July Birthdays at Grandmas house

Grandma was sweet enough to plan a birthday get together for all of the July birthdays. JoAnne, Kaitlyn and then Niccole and I. Grandma had the most awesome candle -- the kids all loved it!

 the birthday girls blowing out the candles.

 grandma always gives the best gifts...this one was a farting bubble machine. (The farting refers to the sound not the smell.)

camping continued

grandpa had the brilliant idea to set up a "kids tent" so the kids would have some place to play without tracking dirt into everyone's tent.  At one point it flew away since it didn't have anything heavy inside.  And for the record, the kids still enjoyed getting our tents dirty since they had the bedding and pillows inside.

The kids spent a lot of time hanging out and chatting. It was great!

So cute!

Niccole brought a fun game, pass the pudding.

perfect smores

we were sitting around the campfire one night and this bug fell onto Jo's hand. She SCREAMED bloody murder for a long while. It was super upsetting.

Dave took Jo to hospital rock. That was were he took anyone with an injury. Thankfully we didn't have any injuries more serious than scraps and bug touches. Although Calvin took a fall that could have been quite serious if Uncle Mark hadn't saved him. Dave and Mark took Emiley, Clare and Calvin on a pretty intense geocaching hike one afternoon.

collecting little rocks. Calvin actually did GREAT on this trip.  We had a no electronics rule and Calvin played more with other kids and enjoyed the nature more than he would have otherwise. It was great.

This was one of the camping spots were we took down a tent. So pretty!

Dirty pj's

things kids say

Alexey: I love that Daddy is home more now.

JoJo: Mom, why don't you jump in a lake and let an alligator eat you. Nooooooo, how about daddy. I don't like him. Nooooooo, he brings me treats. I think nobody should jump in the lake.

JoJo: When are we going home?  (Mom's answer: jojo, we are home). No, not this home. Home to Houston.

camping in reno

This year we did a weekend camping trip with ALL of the Gonda's! It was so fun! I hope it is an annual tradition.  We camped just at the foothills of the mountains in a beautiful camp called Davis Creek Campground.  The kids had so much fun playing together and it felt great to be out in nature.

The girls loved these little chairs and carried them all over camp.  They also loved little Aria.

Dave and Calvin set up a couple of tents

 Dave wresteled with Ben. Aria was very upset by this thinking the boys were fighting. Dave lost.

 Grandpa Dan is the best

 There was a little lake that the kids walked around.

 Kate found a tiny frog.

 Calvin didn't use his tablet at all on the trip. He had a good time. Did 1000 times better than I thought.

The kids loved a game where they'd kick the ball up the hill and then try to catch it before it came past them down the hill.

Saturday morning we left camp to swim. It ended up being too cold to swim but Dave challenged Joe and Ben to a race. Dave lost. (yes, that's the second time Dave lost). He swam sideways into the lane lines. He will want a re match next year with goggles.

Joe hosted a cherry pit spitting contest which he won.

 hanging around camp

 sometimes people cry