Kamping...

We went camping at Jordanelle recently with Mark & Tricia & their family. It's been a hot summer... so of course the weekend we picked to go was cold and kinda rainy.

We had adjoining campsites, and Riley, Kenzie & her friend had their own tent close to ours. We had a lot of fun... but man were the nights COLD! Matt and I had stupidly opted to sleep with blankets instead of sleeping bags. We also didn't quite get our air mattress blown up all the way. That first night I was freezing and couldn't sleep. I finally got up and got our 5 towels out of the car and laid them over the top of the blankets. Ahhh... sleep... but I kept dreaming about my butt hurting. First it was the right side... then I woke up and rolled over... then it was the left side... yeah... my butt was pretty much resting right on the ground all night.

The next day Tricia and I ran to Wal-mart (yes.. we were WAY out in the wilds.. hehe) and bought some cheapo blankets for both of us. I do have to say though... even though we weren't really rough camping it.. we did see a deer. And on the way home we saw a squooshed mountain lion in Parley's Canyon. I'm REALLY glad we didn't see the mountain lion on the way there... I think I would have been too scared to sleep.

We went boating on Saturday... with cloud cover and wind. The kids enjoyed tubing behind the boat. Riley kept reaching in the water and splashing on herself because the water was warmer than the air. We had to cut the boating short because it started to sprinkle and everyone was shivering.

All in all, it was a fun time. We roasted smores, chatted, quoted movie lines from Zoolander and The Princess Bride. And the last day Tricia and I sang every good 80's song we could think of as loud as possible.

Our campsite... Matt, me, Sammi & Livie in the blue tent, Riley, Kenzie & Devon in the green tent.

Mark & Tricia's site. They were basically Base Kamp.

Sammi, Riley & Kenzie roasting smores.

Livie didn't like her feet to get dirty. Ummmm.... try keeping the water shoes ON.

Sammi, you can't really tell from the picture, but her legs were bright red from the cold water. She didn't seem to care though.

Oakley & Sammi riding the tube.

Riley & Max. Riley trying to splash the 'warm' water on them.

Max turfing it in spectacular fashion.

Riley having a thrill ride. She refused to let go and quit, it was like a personal thing for her. She's getting pretty tough.

Riley doing her version of Trogdor with a leg instead of a beefy arm.

2 Peas...

People have always said Olivia looks like Matt. I agree, but just this last weekend I took one of those pictures that so classically illustrates the comparison. Click the picture for a closer look.

It almost looks like an ornery version of Blue Steel... or is that Magnum?

Love it.

4 Going on 14

Olivia is our girly-girl. She was just born that way. From the first time I heard her pathetic little "oh poor me, you guys are all so mean" cry in the O.R. I could just tell... this little one is ALL GIRL.

The last 4 years have only reinforced this theory. She looooves pink, and she looooves kitties, and she looooves dressing up pretty, etc, etc. One of her standard exclamations is, "Oh, it's so cuuuuuuuutie!" Now along with this girly-ness comes a Princessy Diva attitude. Combine that with her sharp little mind and you get some pretty funny moments.

Recently she's been throwing up the "air quotes" while talking. Example: I was telling her that we should try french braiding her hair because she had such nice long hair. Her response was, "Are you trying to make me a 'stupid girl'? Then people will say I'm 'stupid' and they will 'be jealous of me'?" (imagine the air quotes and sassy voice)

Tonight she cracked us up with her comments during a movie. A scene came on with some kissing, all of a sudden you hear her say in a sing-song voice, "Awk-ward...." Apparently she didn't mean it as a joke because she got mad when we laughed.

Wild Ride with the Barf Sisters

And now for the final installment of the Cabin Extravaganza. Some of you may have already heard a version of this story, but it's so awesome that it deserves memorializing on the blog.

On the last day we packed up, cleaned up, and loaded the cars. While all the adults were busy cleaning, loading, etc. the kids snuck off to the creek. This was one of the times the Wyoming nephew decided to get into creek with long pants, long sleeves and "water proof" hiking boots.

We took a last couple of 4 wheeler rides before loading them up too. And bid farewell to S&C's beautiful cabin and the humingbirds and headed out.

Matt was driving a bit faster than maybe he should have on the windy windy road so... Olivia got car sick and started throwing up, which of course no one noticed but me when I heard a weird quiet sound. So I’m yelling at the other two to throw me a blanket or something. Riley is trying to grab the green one, while Sammy is holding on to the green one for dear life because it’s hers. Meanwhile barf is spewing and spreading all over Livie and pooling in her car seat... yeah... nice... Too bad I couldn’t have caught it in something... like maybe a BLANKET? So we finally wrestle the blanket from Sammy and I kind of just cover the mess so Olivia and everyone else doesn’t have to look at, smell or touch it.

Then Samantha says... “mommy, I don’t feel good”. Prior notice is a lovely thing. I tell her to grab the blue blanket (which was sitting right next to her, but she was so busy protecting the green one, that she couldn’t toss this one to us). I tell her to use it if she needs to spew. (If you need to spew, spew in this.) And sure enough... right when we’re almost done with the twisty, windies... barf. To which Riley yells, “OH! Not her too!”. I yell at Matt to pull over, he says, “Why? What can you do?”. Ummm… let’s see, make her feel better? Wipe her face off? Wrap her blanket in such a way as to avoid spilling the contents all over this child and her seat too? And in so doing, quell some of the stench that is rolling from the back seat?

We drive the rest of the way to the Wrangler Inn and the lovely little gas station next to it with the windows down and Sammy and Livie sitting grey-faced holding their breakfast covered blankets. (Actually Livie looked more white with purple lips and purple shadows under her eyes)
At the little store our clean up begins, and once we get a good look at Livie’s booster it’s pretty clear that a hazmat team would be handy right about now. Matt has to change her clothes while she keeps complaining that she doesn’t want anyone to see her. Meantime I’m trying to find the nearest garbage can for that blue blanket which is beyond disgusting and so old it’s falling apart anyway, and Riley freaks out. “No! You can’t throw that one away!” Apparently there is some attachment that only surfaced at that moment, because she never cared about that blanket before. In the end we have to find a garbage bag and shove both blankets in it and stuff it in the back of the car. (And OF COURSE Riley didn’t complain about the smell the whole way home... hellooo... )

So, Olivia is in a new outfit. I’m scrubbing her chair with wipes, as well as scrubbing the leather seats, and DOWN IN THE CRACKS of the seats. And I hear Olivia say, “Daddy, can I have a marshmallow?”

Ahhhh… good times, good times.

Actually we had a great time that weekend, it was just the ride home that stunk… literally.

Obsession

OK, so I've hinted at the obsession I had up at the cabin in an earlier post... My sister-in-law sets out a hummingbird feeder whenever they go up to the cabin and there are several little hummingbirds who like to fight over it.

One morning I got lucky with my camera and got a shot of the little orange chested guy. It turns out it really was a lucky shot because the little stinker wouldn't let me get another really good one for the rest of the trip.

Being the weirdo that I am, I just had to set up my tripod and my zoom lens and try to get some more shots of the little stinkers. I got quite a few of one with a bright pink throat, that is, when the orange guy wasn't chasing him away. The little orange guy would lurk in a nearby pine tree and any time one of the others tried to get a drink he'd come dive bombing in and squeaking and scare them away.

I wasted A LOT of time doing this, however since I was on vacation and I was having fun doing it... I suppose it wasn't a waste. I also got some really good shots. Sammie wanted to get in on the fun so she pulled up a chair to the tripod and took over for a while. And dang it if she didn't get some of the best shots!

If you click on the pictures you can see them larger with more detail. And also, I'm proud to say that the only Photoshopping I did to these was to crop them. Nothing else... (which is hard for me because I just love to tweak things till they look just perfect).

Thank you to my sis-in-law for getting a picture of my daughter while I was busy shooting birds! She got this one of Sammie waiting patiently for more hummingbirds.

Cabin version of Par-tay!

For those of us that don't go camping very often, and are confronted with a 3-5 day trip with no (gasp) television, computers, or cell phones, you might wonder... what will my children do with all this time? And will they drive me buggy by saying the B-word to me? (The B-word being BORED)

Well that was just not an issue up at the cabin. For one, there were plenty of cousins to play with, not to mention a creek! The kids had a great time playing in the creek and building dams. Occasionally one would fall in and get soaked, but just as often they would not fall in... and would be just as wet. My nephew liked to go in the creek fully dressed in long pants, long sleeve shirt, and hiking boots. He rationalized that they were "water proof boots". But failed to understand that the water proof properties didn't really work if you were in knee deep water above your boot-line.


They also took everyone on a horse ride. I stayed behind and took pictures of my obsession for the trip... that will be in a later post.


My brother has a Rhino up there (it's a 4-wheeler/truck thingy like they use on Little People Big World) and my dad brought up two 4 wheelers. So there were many fun rides around the property and on trails. And of course I had to be the one to scoff at using sunscreen. "I won't be gone that long." I think the sun must be super inferno hot up there or something... right? Yep, I was lobster lady for the rest of the trip.

There was even some low tech fun. Stick a bottle on top of a pile of dirt and throw rocks and sticks at it until you knock it down. Fun for every boy and girl.

The big loft on the 3rd floor was popular too. Between the Foosball table and just the general open area there was a lot of fun to be had. I didn't venture up there to look, but judging from all the running, laughing and yelling, I'd say they entertained themselves quite well.

We were going to shoot guns too, but the weather was being tricky and in the end Smores at the campfire won out over the shooting.

My brother and my neice. Roasting marshmallows on some very fancy willow sticks.

My Livie was mad because her marshmallows got burned.

There was entertainment all around, and I was sad that it was all over too soon.

Cabin Fever

Over the 4th my brother & his wife invited the whole family up to their cabin in Idaho for a little reunion. I think I'll blog a little about it over the next few days.


Today's topic: The awesome area and cabin. Thanks so much S & C for hosting such a fun weekend!


The area was beautiful. We had to drive a while to get back into it, and drive, and drive.. which reminds me of a little primary tune with new lyrics... "The Frandsen children puked as they drove, and drove, and drove, and drove." Haha. But that is a story for another day.


The cabin was gorgeous! My kind of camping! Of course once we arrived my dad gave up his bedroom claiming he'd been just waiting to sleep out on the deck. Nothing could change his mind, he was apparently very excited to do it. Ummm.. yeah, my dad is sweet and very stubborn.


The view from the deck was beautiful. A valley full of pines, and mist in the mornings. There were also a couple of thunderstorms which made things quite exciting. Seriously... they were very cool, we even got hail with one of them.

The cabin. They finished building it last summer, they've got a big family and a couple of cute grandkids so they pretty much fill it up when all the college kids come home.

This shot is actually in the late afternoon, you can see the smoke from the campfire where they made Dutch Oven dinner, and the little white specks you see are hailstones coming down.

After the deluge of rain and hail. Here are Riley's clothes that we hung up to dry after playing in the creek. Umm... they're even more wet now!

Pretty view of the mist at about 6:30 am. Yes, I know... I was up at 6 AM!! Isn't that one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

Another shot of the mist in the mountains. It was so pretty, this picture just doesn't do it justice.

My dear old dad. Sleeping outside on the deck. NO ONE could convince him to come inside, he's just an outdoors kind of guy. Though, I'm pretty sure it was more an excuse to make Matt & I take his bedroom. That's my dad.