Happy Fathers Day!

one worn out baby
Chloe come back here!



it's ok baby, eat some ice cream




this was a nice moment briefly until the swimmer diaper failed and Chloe peed all over me :)

these dad's worked hard on their weekend!



A true moment captured, well they can't play nicely every second!! They did great most of the time

Cutest little explorers in the whole park




we were snuggly and close quarters but it was fun

Katie let Abigail borrow her sweet head lamp
Rockin the camp stove breakfast

ok babies and sprinklers don't always mix, they do throw sparks. :(
proof positive very sorry dad and baby w/ burn on her chest. :(


Annabelle wasn't thrilled either, hard to teach kids to not play with fire but except when they say it's ok.


ok, so the dad's just played alone






Abigail, there's supposed to be some smoke, that's the idea

mmmmm Dad these are amazing!



yup, we bonded!
ok, so the locals learned to drive super slow through our section and only pass when they were waved through

"stop!!" ok, the 4 yr olds say you can pass now!


mmmm burgers and cider




couldn't resist making the girl's chairs well....girlier



Such a fun first trip into the wild blue yonder with some equally virginal campers this weekend. Brian and I registered for camping gear 9 yrs ago when we got married and we've never used it. For fathers day we headed into the mountains to a family friendly and bath house equip campground with our buddies Chris and Natalie and their 2 girls. It's such an easy family dynamic with them since all of our girls are stair step close in age. So basically when we do this trip in 2 or 3 more years it will really be fun. :) They got there first and got all set up as Brian finished up at work. We headed there around 5:30 and as the heavens opened up for the ride through ten buck two, I utilized the 'oh shoot' handle in the car as we approached hicktown USA. We laughed our heads off at our good luck in choice of weekends and activities. We looked for funnel clouds, I sang country music and the girls munched blissfully on chicken nuggets in the back. Whew, we arrive. Rain soaked, limb covered roads and one wet happy family of friends holding up in their tent awaiting our entry. They waved very enthusiastically from inside the screen. Brian began setting up the tent in the rain while me and the girls giggled and shared our excitement with Natalie under an umbrella. We knew hope was glimmering through the leaves as the sun was trying to break through to dry out our evening ahead. We fired up the campfire and got to cooking and consuming large amounts of the American standard hot dogs and hamburgers (and the occasional veggy burger and chicken sausage).
We ate into the night, as all campers should. We showed the little ones how to properly roast marshmallows and eat smores. They all 4 quickly became little sticky monsters collecting more dirt the more the moved from place to place. We didn't stay up too late. The kiddos were asking to go to bed and the divide between sites kept us from putting them down and sneaking back up for adult time. I think it suited us all fine. We were all pretty pooped. It took our girls a good while to settle down with all the excitement. Chloe had the hardest time understanding why she was stuck in her pack and play while we all snuggled together on the floor. But she got over it and eventually we all passed out. It wasn't a bad night, we got some sleep and the girls did amazing.
We shuffled over the next morning to have some breakfast and frappachinos. Chris worked painlessly at making real coffee over the open flames and was bound and determined to master the art. I'm so sorry to admit that there is something funnier about English accented people when they're angry and frustrated. I tried not to laugh, well not really. He succeeded, kind of. I heard him tell Nat she may want to spoon it out of the can. But she drank it gratefully with a smile. Brian cooked some wonderful bacon, pancakes, sausage and eggs for the whole crowd and we all got absolutely stuffed.
The girls kept themselves constantly entertained with the surrounding nature. Katie and Abigail's personalities compliment each other so nicely. They are polar opposites but they are so sweet together. They held hands and waved their flashlights all through the woods together pulling each other this way and that. Every time they found a new and exciting bug we either had to all get up and go look at it or run the risk of Katie bringing it to your lap mid conversation. Chloe and Princess Annabelle did their best to keep up with the big girls but often wound up just tottering behind in their own worlds. Chloe was just happy to have some freedom in a new open place. If it weren't for the street between sites she could have really had some free reign. All 4 girls by the end of the weekend were covered in scrapes and bruises to all their skinny little elbows, knees and palms. Even most of them had acquired one good blue bruise to their foreheads. All of them had coordinating vertical brown skid marks down their shirts from where they tumbled at great speeds and skid on their little bellies. We should have took pictures of those clothes! All minor scrapes and scratches to prove a good time was being had by all!!
We headed to the beach for a swim and that was a lot of fun. It was a nice clean lake with floating activities for the kids. A mini water slide took Chloe's interest so therefore all of mine, and she wouldn't have anything to do with anything else for the rest of the time. Once she learned she could climb up those stairs like those big 5 yr olds she was in heaven. She never could master sitting on her bottom at the top of the slide, so time after time she would fall very ungracefully down the slide in random positions crashing into the water below. But each time she came up coughing then clapping at her own success. I had to grab her by her water wings and pull her out of the way as quickly as I could so she wouldn't get pummeled by the older kids behind her.
Abigail and Katie are both working on learning to swim these days, but had fun in the shallow water keeping up with each other as best they could from toy to toy. After a while we opted for some rest and ice cream. It is always one of my favorite things to be wet and warm from swimming and eating a tasty snack wrapped up in a towel at a picnic table. Takes me back to all those summers at our lake places. The smell of lake water meets sunscreen is one of my favorite smells. Weird I know. This sweet summer memory was a bit altered when Chloe's swimmer diaper leaked and she took liberty to really warm mommy up with her pee while she stole bites of my ice cream. What are you going to do, I laughed wiped w/ a couple napkins and kept on munching. Funny how motherhood puts things in perspective, things you would have sworn would be disgusting earlier in life.
After Brian took Abigail w/ the Coles on a quick paddle boat ride. Chloe and I took a breather in a picnic shelter to wait for the big kids to have their fun. We headed back then for some lunch and the kids again, were asking to nap. We put a worn out Chloe to bed just on our mattress and the rest of us ate up some peanut butter before we started packing it all up.
It was a great weekend. Honestly exhausting but so worth all the fatigue. It was so fun to admire all the redneck activity with English cultured people. Our little Caribbean Natalie and English Chris did wonderful to blend in with the...."culture" of our own state. They were a great family to do this with. They get the whole little girls, drama but stinkin fun thing we have going on in our four walls every night. You can't put a price on some of those basic memory making trips. We've had some good ones so far this summer. It's turning out to be a great season for family and fun. I hope Brian had a wonderful first camping fathers day. We are so lucky to have such an incredible man to take care of us and to love. He is such an amazing father to these girls I just couldn't ask for more. Even in his Army boots and black socks he rocked it this weekend. Love that man!!