Taidnapam

Our second camping trip of the season was a quick weekend trip to Taidnapam.  We went with a couple of the families from Carson's soccer team last fall.  We had a great time! There were so many kids, we were right next to the park and the kids were all old enough to explore the campground on their own.  It made for a really relaxing trip.  The adults spent most of our time just hanging out and chatting.

Left to right: Dillon, Zach, Joey, Maddy, Carson, Kayda and Jordan.  Kayda was probably the only kid that got bored.  She'd just go sit in the trailer and read, which she doesn't mind in the slightest.

They had the lake drained way down while they worked on the dam.  We obviously couldn't swim since this was the swimming area!  Normally the red buoys are in a pretty deep section.

The dad's took the kids and played extreme bocce ball.  The ground was too compacted to play the traditional way.  So they played in the play area.  The dad's would throw the ball/target while the kids were turned away and then each kid would turn around, one at a time, and throw their ball after only being able to look for the little white ball for a second or two.

Maddy, Joey and Carson (soccer teammates last year).

Zach and Dillon.

Left to right: Justin, Daddy, Zach, Dillon, Maddy, Scott, Carson, Jordan and Kayda.

It was a really good weekend.  Unfortunately, Crystal and Justin (with Joey and Jordan) are moving to Ohio next summer so there won't be a repeat.  Kelly, Scott, Maddy and Zach will still be here so maybe we can work that out.  None of the kids ended up on the same soccer team this year, which is a bummer since they get along so well.

Kayda's fastpitch

Kayda decided to try fastpitch this summer.  She ended up on a team that had no experience.  Daddy coached her team, which was tricky since he was also coaching Dillon's baseball.  

Kayda was the best pitcher on the team, especially as she and I practiced.  By the end of the season she was getting pretty fast, which she was SO excited about and super proud of.  She's decided she'd like to try a regular league next year.

Her absolutely favorite position was pitcher but she was really good about encouraging the other girls to try it (which actually got another girl to start pitching that did not want to) and had absolutely no problem trying different positions.  Pitcher was certainly my favorite position to watch her play.

Kayda fell in love with the cheers.  She'd listen to the more experienced teams and learned their cheers, we'd look up cheers and then she would lead her team throughout the games.  When she first started doing it... It was rough.  They only knew one and did it over and over.  It got better as the season progressed.

Carson's first lost tooth!

Carson lost his first tooth!  It's been loose for a while but he had no interest in tugging it out.  He was wrestling with Daddy on the bed just before bedtime and Dad's foot actually knocked it out!  We didn't realize it until Carson came over and asked me if he was bleeding.  Then Daddy was searching the bed to find it!

Dillon's scout camp

Right after getting home from our trip to Lake Chelan Dillon started scout camp.  I went with him for his first day to volunteer.  I ended up running a station for the older kids but I got some good time in with Dillon at lunch and during the opening/closing ceremonies.

Friday was the family day again.  It ran much smoother than last year.  There were still problems but for the most part they had something for the siblings at each station.

Boat races!  Carson and Kayda made theirs out of foam lunch trays.  Part of it was cut from the back and attached by rubber bands, you twisted it up and it worked like a little motor for their boats.  Dillon's little raft was made from twigs and had a sail. Unfortunately, in the chaos , I missed his race.

Obstacle course!

Dillon's group was practicing the script for their skit.  Kayda and Carson were content to sit and listen.

These were some pretty cool little "sling shots".  They were made from Gatorade bottles and rubber bands.  The kids got to shoot several ping pong balls and actually launched them farther than I would've expected.  Dillon's group did sling shots and shot beans at a Target.  The had the boys tucked way back so I wasn't able to get pictures.

Dillon did a skit, they made it a Pokemon theme (amazing what a comeback that game has made).  I think their leaders made it a little too complicated but the boys got a kick out of it anyway.

Lake Chelan

Our annual trip with Jen, Rene, Ryan and Ethan was to Lake Chelan this year.  We had a blast!  It was nice and hot so you were comfortable being in the water for a long time and we had lots of breaks back in camp.  The kids really liked playing pokemon go because there were several poke stops nearby.  They were able to do some "raid" battle and actual caught some of those pokemon. 

 We spent a lot of time down at the lake which was great.  The kids had a blast playing in the sand, in the water and jumping off the floating dock.  The dock is new to us, it wasn't there last time we were there.

 The kids had a really good time trying to catch the football off the dock.  What am I saying?  Daddy did too.

 Daddy and Rene got REALLY good at throwing the kids into the water.

 They found a piece of driftwood.  It didn't really float with them on there... but they found it entertaining.

 Kayda brought her camera.  We used it for pretty much all the water activities. I took some pictures from the beach but most are her camera.

 We rented this trampoline for an hour, just for our group.  It was so much fun!  Everyone was pretty tired by the time we were done with that hour.  There was the trampline, a slide, a walkway to an almost, not quite other trampoline and a log roller.  The log roller was a crowd pleaser!

 Left to right: DIllon, Kayda, Rene, Ryan, Carson, Ethan, Daddy.  I was out there too!  I was just taking most the pictures!

 Here are some videos of the kids trying the log roller.  Kayda made it almost to the end several times.  She was, by far, the best out of all of us.

We went and ate lunch at Blueberry Hill.  It has a pretty cool view.  The food wasn't great so we won't go there again.

The kids played cards... a lot.  They also played charades, catch, road bikes, Kayda worked on pitching... it was a good 6 days.

You won't see any pictures since we didn't bring any cameras but we also went to the slide waters park.  It was a great little water park.  Carson could go on almost all the rides.  There were only two he couldn't do.  Everything was set up that I was comfortable letting the kids go on their own (provided they stayed together).  The only one they weren't allowed in without us was the lazy river.  It was just deep enough and busy enough that it made me anxious if I didn't have the kids close. We took a little time where all the kids went to ride some of the rides while the adults went and did a few on our own.  It was a really good time.  Kayda and I's favorite attraction was the downhill racers.  It was set up like the big slides at the fair that you ride the mats down... but with a foam mat and water.  We would go up, the three adults and race.  I never won but I had a great time making myself get air off each of the bumps.  Carson  and Dillon really liked purple haze.  The slide is entirely enclosed so you have no light whatsoever.  It was fine for Carson because he could sit up.  Daddy and I both tried it and because we had to lay down all kinds of water shot up your nose and at times felt like you couldn't breathe.  Carson was pretty excited to try that one though.  Of course Dillon says he rode it laying down.  Maybe it's just us old folks that can't take it.

It was a great vacation.  Hectic to start because it was right after fourth of July so we didn't have our normal time to pack the trailer.  Then hectic after because we went straight home to scout camp.  It was a great trip anyway!

Independence Day

 Independence day was much busier than normal.  We spent most of the day working on the deck we're building by the pool.  Before that was completely done (we're SO close) Auntie Kina, Cassie, Daniel (her husband), Gabe and Macy came over for a barbecue and fireworks.  

Of course there had to be a tank war, the visiting guys joined in with gusto!  Who can resist shooting tiny fireworks at other fireworks.

As usual, we ended up with a burning pile at the end.

The boys had a great time with the smoke bombs.  Cassie is nervous with fireworks so Gabe hasn't been around them much.  Carson and Dillon were quite happy to show him how to enjoy the fireworks to their fullest potential.

Of course there had to be sparklers!

And flash bombs.

More sparklers!

A near endless supply of flash bombs.  We ended up tucking away some for next year.  Our adult eyes couldn't handle the flashing anymore, especially mine since they're still pretty light sensitive.

Kayda was able to capture some pretty good shots of our favorite fireworks.

Our neighborhood was as intense as ever.  A lot of people started lighting them off randomly as early as mid-June.  So the fireworks on the actual day start first thing in the morning.   The kids had a great time having the extras kiddos around and for the second time in a row we've got extras fireworks to use next year.  This year was fortunately just an over abundance of little things.  Last year was because Daddy was so sick, I kept some tanks for him to do with the kids... It never happened so they got used in our tank wars this year.