Last week we went camping with the Daddy's extended family down at a KIWANIS friend's property down in Salkum, WA. As always there was a pretty large horde. 16 adults were there, 15 kids (under 18) and 4 dogs. Uncle Mark even came by but not while the largest group was there. Immediately after we got there Dillon ran off with the boys to guess what... the giant pile of dirt. The girls gathered up in Ella's tent...soon to join the boys in the pile of dirt. 
Kayda and Ella. Best pals!
There is a creek that ran through the property, it was a walk to get back there but the kids enjoyed walking through the woods.
And... back to the pile of dirt.
Kayda and Dillon were playing at the very top and Hank decided he should be with them. He had his head between theirs but I just missed it.
Kayda and Dillon decided that they THOROUGHLY enjoy hitting the ball. They got to be pretty good at it too. Anytime Daddy or I were close by that's what they wanted to do.
Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere the little ones could really ride their bikes. So they ended up being stationary. The kids had a great time pedalling and watching the wheel spin. Even if they weren't going anywhere.
We had one morning that started out beautifully so we all went out to the lake nearby at Ike Kinswa State Park. The kids had a great time. There was a very small spot to jump on an island you could swim to. So Daddy, Uncle Scott and Tyler swam out there, I towed the kids over on a little two person raft to watch. The jumping spot was only about 10 ft, though Daddy climbed up a pine tree there and jumped from a little higher, maybe 20 ft. After watching for a while Dillon decided he wanted to jump. He was wearing a life jacket so I swam to the easiest spot to climb up and brought Dillon to the top. "We're up high do you still want to jump." "Mmmhmm." So after I worked out my nerves about jumping off a 10 ft jump with a 2.5 year old we went for it. Being paranoid like I am as soon as we hit the water I pushed him up to the surface so he wouldn't be under for long. When I got back up he was just fine, floating in his life jacket on his back jut like he's supposed to. He was a little startled but he liked it! Little daredevil.
Kayda and Ella. Best pals!
There is a creek that ran through the property, it was a walk to get back there but the kids enjoyed walking through the woods.
And... back to the pile of dirt.
Kayda and Dillon were playing at the very top and Hank decided he should be with them. He had his head between theirs but I just missed it.
Kayda and Dillon decided that they THOROUGHLY enjoy hitting the ball. They got to be pretty good at it too. Anytime Daddy or I were close by that's what they wanted to do.
Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere the little ones could really ride their bikes. So they ended up being stationary. The kids had a great time pedalling and watching the wheel spin. Even if they weren't going anywhere.
We had one morning that started out beautifully so we all went out to the lake nearby at Ike Kinswa State Park. The kids had a great time. There was a very small spot to jump on an island you could swim to. So Daddy, Uncle Scott and Tyler swam out there, I towed the kids over on a little two person raft to watch. The jumping spot was only about 10 ft, though Daddy climbed up a pine tree there and jumped from a little higher, maybe 20 ft. After watching for a while Dillon decided he wanted to jump. He was wearing a life jacket so I swam to the easiest spot to climb up and brought Dillon to the top. "We're up high do you still want to jump." "Mmmhmm." So after I worked out my nerves about jumping off a 10 ft jump with a 2.5 year old we went for it. Being paranoid like I am as soon as we hit the water I pushed him up to the surface so he wouldn't be under for long. When I got back up he was just fine, floating in his life jacket on his back jut like he's supposed to. He was a little startled but he liked it! Little daredevil.
An attempt at a movie... unfortunately there was an equipment malfunction. Too bad, all the kids were snuggled in and ready to go!
We made the mistake of introducing the youngest ones to duck-duck-goose. A couple already knew it but most didn't. Daddy and I spent an evening playing Duck-duck-goose, red light green light, simon says, ring around the rosie (which we got the older boys to join in with...two years running), hide and seek, sardines, train and a failed attempt at freeze tag (those little legs are just too tiny to crawl through to unfreeze them!)
Ah... cousins
I had to get rid of the red eye here... it was a creepy picture until I managed that. EVERY single kids had glowing red eyes.
Our last night there four kids (including our two) ended up throwing up in the middle of the night. Dillon ended up with me, Kayda ended up with Daddy....Daddy woke up first.
Our kiddos ended up just having the short bouts in the middle of the night fortunately. By the time we all drove home more of the little ones were showing signs of the bug and guess what, early this week I got to experience it... Much worse than either of my kids got, course I wouldn't want it the other way. Grandma Peggy was kind enough to watch the kids all day so Daddy could work. Last I heard Uncle Pat ended up with it too. Kind of interesting to see how it spreads... through all the little munchkins that we can't bear to keep from kissing and snuggling as much as humanly possible. Here's to hoping it doesn't hit too many more people. Hopefully next years trip won't have such disastrous results.
We made the mistake of introducing the youngest ones to duck-duck-goose. A couple already knew it but most didn't. Daddy and I spent an evening playing Duck-duck-goose, red light green light, simon says, ring around the rosie (which we got the older boys to join in with...two years running), hide and seek, sardines, train and a failed attempt at freeze tag (those little legs are just too tiny to crawl through to unfreeze them!)
Ah... cousins
I had to get rid of the red eye here... it was a creepy picture until I managed that. EVERY single kids had glowing red eyes. 
Our last night there four kids (including our two) ended up throwing up in the middle of the night. Dillon ended up with me, Kayda ended up with Daddy....Daddy woke up first.
Our kiddos ended up just having the short bouts in the middle of the night fortunately. By the time we all drove home more of the little ones were showing signs of the bug and guess what, early this week I got to experience it... Much worse than either of my kids got, course I wouldn't want it the other way. Grandma Peggy was kind enough to watch the kids all day so Daddy could work. Last I heard Uncle Pat ended up with it too. Kind of interesting to see how it spreads... through all the little munchkins that we can't bear to keep from kissing and snuggling as much as humanly possible. Here's to hoping it doesn't hit too many more people. Hopefully next years trip won't have such disastrous results.
On a side note Hank did a pretty good job the whole trip. He never left the property, came when we called him, didn't harass the other dogs overly much and we only had one time we had to go searching for him. We were out at the creek, Hank got bored and got all the way back to camp.
You can hook a hose up to it and it has two little spray spots to make it a "water slide". Dillon was trying to get a drink and Kayda turned up the water right as I was taking the picture. 
I thought this was a great idea for kiddos and their sparklers. They just had a candle and they would go over and light their sparklers. The neighbor girls were quite adamant about Kayda and Dillon doing things with them!
Dillon and Kayda loved watching the tanks. Dillon was sitting their with the squirt gun saying "BOOM BOOM" the whole time. Kayda had her ears covered!
Taking over Aunt Liz and Uncle Greg's blankets!
