Camping Trip 2010

Ben and I both grew up camping, but we haven't been since before Jarom was born. Camping while babies are little didn't sound like fun to us. So this was the year! Since we knew it would rain everyday in northwest AZ we decided to rent a camp trailer. We loved being off the ground, and the one day that it rained all afternoon, we were inside reading, playing games and watching a movie. We camped right off Black River and it was beautiful. We had our own path to the river with a little bank. The kids had fun walking up and down the river. The water was going pretty fast, so Thomas had to hold on to someone when he got in. The boys were so excited to fish, and we tried a few times in the river and at Big Lake. It was a pretty frustrating experience to everyone when lines get stuck, bait gets lost, lures disappear and mom and dad only have so many hands to fix the problems. In camp they practiced casting a lot and that wasn't as hard.

Packing to camp for a week felt like I had to bring the whole house with us. I thought I would forget tons of things, but between the six of us we thought of just about everything. Ben brought our camp stove to cook on and it was perfect. I felt like I had a chef, he cooked every meal for us. I loved the campfires, being all together, my king size corner of the camper, how beautiful it was, and watching the kids play in the water.

Jarom had accidently cut himself 10 days before and had 2 stitches in his arm. Ben took them out while we were camping. Jarom's favorite things about camping were sleeping in the camper- listening to the rain outside, swimming in the river, and fishing-especially watching Thomas try to fish.

Camille liked dad's food and the bagels, she had fun in the river, and she enjoyed having time to read.

Evan loved swimming in the river, fishing and waking up and seeing the bite out the bag of hamburger buns by a mysterious animal.
Thomas loved having his jacket on, swimming with Jarom, Camille, Evan and Thomas. Then he liked breaking a stick. (in his own words)

The second to last day we packed up the camper and drove to the ranch for the last night. It was great to be clean again! There was a huge storm coming in and we were glad we didn't have to wait the storm out camping and pack the next morning. This was a vacation we will all remember!

Garden Update

This is our tomato/pepper/herb bed. We got tons of tomatoes although the skins were a little tough. Basil plants went crazy.

I can't find the picture of the squash/potato bed I thought I took. It was huge! We also had hundreds of beetle like bugs that loved the squash plants. Our spagetti squash cross pollinated with our zucchini- so the spagetti had green stripes but tasted fine. Skins on the yellow squash and zucchini were tough if we didn't pull them when they were small.

Potatoes were fun to plant and delicious! The plants were pretty with dark green leaves, we will do those again.

When we bought our plants in February we wanted to do tomatillos, but couldn't find any plants only seeds. We planted them then forgot we did it. They took forever to come up. When we finished our lettuce and pulled the pea plants that didn't survive very far into the summer, the tomatillos finally started getting big. As you can see the plants are huge with tons of blossoms... but no fruit. This weekend we did see three little tomatillos, so we will see what it ends up producing. Little onions on the left.

On the right is our six month investment in asparagus- it keeps growing!

Our cucumbers were fun to do, but the little cucumbers hide. Then all of a sudden you look and they are bigger than your hand! This is the plant after we found the gopher holes in the bed, I wonder if it would have lasted longer if we didn't have gophers?

We made 10 or 12 quarts of pickles, half dill spears and half sweet chips. We might research different recipes for next time though. Yum!

When we found the gopher holes the kids pulled the rest of the carrots and we tried to flood the gopher out. We put the hose into the hole for at least 15 min and it never flooded the bed. So....I think we have some pretty deep tunnels under our yard! This weekend we found holes in our tomato bed. We will see what happens.

Summer Camps

Jarom went to Scout Camp this summer at Geronmino. He had a great time, he was a little worried about being gone so long, but all we heard when he got back was how fun it was. He earned 4 merit badges and raved about how good the food was. -we thought he wouldn't find anything to eat! He came home with a pocket knife he was very excited about.

He wrote us a letter towards the end of the week. His leader said his was by far the longest letter any of the scouts wrote, one page-front and back. It probably would have been twice as long if he had written neatly with spaces between words. He did say he missed us but was having fun.

I was able to go to Girls Camp at LoMia with my beehives this summer. We were busy, but found time to laugh and eat! All the girls got along and everything went really well.

I was asked to dress up as Deborah from the Old Testament and memorize a 3 min. script about her for the Women of Courage night. There were seven groups of girls rotating to hear about all the women being portrayed. It was challenging for me, but it was an incredible night. Another girls camp done!

Karate

Camille and Evan started in May taking Karate from the Rec center. I love the respect and responsibility it teaches them. Camille does find it hard to keep the smile off her face when she is yelling "ki-ya" and throwing kids to the floor. Both kids advanced to a yellow belt in June. Camille had too many other things going on so we had her quit in July, but Evan is still having fun doing it.

here they are in action-

Backtracking...

Piano recital- kids loved playing their recital songs- they all had them memorized. Last concert with Sis. Bowen teaching- Jarom and Camille really miss her!

School talent show- Camille decided on her own she wanted to play a recital song. She tried out and made it. She played perfectly in the performance!

Jarom's sixth grade class performed the evolution of dance for the school talent show. They had a blast learning it and did great. The cool shades were part of the show.

On their way to school on the last day! Ready or not, here comes summer!

Jarom had Mrs. Maas as a teacher for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. Jarom will miss her!