Are we having fun yet?: July 4th

We planned a camping trip with friends to go adventure camping. Adventure camping is going camping without a reservation on the fourth of July weekend. We knew finding a spot would be hard, so we looked for a non-established campsite in national forest land.

It totally worked!! My hubby found us a perfect spot for our family and our friends. We had no neighbors to complain about children crying in the night. We had the whole road to ourselves with no traffic passing, except for T on his bike. We had no bears wandering through camp. Or chipmunks, squirrels, bunnies, crows, etc. There was about 2 inches of forest duff for when the air mattress failed. It was warm. There was no rain. And there was even a small creek!!! I couldn't believe it. We were in heaven. And amazingly we didn't have to drive longer than 20 minutes on dirt roads. Crazy, right? You'll have to torture us for the location.

The other reason I call it adventure camping was to be clear to our friends. We don't know where we are going. In past years we have had to turn around on a road on the edge of a mountain. Or even camp on the side of the mountain. Adventure camping also means bringing our own water and digging our own pit toilet. All trash has to be packed out. And the bummer of a drought was that there was a burn ban. Oh well.

We ate, played, ate some more, played in the water, watched the stars out of our tent that has a complete screen roof that can be exposed to the sky. The kids loved playing in the tent. T put a sleeping bag over his head and ran around inside until he pulled up some tent stakes. He was laughing pretty hard. And had all the other kids laughing.

I took W and her camping buddy for a walk where we picked tons of wild flowers.

My hubby brought guns and we did some target practice right before we left after buckling the kids in the car behind us. I got the stump like 7 times and the plate was unscathed. My friend hit it on the first shot. I was jealous. My hubby got a bull's eye. Show off. Didn't bring ear protection and my hearing hasn't been the same since. Dumb.

We came home to an offer on the house that we accepted, so we started planning our move.

The rest of the pics are pics of them being cute in every day moments and trying to get with friends before we moved

One of my favorite things to do is watch T help his sister on the playground. He does double rides on the zip line, with her in his lap. He also often pushes her on the swing.

E laughing at Papa putting a bowl on his head

I find T in this position very very often. This is his Lego creation area.

A popsicle treat after family home evening. I put this up just to show J can have a normal non goofy smile in a a pic.... if caught off guard

W offering a taste of her flavor to E

Boys enjoying their popsicles

Just a cute pic of T

And a cute pic of E

T worked really hard on this. He made himself a cat house with scrap lumbar

E being cute

W enjoying her popsicle very slowly

T placing his butterfly carefully

W's first pedi. Papa bought me a gift certificate for a massage for me. I saved out part of it to take W to have her toes done. I asked her if she liked it. She said her favorite part was the spa. But I learned she would much rather play with me on the playground than go get her nails done.