Summer has been busy so far

It's been a while, I know. We have just been hit with a whirlwind of events and just being plain busy.

A and K officially finished elementary school. So they will be starting at the middle school at the end of August. They are very excited. A can't wait to try out for the track and field team. She is the fastest girl in her school and the 2nd fastest kid all together.

School ended June 11th, we had 3 days off to relax and then all the girls started VBS (vacation bible school). E and J are even going this year. They are all having so much fun. We've had a neighbor kid coming with us too.

E and J were a little reluctant to go at first but are now loving it. They have latched on to one of the teenage volunteers and they just love her and talk about her all day long. This is their very first experience with any type of "school-ish" setting. They have always been home with one of us so I was worried how they would take it. Their first day was awful, they cried so much I was called back 30mins later to get them. But, forutnately the rest of the days were just fine.

I was glad when they setteled into their VBS class, because I was taking the womans bible study class that is provided during VBS hours. I was really looking forward to going to this class. The subject just called out to me and I knew that God was trying to tell me something. The class has been wonderful. I felt like this class was just for me. I have met some very wonderful women and have decided to start going to church again and brining my girls. I would love to attend the church where the bible study is being held but it's a bit far so I think I will be visiting one a little closer to home. I am quite nervous since I don't know anyone and I'm shy and I haven't been an regular church goer for some years now. I feel now like I'm being led to make sure my children are learning about God and knowing him. So if you pray, please pray for me and my courage.

This Thursday is our last day of VBS and then we get 3 weeks to relax before we head out to Arizona.

CAMPING!!

We left Friday to Memorial Park in Loma Mar, CA kinda near Half Moon Bay. It was a 30th Birthday camping trip for my friend Danielle. This was also E & J's first tent camping trip. The drive there only took us 1 1/2 hours. This is by far the shortest distance we have ever gone to go camping.

I'm always amazed at all of the stuff you (think) you need to bring camping. We only had 4 of the 5 girls this weekend so we removed one of the center seats in the van to have a little more room. It was still packed. Our rooftop bag was packed, the trunk was packed and the inside of the van was so packed the kids were burried upto their necks. With all of the people in our family, I think we need a trailer, becuase Mini-vans are definately lacking in the cargo storage department.

After about a week of getting stuff ready to go & a blissfully short drive, it was time to set up camp. We had two tents this time. E & J stayed with Adam and I and K & A were going to be in their own tent next to ours.

Here is my very first encounter with a Banana Slug. I'd never seen one before. The kids went to science camp in January and learned a song about Banana Slugs so of course they had to sing it.

The finally finished tent. Our tent was dubbed the Taj Mahal of camping. I think it's our very comfortable looking bed. And it is pretty comfy for an air mattress. In fact, E and J were a little weirded out by sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags on our floor, so they ended up sleeping on the air mattress with Adam and me. It kept us very warm (it was freezing outside) but also a little cramped.

The little girls loved being in the tent. They loved camping.

Scooters. We didn't bring our scooters because if we did, we couldn't have brought the children. Luckily D and J brought their boys' scooters. And thankfully the boys were nice enough to share.

This was A's favorite part about camping. She was just flying down those hills, in fact J can't stop talking about going camping again and the scooters.

Hot Chocolate time at our campsite was a big hit. All the kids came over for some yummy warm chocolate.

A, E & R look happy about it.

E even sang us his hot cholate song from Polar Express, something like,

"Here, we only got one rule:

Never ever let it cool!

Keep it cookin in the pot!

Soon, ya got hot choc-o-lat!"

That's how R said it too. I want hot chco-o-lat! So cute.

I learned as long as you are camping and it's cold, 11 am is not too soon to start drinking wine. D, M and K are here to prove that, they even have camping wine glasses!

This, is a centipede. I think

Night time was fun. We roasted marshmallows. E and K are bundled up near the campfire. Night time was sure cold.

And, of course D the birthday girl.

E loved roasting marshmallow's. In fact that's all she wanted to do with them. The would light them on fire and watch them burn into nothing. J, on the other hand would pretend to put them in the fire and then quickly eat them.

K roasting away.

E and all the other kids were racing their cars down the road hills. A couple of our diecast cars got run over by big cars passing through. When a car was coming we had to hurry and try and get the toys out of the street so the car could drive by. There weren't too many cars so that was good.

Ah, trying to sleep in while camping is not usually an easy thing to do. I think the thought that as soon as he gets up he has to repack the car he just packed two days ago was discouraging him from moving. hehe

K took a picture with me and the giant redwood trees.

Me and my hubby.

We packed the car back up, for some reason it seemed like less room then the first time we packed. And, we had less stuff to bring home. I don't understand. All of the kids had a blast. We had fun too. I hope we can go camp again this summer. It sure is fun for everyone.

I don't know how I ended up with more pictures of E and K, maybe they were just more hamish than J & A.

For a more complete camping photo album you can go to this link and see them all:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023592&id=1043624689&l=dd8da48ac2

PS: I can't figure out how to name the links yet