Some Summer Stuff

True to our promise to camp more, we've been out several times this summer as a family and a couple of times with our friends, the Lindfords.  One particular evening, we headed out with the Linfords right as some heavy storm clouds began to gather.  Colt was a nervous wreak, and with good reason.  A pretty major thunderstorm broke out after we pulled into camp.  We left the kids in the vans and the adults attempted to start a fire to cook our dinner over.  Sitting in the front seat, Dash grabbed my phone and snapped the picture seen below.

Dash can be pretty tech savvy.  After taking this picture, he texted it to Brandan's phone with the caption, "Worst camping trip ever".  

 The rain storm wasn't the only rough patch in our trip.  About halfway to our camping spot, I started worrying that Sport had climbed in the car with only a pair of flip-flops on his feet.  If only I was so lucky.  I called back to ask what shoes he was wearing, when Dash announced that Sport had no shoes on at all.  Sport vaguely muttered something about it being Sissy's fault and then spent the rest of the trip barefoot.  I don't think he minded much, but now, instead of just telling the kids to go get in the car, I always specify that they should put on shoes, and then go get in the car.

It wasn't all rain clouds and sore toes though.  The weather cleared up and the kids spent the next day building forts out of partially burnt logs.

Dash and his friend, Isac, covered in ash, but feeling extremely accomplished.

 The kids haven't limited sleeping outdoors to camping trips only.  They've also spent a few nights on the trampoline.

Colt and Sport snuggled up and watching a movie before bedtime on the trampoline.

 Sissy doesn't get to sleep outside with the boys, but she finds other ways to hang out.

Breeze the Chimp

 There is a fun little pizza and ice cream parlor in Lyman and one Saturday in July we decided to ride our bikes into Lyman, have a picnic and then get some ice cream cones.  The total trip is almost exactly 12 miles.  Brandan pulled Sport and Sis in the bike trailer and sweet little Colt and Dash huffed and puffed up hills and into the wind without complaint.  They did fantastic.  I was so proud of them.

The kids at the park in Lyman where we stopped for our picnic.

 Our summers aren't all fun and games. (alright, mostly they are)  We really want to teach our kids some responsibility and money management, so we gave them each a school "bill".  In order to pay for the new school clothes and supplies, they need to earn money and then pay us their bill, $5 for Dash and $3 for Colt.  They've been working pretty hard trimming the edges of the lawn (with pairs of scissors), vacuuming and washing the van, scrubbing shower curtains and the like.  Then Brand decided to let them in to the "family business", wood working.  Brandan has been cutting down and carving walking sticks to sell on Ebay and he found that there is even a market for plain sticks of a certain size that are stripped of bark and dried.  So we took the kids to the hills and gave Dash and Colt a small saw to cut down small trees.  The boys took turns sawing away and then worked together to haul their trunks out of the woods and down the hill.  Then they used moderately dull knives to shave all the bark off the sticks.  (Disclaimer: I wasn't totally comfortable with the amount of sharp objects my children handled, but no one ended up bloody, so...) After their sticks were perfectly clean, they set them out on the back porch in the hot sun until they were nice and dry.  So far, they've sold one stick for $8.  They're pretty pleased.

While we were waiting for Brandan to finish cutting his sticks, the boys sat down and started working on their sticks while Sis and Sport played in a mud puddle.