Swimming Fun!

This summer has been crazy.  The weather has been wonderful for outdoor activities, such as hiking and parks, but it hasn't been warm enough that much to really swim a lot.  Right now it's like 75 degrees.  Perfect, unless you have kids who beg constantly to go swimming.  On one of the days when the weather was actually in the 80's, I took the kids to join up with some friends at their pool for some fun swimming time.

The kids love swimming. Megs and Carter will jump right in, and Derrick eventually warms up to the water about an hour into it. :)

 

 

Carter was swimming with this group of friends, until ,of course, I pulled out the camera.

Fourth of July

Our Fourth of July was one busy day!!  Bo was gone working all day, and knowing that if I stayed home, we wouldn't do anything, I packed up my kids and headed over to Carmel, IN to visit our good friends, the Adams.

We went to a parade that morning that the kids enjoyed, headed back to their house for a quick lunch, and then took the whole gang to the theater to see Despicable Me 2. 

After that we played for an hour or two at the Adams' house, and then the kids and I headed home, had some pizza for dinner while we waited for Bo to get off work, and then we joined up with our good friends, the Humphreys, to go see some fireworks that were hosted by a member of our ward.  And when I say fireworks, I mean FIREWORKS.  We're talking a good solid 45 min. at least of non stop HUGE fireworks.  Our whole ward was pretty much there and it made for a good party. :) 

Here are some pictures of the night.  Carter and Luke were in heaven trying to catch fireflies.  Megs and her friend Layna had fun playing with the glow in the dark jewelry, and Derrick enjoyed the marshmallows.  Derrick handled the fireworks wonderfully, as long as Bo's hand was over his face.  Megan didn't fare quite so well.  She pretty much cried most of the time.  In her defense, it was loud and we were close enough that the ashes were literally falling on us.

 

Backyard fun!

I envisioned summers of the kids playing in the pool in the backyard while I laid on the hammock reading novels. We have the pool playing part down pat, but unfortunately I can't get my peace on the hammock. Darn kids want interaction.  What's that all about?  :) Either that or they keep trying to lie down with me while they are soaking wet.  Oh well, we're still having a blast, and i can get to that book later...... riiiiiiight.

That One Looks Like a Dead Monkey!!

One of the activities on my "Things TO DO Before Leaving Indiana" list was to go camping, so for Father's Day, that's what Bo said we should do.  We went the Friday and Saturday before Father's Day, and it was a blast.  Costco had this huge 10 man tent at Costco, so it was the perfect gift to give him too.

We went to Brown County, which I think was a little South-West of us.  It was a little cramped in the campground, but we seriously couldn't have asked for better weather! It was like mid 70's the whole time.  Ahhhhhh.  Wonderful.  We showed up at like 3, set up the campsite, and then took off hiking.  There were tons of trails of different hiking difficulty.  We decided that with a 2 and 4 year old, the easiest trails were probably best, so we headed down to this little lake and enjoyed our hike/stroll around it.  It was fun because it had all these cute bridges to walk on, not to mention the kids and I loved throwing sticks and rocks into the lake. 

The kids had fun spotting "wild life" on the trail.  We saw slugs, fish, bugs, a LIZARD (we were all shocked at that one, and it was BLUE!), and some teeny tiny little frogs.  Seriously the smallest frogs Bo and I have ever seen. 

While hiking, there were some roots from trees poking out a little bit from the ground on the trail ahead, and while a little ways away, I told the kids that they looked like an Alligator!!  The kids were nervous, then skeptical, then once we were up close they thought it was hilarious. As we were discussing how they were tree roots and laughing, Meg's turned to a group of bumps/roots, and proclaimed that "That one looks like a dead monkey!!"  After nodding and saying "Uh-huh" to Megs and letting her walk on, Bo and I busted up laughing.  What in the world?  Where did that come from?  We still have a good laugh when we mention it.  If I can say one looks like an Alligator, then why not a dead Monkey, I guess? :)

After the hike we dropped Bo off at the campsite to set up the fire and get our tin-foil dinners cooking, and I took the kids to a little playground in the campground.  The kids played and played and played, while I sat on a bench so high up off the ground that my feet weren't even close to touching. 

Once the kids were done, we headed back to Bo and enjoyed some yummy dinner, and then..... SMORES!!  I love watching the sequence of pictures that I took and seeing the marshmallow madness begin on Meg's face. :)

Since it doesn't get dark here till like 9:30, and you combine it with the excitement of being camping, plus the background noise of the other campers, it took FOREVER for the kids to fall asleep.  Plus I made the mistake of not taking the Pack n' Play because I thought Derrick would stay in his sleeping bag.  Foolish mistake.  So they went to sleep way late.  Then Derrick was up in the middle of the night because he still was excited about not being in a crib.... then Meg woke up and was all crying because she wanted to sleep with Bo and me, and Derrick was instead.  Finally, finally, we drifted back to sleep. 

So the next morning, it was all sunny, the kids were awake, but Bo and I were tired and maybe a little grumpy, so we decided to skip more hiking, and instead just relaxed, ate some breakfast and then slowly packed up the campsite so we could be back home in time for a nap.  We really weren't rushing or anything, just taking our time,  and we had no watches on to tell us the time.  WELL.   We got the car loaded up, campsite cleaned up, and kids buckled up in the car, turned it on, started driving down the road, when we looked at the time...... and it was 9 in the morning!!!!!!  Are you kidding me??!!!  What the heck! We were shocked.  We must have been up waaaaaaay earlier then we thought, like 6!!  Sheesh.  No wonder Bo and I were so tired.  hahahaaa..  Anyways, Bo and I had a good laugh about that too. 

It was a way fun trip though, and I'm glad we did it!