July

July went by like a whirlwind!  It felt like a marathon of vacations and fun.  We enjoyed it, but it didn't feel like we did much sitting around relaxing and getting bored, which is good, but sometimes tiresome!  Here are a few of the moments.

 Lauren loves to draw and color.  She usually draws on paper, but every once in a while something like this happens.

Dylan loves doing the summer swim team.  He only got to do 2 of the 4 summer meets because we were so busy!  He enjoyed what he could, and we had fun watching him and hanging out together during the meets.

His best times for the summer were:

56.99   50 Free (7/16/14)
2:00.63 100 Free (7/30/14)
1:40.20 50 Breast (7/30/14)
2:41.29 100 IM (7/30/14)

Karen and I ran a 5K.  It was her first ever, and my effort to get back in to shape again.  I loved working toward the goal together. We did awesome!

Backyard Campout

I really wanted to go camping this summer, and my mom even said she would help me if Devon was too busy, or too camped out because of scouts.  One weekend we had thought about going, but it didn't work out, I decided to put the tent up in the backyard and see if I thought camping would work with so many kids and a baby.  We had a blast and slept outside together for two nights, and Devon even joined us on the second night.  We ate all our meals outside, and grilled and used the campfire for our dinners. During the day we hung out in the tent and yard as much as we could - playing games and relaxing.  It was so hot that eventually we hung out in the basement and continued our games.  What fun it was!  It was a little tricky with Ashlyn. I decided it would be easier to just have her sleep inside, and leave her window open so I can hear her if she wakes up in the night.  I'm thinking next summer might be a little easier when she is walking and I can actually set her down somewhere.  Right now she just wants to be held, and if I do put her down, she has to sit, which isn't as easy when camping.

Funny Story:
We meant to get the tent down on Saturday, but the day was really busy and it just didn't work out.  The boys were begging to sleep another night in the tent, so we figured we would let the three older boys sleep out there alone.  We left our window open so we could hear if there were any problems.  Just after midnight, we heard Dylan and Ethan screaming and yelling. Devon went out to see what was going on.  Apparently Dylan had woken up in the middle of the tent, completely disoriented and out of his sleeping bag.  He decided that Ethan was in his spot and in his sleeping bag somehow.  Ethan and Dylan had been sleeping feet to feet, so I'm not quite sure how he decided that one.  Because he was certain that Ethan was in his bag, he began to pull Ethan out of his sleeping bag, giving Ethan quite the rude awakening.  Of course, Ethan was hollering in protest!  Devon got Dylan sorted out, and everyone back to bed.  We got quite the laugh about it!  We do kind of wonder what the neighbors thought if they heard any of the yelling.

Pioneer Day

We had a great Pioneer Day this year.  To add onto all of our traveling, we headed to Gary Dollar's property and stayed the night. He was kind to invite all the Gibson Family, so it was like a Gibson Family party with Gary and Laura.  We had so much fun visiting, sitting around camp fires, four wheeling, riding the river, playing on the beach, and everything else that goes along with it.  

We headed home later that day and got home just in time to do some fireworks with the kids.

Clear Creek

Dylan was so excited to go to Clear Creek this summer.  It is a camp put on by Alpine School District for kids who just finished 5th grade.  For a week they stay in cabins and do nature kinds of things.  Dylan begged and begged to go, and we decided it would be a good away-from-home experience for him.  He absolutely loved it, if you don't count the first night that he was motion sick and throwing up.  Luckily he woke up the next day and was just fine, but it sure made for an adventure.

Fourth of July - small town style

Rather than drive 14 hours home on the Fourth of July, we were able to stay an extra day at Philmont and then drive home the next day.  That meant celebrating the 4th in Cimmaron, which is the small town Philmont is in.  We went to the parade.  It was so cute and small town!  The kids got tons of candy and even things like T-shirts and pens.  

Mom and I laughed to see this sign on a small side street that was just dirt.  I  just can't imagine them even needing speed bumps anywhere in this town that doesn't even have a stop light... much less on on a tiny side street.

After the parade we went to pick out souvenirs at the trading post, then we headed back to the cabins to hang out and play games.

Lots of carving happened during our week at Philmont.  Dylan was in heaven, Jayden was not, since boy scout regulations require you to be 10 to carve... Jayden was 5 months too young.  This was a huge disappointment to him since we didn't realize it before we left.  Dylan carved a clone trooper head that he designed himself. He did awesome!

In the evening many of us joined together to sing songs in a circle with a guitar.  It was a  lot of fun. Our kids got to hear Grandpa sing and play the guitar for their first time.  It was wonderful!

I brought some glow sticks for the kids to replace fireworks.  They had fun playing around with them.