Camping at Falls Lake

This weekend, we went camping for two nights at Falls Lake with Donovan and his parents (Everett & Christy). We arrived Friday night amidst a stormy forecast, but determined to persevere. The water was warm, so the kids all got their suits on and went swimming immediately. 

After Zac got the tent up, it started to rain, so there was a funny part where we were all on the beach with umbrellas, watching the kids swim.  Luckily, the rain did not last too long, and we were able to make a fire and cook hotdogs and marshmallows.

After a night of light rain and fitful sleep (lots of airplanes landing around midnight), we got up to a foggy cool morning and had eggs, sausages, and of course, donuts for breakfast. This is me before my coffee has kicked in.

The allure of the water was strong, and it wasn't long before the kids were swimming again.

Here's me, wishing I had bigger boobs to overshadow my bag.  Oh well, what can ya do?

The kids generally played well together, but three is always an awkward number. Alice and Simon were often trying to win over Donovan and convince him to go against the other.

For lunch we had tuna noodle casserole and fruit. I think this was preceded by at least two morning snacks. The kids require a lot of fuel when they spend the whole day swimming.

Here I am, enjoying the day!

We had a great dinner, this time at Donovan's campsite. We had hamburgers and corn on the cob and roasted veggies and pasta salad. Yum!  Unfortunately, the campfire cherry pies were ruined because the cherry pie filling was, due to a purchasing error, "no sugar added" and tasted too much like sucralose to be palatable. More like sucraloser if you ask me.

Despite being banned from swimming anymore that night, the kids still went back down to the beach after supper to play. They ended up making clay balls and getting really dirty. We can't win.

After a big breakfast, lunch, dinner plus numerous snacks, the kids were still hungry and crammed in a few donuts before brushing their teeth and going to bed.

We all slept much better the second night. Anticipating the airplanes, I wore earplugs.

The next morning we had pancakes and sausages for breakfast. Donovan turned out to be a big fan of pancakes, so he joined us.

Then the kids went fishing. Donovan caught a large minnow, but I think that was about it.

They played for a while, then Donovan went home.

We let Simon and Alice swim for another hour or so before calling them up for lunch, then heading home.

We did this trip last year in late June, and it was at the peak of my illness and I was sooo sick and it was so hard. This summer is like my redemption tour--where at each place I am reminded of how lucky I am to have gotten my health back.

Alice's HR report on Simon

Alice submitted some paperwork to HR this morning, documenting her constant abuse from Simon.

I mean, she's not wrong.

Dragonfly

This beautiful specimen was hanging out on our mailbox as I headed out for my evening walk.  Any one single insect shows how truly amazing the designs of the natural world are.

Plus, they eat mosquitoes, so I really love dragonflies!

Ripe Tomatoes

Simon is sooooo excited every time one of the cherry tomatoes ripens. Today there were two, so he let Elli pick one. These two are really soul mates. They get along soooo well and play together as much as humanly possible when they're both home. When one goes in for a meal, the other always says, "Eat quickly and then come get me!"

Meanwhile, I'm trying to enjoy my last few lazy days of summer before I go back to work in one week (Eek!).

No Cavities!

The kids had their 6 month dental checkup this morning, and luckily no cavities were detected in Simon's mouth this time, so hopefully our gummy reduction plan (along with several other interventions) is finally helping.

Bat Friend Found

When I went up in the attic to finally put away the last of the hand-me-downs from Taesen, I found our resident bat. First he was flying around chaotically, then settled in the corner, which, based on the droppings, is his home base. We'd been wondering where he was coming in, and now we know. Still not sure how to fix the problem. And honestly, we'd just let him live there if it wasn't for the poop.

Pool Party, Cool Party

On Sunday, I went to Trader Joe's in the morning and then I took the kids to a pool party in the afternoon.

Alice wanted to wear some of her colored hair to the party. I'm struggling a bit with this clip-in hair. I don't know how to both hide the clips under normal hair, yet have the colored hair be visible.

While hanging out in the morning, Simon found a really cool beetle.

Finally, we got through lunch and headed to Jess and Anna's house for the pool party!

It was really fun. I love that our daycare group still hangs out even although the kiddos are about to enter (gasp!) THIRD GRADE.

Durham Day

I took the kids to Durham for the day to give Zac a chance to get stuff done around the house. It was a hot day, but we still had fun. Our first stop was the tree climbing area.

After that, we ate lunch then we spent a lot of time in the butterfly house.

Then we looked at the animals (bears, red wolves, lemurs).  Near the bears, Simon made a brief friend and started a trend.

After playing hide-and-go-seek in the mist for a while, we went inside the museum building to escape the heat. They had a cool new exhibit with lights that the kids had a lot of fun with.

Portraits

Friday evening, Alice was at her neighborhood friend Lily's birthday party, Zac was doing yard work, and so Simon and I decided to take a walk around the pond.

Simon's poses crack me up.

Little Boy in a Big Pond

Zac was playing with his new phone's ability to take pictures in the dark, and took the following portraits.

Alice came back from the party with clip-in blue hair, and was thrilled beyond belief.

Those Summer Days

An example of a project Alice did entirely on her own given the wonderful free time of summer.

Then we had to play Sankes and Ladders. It is really the most terrible game on earth.  By mutual consent, we abandoned the game after about 45 minutes and no progress.

After lunch, we went to the pool. Simon caught a little lizard in the parking lot.

It was 84 degrees today. The kids were freezing.

Alice and her friend Lily had fun making a tent!