Friday, July 30, 2010

Splish Splashin'


Who doesn't love a GOOD water fight?
Most certainly each of the Elmer kids do, I usually have to change their clothes several times a day. And often the water play extends to the sand box. They love it, but it does make for gritty floors and excellent pictures...


It's always a fight to see who will gain control of the hose, but sometime the big kids are nice to the pesky little brother and let him douse them. He loves it!

Even when you don't officially have control of the hose there is always the ability to SPIT water on your opponents.


A little sword fighting, this kept them entertained for so long!

After a long day of water play there is not much better than finding a quiet place to chat with your best friend.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Camping at Priest Lake


Seeing as this is the last real weekend before the WEDDING we decided to go on a camping trip, and being the wise woman that she is, my mother-in-law decided the best kind of camping for a family with babies is cabin camping. So we reserved a cabin 20 ft. from the lake and had ourselves a ball. Get ready for picture overdose...

The first night we got there kind of late, but the kids were dying to swim, and surprisingly the water wasn't too cold. Miles loved it, he even floated around with his floaties by himself for a bit!


Porter and Bennett promptly found sticks to play with. Sticks always seem to be a favorite toy for my kids, sticks and rocks.



Miles was just too cute with his little grins, floaties, and Buddha belly.

You would think Porter had never had so much fun. You gotta hand it to him, he's one enthusiastic kid. And incase you were worried Maya's lips are blue from the ring pop. Not from the cold.

Even blue lips couldn't stop her from smooching her Poppa.

They babies did eventually get cold, so I walked them back up to the cabin and Casey stayed and played with Porter and Maya a little longer.

On the way back we found this really cool old firetruck, so I had to get a few pictures with Bennett by it. I really wanted to do a family picture with us all, but we filled the memory card on our camera, and as if that wasn't bad enough we ran out of batteries before we could do it... sigh

That night we got some really cool pictures of the scenery. It was super pretty there. Oh, I love vacation!

Thanks to Casey for taking at least one picture of me...I guess my kids will be able to see what I looked like when they were younger.

Jeff and Peggy brought their two kayaks and the kids LOVED those things. They were so fun, and after one trip with an adult they were paddling around on their own like little pros. They kept playing this water rescue game where they would paddle around pretending to rescue people. Too Cute!

A little fishing. Porter was the only one who caught anything, but Bennett liked carrying his "fishing tag" around and reeling it in. He also liked playing with his little boat.


Miles just lounging on the beach.

It wasn't a sandy beach, but instead it had pebbles all over. It was a little rough on our feet (if only we would have brought water shoes), but it was really nice because when you got in the water it was really clean feeling instead of sludgy.

Quite the duo.


Grammy is a water dog. She was always swimming or kayaking. I think Casey must have gotten his love of swimming from her, Jeff on the other hand only got in the water once the whole time (he may have taken more than one nap though).


Bennett was pretty brave. We didn't get any pictures (due to the previously mentioned dead battery), but on day two we rented a boat and the Elmer's bought a big hot dog that you sit on and pull behind the boat. Bennett LOVED that thing. Maya did too until we flipped over, then she was just cold. Porter was cautious.




I spent most of my time sitting on the dock. Too fun.



Miles fought against his life preserving devices. He was a good sport about the floaties, but he DID NOT like his life jacket.

Porter running from place to place. He rarely slows down.


Fishing for rocks

Everyone looks funny in goggles.


He found a Jeigermiester bottle and though it was so so so cool. Especially after Casey explained to him about people sending messages in bottles.






Maya is quite the little dancer. She's been taking a hip hop dance class at the YMCA and she really likes it (until about half way through the class). I'll catch her doing some of her dance moves sporadically. She really likes a move called the pony where you pretend to lasso while hopping from foot to foot. She did the pony while riding the hot dog:)