Camping Trip

Sunday we got back from our annual 5 day camping trip. This year we tried somewhere new, hubby's theory is that there are SO many places in this world, why would you keep going to the same ones, no matter how great they are.

So this year we headed to a state park just south of Muskegon, MI. Not too long of a drive, and we planned the trip so we avoided rush hour (for the most part!). We got there and got set up pretty easily, and the boys were super excited. Izzy was content just to watch from her stroller for the moment. We spent the next 4 days exploring, hiking, playing, swimming, and cooking over the fire!!!


One day, Daddy took both boys for a hike. When they got back the first thing Blake ran to tell me was, "Mommy, when we were hiking, we went potty in Nature!"



One afternoon, I took the boys to the beach to play. I coated each of them with sunscreen, and they came home looking pretty good. Me, I came home looking like a lobster!!! Oopsies!

We also took the time to walk down the stream which started right at the lake. We followed it down and around the bend where we found lots of trees and logs that had fallen across the stream. The boys spent a good hour crossing the trees "like animals" (on all fours) and completing "missions"! They would say to each other, "Your mission is to cross the stream without getting wet and without the other kids getting in your way. Do you accept this mission??" Apparently they've watched WAY too many spy cartoons (which ones are those anyway??).

Izzy wasn't a big fan of the dirt/sand combination that was the ground at the campsite. She would walk and play with the toys we had and was happy most of the time. BUT, if she fell down, she was NOT happy. She didn't want to touch the dirt!!! She would sit there (or lie there on her tummy!) with her hands in the air and wait for someone to get her up. And if you didn't come soon enough, she would scream for you!!!

The boys also had a great time playing with their toy dinosaurs around the campsite. They would bury the dinosaur skeletons in the sand and then be paleontologists and "discover" them, and they would let their other dinosaurs go on field trips and eat the plants ("Well they are herbivores Mom!")!

One day the boys and I took a hike to the Sand Dune Staircase. 207 steps up (and 207 back down!). But it was totally worth it!!! Even the boys agreed!

The view from the top:


Lessons learned:

• splitting the boys up to sleep in two different tents is a GREAT idea!!!
  
  
• glow sticks are good!!
  

• waiting to put them to bed until it's actually dark (which is pretty late in MI) and they are exhausted is also a GREAT idea!!!
• taking the boys away from the campsite for an hour or two in the afternoon is the best way to get Izzy to take a nap. Repeat this same thing when she goes to bed at night or she will stay up playing in her pack n play until 11:30!!!!
• 
• dessert is the best meal of the day, ESPECIALLY when it is cooked over the campfire. Marshmallows, smores, and apple pies (in the pie irons) were huge hits and all of us had seconds and thirds!!!
  
• the boys loved all the classes for kids that the DNRE offered. They learned about turtles, ladybugs, and mammals. They know what: crepuscular, diurnal, and nocturnal mean and which animals are which. Do you???

It was a great trip. The boys spent the car ride home asking when we would go camping again. I'd love to go again this summer, but I don't think Daddy's work schedule will allow it =(. We'll definitely fit one in next summer.....somewhere new of course!

Isabelle - 14 months!

It's been a while, so if nothing else, I should at least do an Izzy update.

At 14 months she:

• can crawl up the stairs, and back down, as long as you turn her around and make her start going down. Otherwise, she'll just stand at the top and scream until you pick her up!!
  
  
• will answer a yes/no question such as "do you want lunch". if she doesn't, she'll shake her head no, if she does, she'll run to the fridge! Once in her high chair, yes answers are given by convulsive shaking of the entire body and crazy leg kicks until she gets what you offered, such as a nutrigrain bar!! If she doesn't want it, she'll shake that head no until it almost falls off!!
  
  
• has started returning the love to her brothers! They will group hug/tackle her and now she fights to get loose, and then 'hugs' them back, which really means she pushes them down and falls on top of them!!! It's too cute and too funny!
  
  
• has 3 front teeth, the 4th one coming in, and has 2 molars halfway in!! She does NOT like eating while the teeth are pushing thru, but she makes up for it as soon as they are in!!
  
  
• feels that a 5-minute "power nap" is plenty during the day and if she gets one, good luck getting her to nap again for at least 2 hours!! But she does sleep 12 solid hours at night, so I'm trying to be thankful for what I do have!
  
  
• can say "Dada" "Baby" and "Mama".
  
  
• has a favorite TV show "Eebee" and if you say it to her, she'll walk over to the TV and watch it. She dances along with the songs and is way too cute!
  
  
• waves goodbye and/or goodnight when prompted.
  
  
• FINALLY has enough hair for two pigtails! TOO CUTE!
  

In case you doubted me...

Here's the video proof she can open the gate...

To Do...

Why does sleep elude me at 11:54 pm, but at 2:54 pm I was dozing on the couch as my 3 children caused havoc in my house?!?!?!?

I put my head on the pillow about an hour ago. In the three hours prior to that, and since the kids had been put to bed, I attempted to accomplish a lot of stuff. Somewhere in my brain is the belief that if I accomplish a ton of stuff during the evenings, then maybe I won't feel the need to try to get so much done during the day and instead I can just be the fun mommy who plays all the time. But in reality, I just seem to find more that I should be doing during the day.... the list never ends!!

My current projects include:

• weeding the garden and spreading the last bit of mulch that just got dumped there about 2 weeks ago
• sorting out the 30 boxes of left over STUFF in my garage after my less than successful garage sale
• completing about 8 forms for each of the boys to attend summer camp and tracking down all the required information about medical history etc....
• getting the ball rolling on packing for our camping trip, which means digging all the stuff out of storage, seeing what needs batteries, what needs replacing, and figuring out all the menus etc.

I swear I thought of more while I was "trying" to sleep. Of course, there's a bunch of other stuff flying through my head, like: remembering the items I need to buy for the potluck dinner we're going to this weekend, figuring out which kids are going where this weekend so I can move car seats, the destruction of the bathroom we just refinished AGAIN because the sink pipe was leaking and the toilet wasn't seating properly on the pipe (EWWW!). ANd my head just keeps on going.... ANd next to me, lies a snoring husband completely oblivious to all my thinking, stressing, planning, and obsessing!

The question is, now that I've gotten all this out of my head and written down somewhere safely, will I be able to go to sleep??? Or will I just think of 10 more things that I need to do/remember!!!?!?