God and Country Rally

I took Morgan and Lydia to the God and Country Rally in Nampa, before Independence Day. I thought it would be fun to see the fireworks with them. I undertook this alone, and, I'm not gonna lie, it was, at times, stressful. There were hoards of people, and Morgan is wandery. So, when we first got there, around 8:30, before finding a place to sit on the grass, I told Morgan he could choose one treat from any of the vendors.
I picked a shaved ice.
Morgan chose bottled water. What a crazy kid. Oh, and I bought the water, the took my money, removed and confiscated the lid, and then handed it over. Wonderful. Now I have to worry about my $3 water spilling everywhere. Lids were not allowed in the event.
So, we sat, did some people watching, and waited for the sun to set. The musicians weren't too bad.
Morgan got a fireman badge sticker from some firemen.
I pulled out some suckers that I brought.

We waited.
Western Idaho has late sunsets. It's not completely dark until after 10:00. But it's dark enough around that time to do fireworks. But they didn't.
The glowsticks appeared though. I bought one for Morgan.

Lydie started to get really fussy.
Morgan had to go potty. I kept telling him to just wait until after, because I didn't want to miss the fireworks. And I didn't want to lose our spot of grass. So he wiggled uncomfortably, thanks to his choice of treat, as we waited and waited.
They started the fireworks at about 11:00. They were alright.

The parking lot, or course, was a mess. And then the detours took me in the opposite direction from home. But we eventually made it home around 12:45.

Ribbit

Our last day of camping, Christine and I took the kids for a little walk to the river. On the way there, we saw a little tiny pond where spring run off had gathered. And where frogs had gathered. There were kind of a ton of them!
Christine caught one.
The kids were fascinated by it.
They all took turns holding it. First Emmy.
Then Morgan.
Then Kaien.
And kind of Ammon.
We made our way on to the river where we crossed the bridge. What is more fun to little kids than throwing things into river water from a bridge?


I remembered one more of the funny prayers that Morgan said. This one is a longer anecdote.
One night, I had Lydia asleep earlier than usual, and Morgan awake later than usual. I put Lydia in her little playpen bed, swaddled in multiple blankets, with another one or two thrown on top. (It got cold!)
It was full dark when I took Morgan in there to get him to bed. I turned my back to him for thirty seconds while I arranged his bed, and when I turned back around, Morgan was IN the playpen, standing ON TOP OF Lydia! Needless to say, I yanked him out of there in a hurry, and whisper scolded him. "What were you doing?!" "Why would you stand on your baby sister?" "That is NOT okay!" And such. I was not happy with him. But Morgan did a classic Morgan thing to do, and kind of shrugged it off, like it was no big deal, and I was blowing things out of proportion. Seriously. You should see the expression this four year old makes to communicate these things. He was very nonchalant about the whole affair.
So it's a good thing I get to see into his precious heart when he prays. Otherwise I would never have known.
"Heavenly Father, I'm sorry I stepped on Lydia. I didn't know she was there. That was very bad. Help me not to stand on Lydia anymore."
Ah. All is forgiven. I didn't know he didn't know she was there. He didn't bother telling me. He also didn't tell me he was sorry. *sigh*
Oh, and, good news. Apparently, being swaddled in three blankets, with another one or two thrown on top, not only protects you from the cold, but also from the weight of busy pre-schoolers. Lydia didn't even wake up! Amazing.

Around the campfire

Just some pictures around the campfire. This night was particularly cold. I think this was the night that got down to 30 degrees. (The lowest we checked.)

I was taking a picture, and Casey stuck his hand in front of me. The result is mighty strange. Looks like his hand is burning.
Mom, hiding in her camo.
Stephanie holding my Lydie.
And...getting her to sleep for me. Score!
I was there too.


The ever elusive Casey, caught on camera.Dad doing his own photographing.
S'more face.
Whew! That went better than could be expected. Upload speeds are awesome tonight! I could usually only do up to two pictures at at time, and that would take forever. But this time I could barely write a caption on one picture before the next set was uploaded. Nice! Makes me more motivated to blog more.
But later. It's almost 11:00, and I am SO SO tired. I have early work, and haven't been compensating my early mornings with early bedtimes, and it's really catching up with me.

Cute and Dirty Faced Close Ups

This one is my favorite. Those eyebrows!
Goofing off in the tent.



Showing off his dirty face AND hands.

In the tent

Here are some pictures in the tent. Morgan got SO dirty every day.
Lydia sometimes napped in the tent. I brought her playpen and had it in there.
I tried not to let her on the ground much at all while camping, except in the tent. She loved the brief moments of freedom. And she found entirely too many things to put in her mouth.
Morgan had his little bed in the corner, and was quite fond of it.

Morgan says some pretty awesome prayers. It's always a hoot to hear what he'll say. I'll tell you some of the prayers he said while camping.

The first night there, he was so so excited. In his prayer, he told Heavenly Father that we were camping, and he was so happy about it, then he suddenly said, "I like it in in heaven. Do you like it in heaven, Heavenly Father? Well? Do you? Yeah? Oh, okay."

Another day he said "Please help me not to touch any pokey plants and die."

Another time he said, "Please help me not to listen to the bad guys."

It seems like there were more while camping, but that is all I remember right not.

Hike

This has taken forever for me to post. I have so many things to blog, but little time to do it, and with irritable computers.

Anyway, we did a fun hike with everyone. Except party pooper Casey.
It was a lovely trail.
Walking sticks were a must for the kids. I MUST HAVE ONE!

The hike started with Lydia on my back in this baby carrier deal. Also, I want to draw attention to my french braid. I did it myself, and am half proud of it, and half embarrassed. So, I want to point out that it looks so bad because I did it myself, and with no mirror, but I also want to brag that I did it myself and with no mirror!
Anyway, Lydie thought the hike was so serene, that she just fell right asleep.
So, on the way down the mountain, I had to switch her to the front so that I could lean back to keep my balance, and because it was more comfortable for her.

Look at all the cameras.
There are almost too many grandkids for this to work.


There was a little stream to play in.


Anyway, there. I'm finally done with that post.

What is camping without fourwheeling?

My dad always takes his 4 ATV's camping with us. This year he got a new trailer thing to haul things with. Kids included.


All the kids always want to have a ride. If one kid goes, they all clamor for a turn. Sometimes at the same time.

Hot Springs

We camped near Baumgartner, which is a campground with hot-springs. They even have a pool which is fed by the spring. So, don't go there in the afternoon heat, and expect a nice, refreshing, dip. It was too hot for me to stay in for very long. I just got too overheated.

Anyway, we went to the pool a few times. The kids really liked it.

Lydia was cute in her swimming suit. You could see all the rolls on her chubby legs!

And a close up.
Sittin' in the pool. Sorry about the blurry photos. I had turned the flash off of automatic, to off, and forgot to change it back before handing the camera over to my mom.

We went in the evening for the picture above, and early afternoon, I think, for the pics below. Can you notice a difference in the water cleanliness? They drained it every night.




One time, my sister really wanted to take her kids to the pool. But that made all the other cousins want to go too. But none of the other adults were up for it at that point. So, brave Stephanie agreed to take all 7 kids, aged 2-7.
The pool several miles from our camp. Stephanie only made it about 2 when her car got a flat tire. So she stopped and walked back to camp on the dusty road, in the heat, with all the tired and whiney children. We just thought they were having a good time at the pool! Oops.