Camping!

 We've gone camping with our friends Tim and Martha (and their kiddos) twice in the last few years. When they asked us to come along with them this year, though, we didn't jump at the chance. There's something about Texas heat, sleeping on the ground, and being six months pregnant that just don't seem to go together very well. :) BUT ... when Martha called us to say that I could sleep in one of the beds in their air-conditioned camper since Tim & Christopher wanted to tent camp, it was an offer we couldn't refuse! After all, our boys absolutely LOVE camping. When we told Ian that we were going to go camping, he said, "YES!" and had a big smile.

This year, the Douglas family invited us to camp with them at Lake Livingston State Park, about 1.5 hours away from our house. As it turned out, God blessed us with an amazing weekend. The weather was just perfect -- one of the coolest weather weekends we've had in a long time! And there was even a really  nice breeze since we were right on the water.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon, the kids started playing with sand toys right away while we adults unpacked and set up the camp site.

 We had a yummy dinner of hamburgers, hot dogs, and lots of sides that evening!

 The kids enjoyed their time lounging in their lawn chairs ...

Mackenzie, Ryan, Ian, Christopher

 ... and watching the camp fire. :)

 Before bed, we walked down to the playground at the camp. The kids (especially Christopher and Ian) really liked the steep, slick slide!

 Ryan and Mackenzie preferred the swings.

 We were able to catch the beautiful sunset before we put the kiddos to bed and we adults chatted around the campfire.

 We all slept great. Of course, Kim, Martha, and Mackenzie had the best set-up ever with sleeping on true beds in an air-conditioned camper. But even the guys had a great night of sleep. God helped to provide them with some "air conditioning," too. What beautiful weather!

As some of us adults got breakfast together, the kiddos wanted to sit right by the lake to watch the ducks and birds.

 We enjoyed a yummy breakfast together ...

 ... and then we took the dogs on a long walk. (We had brought Jon & Chelsea's Schnauzer, Ace, with us since both of them were out of town. The Douglas family had brought their two Schnauzers as well.) Ian was more than happy to be the one to hold Ace's leash.

 We walked to the trading post (which was closed for renovations) and then walked up these stairs to a lookout platform.

 What a pretty view of Lake Livingston!

 Mackenzie and Ryan were a little tired from all of the hiking, so they needed piggy back rides on the way back to the campsite.

 Ryan got a second wind when he saw the ducks. He loved chasing them all around a ne ighboring campsite. They didn't seem as excited to meet him as he seemed to meet them. :)

 Soon, we had some ducks visit our campsite, too. The ducks were much more eager to come close when we offered them some Goldfish crackers and bread. :)

 We got out some water toys for the kiddos after our walk.

 Here, Ian sprays Christopher and Matthew (a Douglas family friend who was camping at a nearby campsite with his parents) with the hose. Chris and Matthew were smart, though, and held up an umbrella to stay a little more dry.

 After lunch, we packed up and headed back home. Ian was happy to have Ace on his lap for part of the trip.

What a fun camping trip, Douglas family! Thank you for inviting us to join you -- and for sharing all of your camping gear and expertise with us. This was certainly one of the boys' highlights of the summer!

End-of-Summer FUN! :)

 In no particular order, here are some of the fun things we did toward the end of the summer ...

Ian and his friend, Caleb, went to a few movies together. A local theater was showing a kids' movie each week for only $1. Caleb's mom, Aliceson, and I took turns taking the big boys to the show and playing with their little brothers at home. Aunt Chelsea came with us to see Smurfs 2!

The boys helped with lots of cooking and baking! Even Ryan is showing an interest in helping measure ingredients, stir things, and crack eggs!

We did lots of reading this summer! It was so heartwarming to see Ian read books to Ryan at various times, too! The boys each participated in the summer reading program at the library as well as the one at our local grocery story, H-E-B.

 

 We played lots of games this summer. Aunt Chelsea (and Uncle Jon) were always willing playmates. Some of Ian's favorite games this summer were Guess Who and Trouble.

 We potty trained Ryan! By God's grace, it seemed like we started at just the right time. He caught on so quickly and learned to go pee and poop in the potty in a matter of about two days. Now that he's been potty trained about four weeks, he rarely has accidents and even wakes up most mornings dry (though we do still put him in a diaper at night time). Ian was a big helper and encourager in the process. It probably helped that the "big helper" got whatever prize or reward (usually a few M & Ms) that the trainee got. Ryan was pleased with all of the attention and seemed very proud of himself once he caught on. We are certainly so proud of our little man!

We tried some out some fun-sounding Pinterest ideas. One morning, we mixed together corn starch, water, and food coloring. The boys started by applying this "sidewalk paint" mixture to our sidewalks and driveway with paintbrushes.

 Then, we got out tennis balls, dipped them into the "sidewalk paint," and threw the balls so we could see the prints the ball left as it bounced along the driveway. (No, Ryan is not wearing shorts. This is during our major potty training push.)

 The boys discovered it was just as much fun to dip the balls into the paint and just slam them onto the driveway while still holding onto them.

 It made some pretty neat designs on the driveway.

 The boys also found that it was fun and interesting to splatter the paint with the paintbrushes.

 Likely the most fun of all, though, was dipping flyswatters into the paint and creating cool designs by swatting the driveway.

 What a fun morning!

Another fun Pinterest idea was filling pairs of balloons with various items (pinto beans, macaroni, flour, sugar, rice, oatmeal, etc.) If you enlarge the picture, you can tell by the flour on the boys' faces that they were active participants in using funnels to fill up the balloons. After all of the pairs were filled up, we mixed them together. Ian had to use his sense of feel to match up the pairs. It was fun and actually was a little harder than I might have thought (the macaroni and pinto beans felt very similar at first).

A huge highlight of the summer was having Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Jon and Ace live with us for about seven weeks. We also loved being a (small) part of their house-buying process by going to see a few houses along the way and providing feedback when they asked (and even sometimes when they didn't :)). Their realtor helped them find a really great place that's super close to our church. Since Uncle Jon was away at master's classes when they closed on the house, we were excited to get to help Chelsea start getting settled in their new place.

 On one of our last days of summer, the boys and I went to the children's museum. The boys stuck together during most of the trip to the museum and seemed especially excited this visit about burying dinosaurs in the rubber mulch, shopping at the grocery store,

 and making Lego creations.

 We also had the chance to spend some time with friends this summer. Most of the time, we didn't even take pictures! On this particular day, some friends invited us over for a playdate and lunch at their house.

Sammy, Carson, Caleb, Ava, Ellie, Ian

 Ryan was enjoying every bite of his cookie and didn't want to come over for the big-group shot. :)

 We enjoyed our time using our friends' playset as well!

I think we could've handled another few months of summer-mode! :)