The rest of camping

Sad face

Happy face

Ever since I was a kid, my dad was challenging us to be able to eat a whole powdered donut without licking our lips.  I think Morgan did it.

Every year we go camping, this same old green Ford is there.  Last year Aaron refused to get his picture taken by it.  He remembered that last year G-pa bribed him if he stood by it he would get a treat.  He did it right away this time!

G-pa was in the van jamming to his gospel tunes and Greta was a bit fascinated by the music.

Greta enjoyed getting a lotion rub from G-ma.

The "Angry Birds" craze has finally caught on in our house.  One night I couldn't sleep and found myself playing on the porch of our cabin for an hour and a half.  Now I'm addicted.

Supper.  So yummy.

Dirtball

Greta loved the sweet smelling lotion

Tired, swimming boy

Greta was very friendly to all the dogs at the campground

The kids loved these paintbrush lollipops from the camp store.

Night and Day

Last night I took the kids to see "Charlotte's Web".  Claudia's very close friend played Charlotte (way to go, Rachel, you did an amazing job!!) and they were all very excited to go.  Anyway, a few things happened as we were getting ready that cracked me up and I just wanted to write them down.

At first glance, my older 2 girls seem similar.  They are both social, love to learn and read, be active, adore their younger siblings, etc.  But other than those basic interests, they are so completely different from the core, it often fascinates me that they came from the same place.

*I had taken an afternoon nap and after waking, Claudia had already showered and was drying her hair (w/out being told to do that).  Says to me, "Don't you think Morgan should take a shower?"  Morgan on the other hand, would never shower unless told.
*The girls are upstairs getting dressed.  Claudia comes down and says, "Mom, please tell Morgan to stop teasing me about wearing a dress to the play."
*A few moments later, Morgan comes down and says, "Mom, please tell Claudia to stop bugging me that I should wear a dress to the show."
*Morgan and I are in the bathroom and I'm trying to make order of her stringy, knotty hair.  She sees me grab the curling iron and groans, "Mom, please don't curl my hair."
*Soon to leave and Claudia says to me, "Mom, can you please curl my hair before we leave?"
*Claudia says to Morgan, "I have some lip gloss if you want to borrow it."  Morgan responds, "Uh, no thanks."

This is only one small example of how I see them being different, but it just made me laugh at how pronounced it was in that 10 minute time frame yesterday.
I opened up my photos to get a picture of the 2 of them and saw these from 2005.  My, how they have grown!!

Splitting Wood

Morgan was very into helping my dad split wood while we were camping.  She's so funny to me...she loves all things manual labor.
P.S.  She did not inherit that trait from her mother.

I love the expression change on my dad's face from this picture to the next.  Here he's wondering if he's gonna loose a finger.  Next shot, clearly relieved.

Dear Daddy

Most days either Aaron or Greta is in a "missing daddy" mood.  Numerous times throughout the day they are saying how much they miss daddy.  Sometimes I will have Aaron send daddy an e-mail.  This was from yesterday, word-for-word from him:

I love you.  I love to play with you.  I love to snuggle with you.  And I like to run behind you when you are doing the lawn mower.  And I like to play with you.  I like to go out for breakfast.  I am done.

Aaron.

Splash Pad

The campground put in a new splash pad this year.  It took us a little bit to figure out how to work the thing, but once we figured it out, the kids LOVED it.  It was actually really hard to take pictures here.  Every time I would see the kids doing something cute, I would go over to that spot, try to shoot, and the water would stop and they would move on.  This was the best I got!

"Mommy, I'm berry, berry cold!!"

At the Playground

One of the favorite things about camping for the kids is the easy access to playgrounds.  There are 2 at the campground that we go to, each having their own favorite things.  The kids love all the "daddy time" that the playground affords.

Always love jumping to daddy

4 square

I think Morgan is supposed to be heading the ball here!

Greta was being crabby and when I showed her the camera and the mad face she was making she giggled and gave me a real smile.

I love the happiness of their faces

Greta was crushed that daddy stopped pushing her to do something else.

Camping

Sorry my blog has been silent.  We were gone camping all this past weekend and last week was crazy with prep for that.  We had a great weekend away.  Our first day there was rain, second was insane heat and humidity, but the last 2 days were just good, hot, summer days.  The kids all did great and even though camping is a lot of work, it is really relaxing for me.

We spent much of that first afternoon/evening of the porch of our cabin.  It was raining pretty good.  At one point Steve (who tolerates camping but it isn't his favorite) turned to me and said, "We are paying money to do this??"

Everyone got lots of reading in that first day.

A break in the rain allowed for some play time.