Labor Day Weekend!

For Labor Day weekend we went camping with friends. We've done this since before kids so it's an annual tradition. This year we were able to start our adventure a day earlier since Michael didn't have a painting project on Friday.

First stop MCD's for lunch!


Next stop American Heritage Campground. One of the reasons I love this campground is it's just south of Tumwater so it's only about an hour and ten minutes from home.


While Daddy got the trailer (we borrowed it from Michael's mom and dad again) all set up the boys ran around the campsite.

On Friday it was down right hot so Michael took the boys in the pool. The pool was "heated" but was in the shade so it was a little chilly!

Ella and I watched from afar and walked around the pool over and over.

Then I she sat in one of these cute kids chairs they have.

By the time Owen wanted to get out he was shaking he was so cold. He didn't want to leave though...he just wanted to stay bundled up in his towel next to the pool.

When we got back to the trailer I pulled the keys that I had got out of Michael's pant out of my pocket and looked at them and then promptly said, "Michael why did you give me the wrong keys?" Yeah like I said....I had got them out of his pants pocket. Sometimes I wonder about myself! Anyways I did in fact grab the wrong keys...thankfully it was hot so I had opened all the windows. Still we ended up breaking a few little latch things to get the screen out so we could put Owen through the window. We tried to explain to him how to unlock the door, but he wasn't getting it so we just had him bring Michael his pants with the right set of keys in them.

After all that excitement Michael set out to build a campfire. He's been really into Dual Survivor this show on The Discovery Channel. A few weekends ago when we went to Mount Rainier he bought a metal match. If you don't know what that is it's a magnesium block that comes with a little knife. When you scrap the magnesium off it becomes very combustible so then you use the knife to make a spark and start a fire. Sound easy and looks easy on TV, but it takes a little practice. Michael got it after a few tries.

The boy enjoyed hanging around the fire drinking "juice water" and eating chips.

This picture reminds me of the first time we took Owen camping in 2007. Owen was only 8 months old and Ella is almost 7 months now.

Our friends arrived at the campsite later that night and it was crazy getting everything set up before it got too dark. During the next three days we did lots of sitting around the fire.

We had a squirrel that kept stalking our campsite. He kept walking on the picnic table and he actually ran behind Michael and touch his back. So I gave Grayson the job of making a sligshot to trying to spook the squirrel away.

Michael and Fred thought they should go bigger and better!

So using his Dual Survivor skills again Michael made a bow...

and an arrow!

That worked! He never actually shot the squirrel. He did shoot at it and got close, but thankfully the squirrel lived another day. He did leave our campsite alone after that! :)

Some of the other things we enjoyed while camping were...Taco Soup!!!

Smores with Nutella! Revolutionized smore making! Try it you'll love it!

Feeding goats! They are hungry animals!

Cute sweaters with hoods!

Playing on the seesaw!

Sliding crazy...it was a fast slippery slide!

Watching Toy Story outdoors! Hey they were sick!

Playing with toys in the trailer!

It was a wonderful time which is surprising to even type because I remember thinking at one time that we would never do this kind of thing with 3 small children, but really it was great. Even though they were sick there weren't any major meltdowns, they slept well and played nice. I can't wait for our annual camping trip next year!