Dreamy

That's how I felt about this weekend...it was dreamy. SO much time with my little family. I sure love them. It was one of those really great weekends that make me think I could have 3 or 4 more kids because the ones I have are so cute, fun, and easy to take care of.

**I don't expect anyone to read all of the commentary below, just want it documented for yours truly.**

THURSDAY

Packed the van to the gills with camping gear, drove 45 minutes to Belfair State Park, set up camp, went on an adventure walk (a path that turned out to be a non-path) to the water, found a log that resembled a Triceratops skull and convinced the kids it was such, roasted marshmallows, hit the hay when it FINALLY got dark, laid in bed with the HAPPIEST feeling...I love camping with my kids.

FRIDAY

Tyler and I woke up at 2 am because we were FREEZING, Ty made the 45 minute drive home and then back again at about 5 am with more blankets and a little camping heater, played at the camp playground, found a camp stage where the kids played out The Sound of Music, snuggled in the hammock, splashed in the creek running through the campground, changed into boots and swimsuits then splashed in the creek some more, watched Max climb out of the creek and relieve himself in some bushes, scanned the surrounding areas to see if anyone saw what I did, happy to not find anyone looking on, got Ev up from his nap to kayak with the kids on the Hood Canal for a while, Ev walked into the water in the only pair of shoes I brought for him (luckily I brought 2 pair for Max, so Ev tromped and tripped in them the rest of the time), Ty headed off to do YM Pres things (it was YM Pres/Bishop night Helaman's Camp for the YM at a campsite about 30 mins away) roasted hot dogs and was happy with myself for working with the coals since camp cooking is Tyler's thing, went on another adventure with the kiddos, roasted a ton more marshmallows, read and sang songs in the tent until kiddos fell asleep and Ty returned back to camp, went to sleep much warmer and still so HAPPY.

We had to explain what a phone booth is to the kids and Max said,

"Oh, I know. I saw one on The Incredibles." Ha.

Me and my little chicks. Not so easy to walk with hands hanging on your back pockets...but worth it to have ALL of the kids hanging on me at once.

Oh my goodness, I am so in love with this man

Best of friends (most of the time)

SATURDAY

Ty took Max out to kayak again, made breakfast for the fam (yay me! two meals in one camping trip), started packing up, took breaks for hammock snuggling/games, Ev was playing in the van while we were loading it but reached too far for something and fell on his face (it was literally on his face...as in, first point of contact), died a little that I couldn't get to him fast enough, loved him up and was amazed that he only cried for a few minutes because brother was scraped up, finished packing up, took kids for one last visit to the camp stage to perform - again The Sound of Music, all three kids fell asleep on the way home, unpacked-vacuumed-washed cars, sent kids to play on a neighbor's slip n' slide in last year's swimsuit for Kelly and some random way-too-big-basketball-shorts for Max because their suits were in the washer, ate dinner at Seabeck Pizza (Max ate there once with friends and had proclaimed it "The BEST food in the world!" so it was high time we tried it out), took our seats at the Kitsap Bluejackets baseball game, danced, ate popcorn, sported lots of glow-in-the-dark paraphernalia, Max ran the bases and met the players at the end of the game, enjoyed a spectacular fireworks display, came home and hit the hay because it was LATE.

The little blue speck is Max to the Max

Max said at the end of the game, "This could NOT have been better!"

Scraped fella

SUNDAY

Ty only had one meeting before Church, went to church, enjoyed a relaxed afternoon at home, Skyped some family, rode in our friend's newly acquired WWII jeep (you know, the usual)

Eric Morgensen in his dream come true...Max was slightly ELATED

MONDAY

Went to the YMCA where kids swam with Ty while I ran on the fancy-pants treadmill with its own TV, joined the fam for swimming fun, came home and made a cake (you should make this cake, seriously), dressed the kids in July 4th colors and went with the way Ev's hair dried after swimming (spiky! the kids said, "He looks like Sam!" - a cousin) took the kids and two of their friends to see Cars 2 (meh) while Ev napped and Ty did homework, finished the cake, sat outside with my hubby in the blessed sunshine, went to a very yummy BBQ at the Linton's, took down some of the fence between our house and the Linton's so that our kids can go in between our backyards at will from now on, ate my delicious cake (which had fresh strawberries from our backyard), did fireworks on our street, had a firework explode sideways and land on me and my babe, said a swear word (for which I apologized, but nobody had heard me say it anyway), got Everett calmed down, rejoined fireworks show with a little trepidation, kept finding more damage on my son's head from the rogue firework (singed hair and small burns on two spots of his head, a small burn right below his eye and a big chunk of missing eyelashes :( so sad), finished out the night joyful because Ev perked up and danced like a mad man with the other kids, fell asleep HAPPY (and kind of sad because the weekend was over) to the sound of explosions.

Doesn't he look tough? That's 'cause he is.

Reyes, Kelly & Camila

Jennifer the Pyro supplied most of the fireworks

Pre-firework exploding on us

Missing eyelashes :(

*sigh* It was really wonderful, even with Everett's mishaps. Now we're back to the grind of life and the last few weeks of busy school work for my main man. But as I said to the hubs the other day...the grind is pretty great too.