Christmas in July

IT REALLY WORKED-we even had unseasonally cool weather! It was lots of fun.

This morning when Grant woke up the first thing he said-after asking for food of course was-"That Christmas was great. . . fun. I really like throw marshmallows at Dad - then I eat them."

We read the story of the "first Charlie Brown Christmas Tree"

Decorated one!

Had a SNOWBALL fight -in July, mind you . . .

The critics gave it a "thumbs-up"!!!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!

As we departed everyone got to take home some "M&M ornaments" & a special envelope for each family-with a very small Christmas gift enclosed. Needless to say it was fun, fun, fun!

Memorial Day Picnic

So, a friend of ours was kind enough to share his "Jeep" with the kids at the picnic. Needless to say Grant LOVED it, as evidenced by the perma-grin you will see in the following shots. It was so much fun to watch, I don't think he has ever enjoyed any one thing as much as he did riding around the park in a Jeep just his size.

Camping on Mother's Day weekend

This was our first campout of the year and we knew we found a good place to camp when we had to drive through 2 feet of water across a rocky stream to get to the campsite! We setup our borrowed tent promptly and when we finished I noticed that the tent cover didn't stick out over the door like it should, it just hung there about halfway down the front door. I figured out that we were missing a part but didn't worry too much as it looked good enough to sleep in! We roasted fancy chicken apple sausages and had s'mores afterwards and topped it off with juicy juice. What a great night! We cozied up in the tent and were telling stories to each other as we started to hear a thunderstorm quickly approaching us. Within minutes it was dropping buckets on our humble tent and it wasn't long before I had wished I had that extra part to hold the tent cover out over the door. A small river started to form at the front door and that river spread quickly through the tent soaking our sleeping bags. I had no choice but to pack up the boys in the back of the SUV and try to sleep there for the night. As soon as I stepped outside I noticed that not only was it raining but small 1/3" pieces of hail were gathering on the ground around us! Could it get any worse. By the time I got the boys in the car and everything situated I was soaked and exhausted. I probably got about a total of an hour of sleep that night but all my troubles were forgotten when Grant sat up at about 6:00am and exclaimed "What a great nap!" We had breakfast a short time later and then hiked to a great set of waterfalls. Upon arrrival to the falls Grant exclaimed, "That's what I'm talking about!" (we were watching the falls where this picture was taken. Yes I look tired because I was!) After we spent the morning hiking we played soccer while our tent and sleeping bags dried out in the sun. After a short lunch I loaded the boys up and we drove back though the now 2 1/2 foot stream. After we forded the stream a few extra times for fun the boys fell asleep and I watched them in my rearview mirror as they clutched their sippy cups all the way home. Good times!