oobleck. I had no idea what that stuff was but the teacher sent a link to the recipe and it didn't seem too hard so I volunteered. That stuff was so cool! Kayla and I had so much fun making it and, of course, we had to test it out. Super fun!

We decided that for a family activity we need to make it again. So when everyone got home, we made more Oobleck. I might have cleaned Walmart out of all their cornstarch. We used a lot of that stuff!

Everyone made their own colors.

It stayed pretty clean but then we lost control. There was Oobleck everywhere!

Even the dog got Ooblecked!

It was a great family activity! I highly recommend it. Just be prepared for the mess!

March 11th - I can't remember how it all came to be but a group bike ride got pulled together. We love bike rides! We all rode down to the big rose statue / sculpture thing and the Eureka Rd. exit off Hwy 80.

Back when Kayla was in 5th grade, she entered an art contest that was for 5th graders from all over the area. Kayla was on of the 5th graders chosen to display her creation at that sculpture. We had to check to make sure it was still there. Yep, it was!

The girls had a great time playing under the sculpture. Silly girls!

Here is our biking gang! We had 4 adults and 9 kids. We were quite the herd coming down the trail!

March 24 - the school and a run to earn money. It was called the Revolution Run and I signed us up to participate. They did a great job of promoting the smoothie truck that was going to be there the day before. Some little kindergartener was adamant he needed a smoothie from the smoothie truck. So after school we got the $7 smoothie. 

The next day we went back for the actual running.

They have lots of "booths" set up for vendors to display their services. The City of Roseville Police Department always has their trucks and gear out there. The boys sat in the back of a truck.

There is also always a little petting zoo. Here they are with a goat. 

Ready to run with their buddy!

They also had some princesses there for the little girls. Well, maybe for the big girls too. Hailey found her dream job. She can actually get paid to dress up like a princess and go to parties. She can't wait!

March was a pretty fun month!

February - ATV riding

Our niece, Brittany, and her cute family came up for Maddie's baptism. It was a beautiful baptism! I can't believe her dad, Kaulana, is old enough to have a kid that is old enough to get baptized. I think Brittany and Kaulana were like 10 when I met them and now they are married with kids that are growing up! I am feeling so old! Time flies!

After the baptism, we all went ATV / dirt bike riding out at Prairie City. I really like Prairie City for when you have a large group. There is a lot of fun areas to ride around it but it is all located around the hangout sites. They are not camping sites just day use sites. It is really convenient for taking turns with all the toys. Trail riding is harder with large groups because you want to just keep going on the trail but you have to stop and go back to let others have a turn. Prairie City just seems to work good for large groups.

This is Kurt, Hailey and Trevor with Brittany's kids Kennedy and Oliver.

T with his new helmet on. He out-grew his old one.

Uncle Rick, Auntie April and I don't know who in the back seat. Those helmets make it hard in pictures!

Evan playing with Kaulana's youngest, Beckett.

Brittany with her kiddos - Kennedy, Maverick and Oliver.

Ready to ride!

Oh my gosh! I just love this picture! Beckett and Maverick are ready for some fun! They are just too stinkin' cute!

Ok, so here's what happened. I didn't ride while everyone was there because I can go anytime and I like to make sure everyone gets plenty of turns so I usually hang at "base camp" and eat all the snacks spend time with family. Well, all the little kiddos got tired so the other families took off but we decided that we would stay a little bit longer. Kurt convinced me to go out for a quick ride before we left. So I did. And there were puddles. And I have this thing with puddles. I love them. 

Since we had had all that rain, there were lots and lots of puddles. Honestly, everybody had been riding all day and no one came back in the Teryx soaked. Not even damp. I hit that first puddle and a wall of water came up and over the hood of the Teryx. Kayla (who was sitting in the front seat) and I got soaked! And I started giggling. I seriously love puddles. I don't know what it is but I go a little nuts. So I kept driving through puddles and walls of water kept crashing over and into the Teryx. The more puddles I hit, the more I giggled. We had only been gone a few minutes and I was laughing so hard I couldn't drive. My goggles were covered in mud and I kept wiping them to clear them but I couldn't see very well which only made me laugh harder. My kids thought I had completely lost it. I had tears running down my face. IT. WAS. THE. BEST!!!

So after only being out for about 10 minutes, we come back to camp with the Teryx covered in mud and Kayla and I dripping wet. Like down to our undies wet! My jacket was drenched.

Pictures just don't show the actual damage done.

But here is the back of Kayla's legs. Her pants were completely wet except a little line on the back where they were touching the seat. That was the only dry spot on them.

Oh my. I laughed so hard. It was awesome. And my kids learned a very valuable lesson that day - if there are puddles, mom will go crazy and you will get wet. There, now you have all been warned.

We came home and this little man crashed hard on the couch.

Oh, just look at that precious little face. Melts my heart!

February - Camping Trip to Dillon Beach

We hadn't been camping since August last year so we were having some serious withdrawals! We decided we needed to get out so we went to our favorite spot, Dillon Beach. There is a site that we can NEVER get. It is a huge corner site right next to the dunes and it gets snatched up so fast! We have tried for years to get it but no such luck.

Until this weekend! Marty got on the website and lo-and-behold it was available! He snatched it up along with 2 sites next to it. Marty's friends, Gary and Shannon, were going to go with us too. Kayla ended up having a party on that Friday night (that she refused to miss) and Evan had an early basketball game Saturday morning that we felt bad for missing. Nik was also on the team with Evan and Lincoln and I felt really bad taking 2 players away for a camping trip. We decided that I would stay home with Kayla and Evan and they would attend their activities and then we would drive down Saturday morning. Kurt, Hailey and Trevor all drove down on Friday and set up camp.

Well, remember all that rain we have had? If not, we had a very rainy season, which was great because we needed it, BUT it caused a problem. That corner site was flooded. FLOODED! The one weekend we finally get it and it was flooded from all the rain. The campground called Thursday to let us know and said we could stay in any other site that wasn't flooded. What a bummer! So when they got down there, they had to pick another site.

Saturday they went crabbing and got some good ones!

This weekend happened to be SuperBowl weekend and apparently between all the rain and the "big game" no one else decided to go camping. We had the entire, and I literally mean THE ENTIRE, pasture/meadow area to ourselves. There wasn't a single other camper in there except us 3 families. 

IT WAS AWESOME!

Usually all this is filled with campers but not this weekend.

Sunday we took a walk along the beach. It was a beautiful day!

Hailey played fetch with Bella and Cooper.

Evan found this piece of drift wood and, for some reason, was determined to drag it all the way back to camp, which was over a mile away! And included sand dunes he had to cross! Crazy kid! We told him fine but that we wouldn't help him. He had to get it back himself. He said he would do it.

Eventually he recruited some help from Nik.

And then pretty soon they got Carter to help them.

It was a team effort but that boy got that piece of wood all the way back to camp! I love his determination and willingness to work hard for something he wants. That lovely piece of wood in now in our garage and is in the process of being turned it into a shelf for his room. An awesome souvenir of his hard work!

January - Basketball Season

Trevor has watched big brother play basketball for many seasons now and has just waited and waited his turn and the time finally came. We signed him up to play the winter season. Evan plays with a friend, Lincoln. Well, Lincoln has a little brother, Grayson, who is Trevor's age so since the big boys play together, we had to sign the little brothers to play together too. Grayson's uncle was going to coach a team so we signed up to be on his team. It was a family affair!

There was a little miscommunication somewhere along the lines and the uncle ended up coaching a 1st/2nd grade team so our little kinder boys ended up on a 1st/2nd grade team. We were not too thrilled about this. It was their first time playing and there is a big difference between kinders and 2nd graders so we were worried about them being pushed around and not getting the ball at all.

Aren't they just the cutest?

Trevor tried so hard. It was the cutest thing. He wanted to play like big brother so bad. He ran his little heart out and had his hands up, jumping to try to block other kids (whether they had the ball or not!) and just worked so hard. He rarely got the ball but that didn't stop him from trying his best.

One game, the ref took pity on him and took the ball from another player (who always had the ball) and just handed it to Trevor so he could at least touch the ball. He ran it down and shot. He missed but he felt like such a big kid!

The same game, the ref gave the ball to T again.

Overall, he had a good time. He probably didn't know a difference but I think if he had been on a kinder team, he would have had more fun but oh well. It was all good. He actually even made a basket one game. That kid was so excited! Kurt and I might have gone a little bit crazy in the stands! He glowed! It was awesome!

At the end of the season, he got a trophy. That was all he needed. He was a happy camper!

And he was carried out in style! It pays to be the youngest!

Evan also played the winter season. He had a great team. Lincoln's dad, Doug, coached again. His team started off undefeated for most of the season. They worked really good together. Their team had moved up into the 5th/6th grade bracket. Evan is so small compared to kids his age so I was really worried about him going up against some large 6th graders. With his size, Evan has speed on his side. He may be tiny but he is quick!

Near the end of the season, the team lost their mojo. They suffered some serious losses. I don't know what happened but they were off and (if I remember correctly) lost their last few games bad. They went into their first playoff game playing a team they had creamed earlier in the season but this time they were behind the whole game. I wish I could remember all the details and how it went but with a second (literally 1 second!) on the board, they pulled ahead by 1. It was the most intense comeback ever. It was a great game. That moved them onto the next game in the play offs. They again played a team they had creamed earlier but it was a tough fight. They fought hard and won again! So off to the championship game they went. 

Unfortunately, the team they had to play in that game was one that had creamed them. We knew it was going to be a tough fight. They fought hard but they were no match for the other team. That team could make 3 pointers like crazy! They were good and definitely deserved to win. It was a great season!

Why do I still blog?

I am totally aware of the fact that blogging seems to have become old school and no one is really doing it anymore. In fact, I am sure no one even reads my little blog anymore so why do I still do it?

Well, let me tell you a little story . . .

A little bit ago, Kurt and I were talking about how we have had our trailer for 10 years now and about all our camping trips we have been on and about how our trailer has been a huge blessing to our family. We have truly cherished all of our trips and the time we have with our kids. Our trailer has gotten us out exploring areas that I don't think we would have ever gone if we didn't have it. We absolutely love it!

When we first started camping, I had a binder that we took with us on every trip. It had a set up list, a take down list and a packing list in it. We constantly referred to these lists to make sure we weren't forgetting something (like closing all the windows before we traveled or filling up with water before we unhooked from the truck). I also wrote summaries of each trip including where we stayed, camp site #'s (if I could remember), maps of the campsite (if I had kept them), what we did, and probably most importantly, what we learned. In the beginning, we learned something on every trip!

Here is my journal/summary of our very first camping trip:

Somewhere along the way, we got really good at set up and take down and I stopped bringing the binder. I also stopped writing journal entries for our trips. When we were talking about our 10 years of travel, I was really bummed that I had not carried on that tradition because it was so fun to go back and read the entries. 

So the wheels started spinning and I started trying to figure out a way to remember all the other trips that had been missed. Lightbulb moment! Check my blog!

I sat for hours going back over 10 years worth of blogging to find camping trips. At first I wasn't very good about blogging and would just mention "we went camping this weekend" and not too much more than that. For those first few years, I had to go back through pictures (that I thought I had lost and recently found on an external back up drive - thank goodness!) and recreate journal entries for them BUT for the more recent years, I had really detailed blog posts about our camping trips. I was able to just copy and paste my blogs and print journal entries for those trips. I was so excited! I worked my little tail off in any spare moment I could find (and maybe some laundry moments might have been used too!) but I updated our camping binder and it now has a list of every single camping trip we have ever taken and journal entries for each one! I love it!

There were some trips that I had completely forgotten about but remembered once I read the blog. Details long forgotten that are now right there to read about. There is one trip that I can't remember at all but I'm there in the pictures so I must have gone. Ha ha!

And that is why I blog. I forget things. I can't remember details. I am, after all, getting old (I did turn 40 this year ya know!) but if it is in my blog, I can go back and remember and what a precious gift that is! I go in phases with blogging. I start. I get busy. I stop. I forget. And then I get caught up again. Usually there is something that I want to blog about (usually a trip) and the OCD part of me wants everything in chronological order so I have to blog about everything that has happened prior to that event before I can blog about it and that is what motivates me to get caught up again. 

So I am motivated again. We just got back from camping 2 days ago and it ended with a bang ~ a breakdown, abandonment of the trailer and an ER visit, all within 9 hours of each other. Good times! Actually, they were good times. Well, not the ER visit so much, but the rest wasn't so bad. But before I can tell about that, I have to catch up on everything from January until now. So, hopefully I can do that quickly and get to the camping trip.