Free Pool Table!

A couple months ago I was out in the backyard watering my garden when my neighbor Survey came over to chat with me. Survey is the sweetest guy. He's lived at his house since 1975. English is his second language so it can sometimes take us a bit to get our points across to each other. He asked me if I knew pool. I said yeah I know about pools. He said no...pool and I said yeah a pool. To which he said...no pool and proceeded to make the motions of playing pool. That's when I said oh you mean pool not a pool. He asked me if my kids liked pool and I said yes. We had just recently gotten back from Michael's family reunion in Oregon and the boys had such a good time playing pool at Aunt Vicki's in the garage. He then asked me if we wanted a pool table for free. I didn't even know he had a pool table. I told him that sounded great, but I'd need to ask Michael. While I was still watering the garden Michael came out and I told him about what Survey said. He went over to talk with him and check the pool table out. He said we'd take it.

At first we thought we'd clear out a place in the basement and put it down there, but the more we thought about it the more I was thinking it would actually be better to put it in the garage. For one thing the basement is unfinished and it gets very cold down there. The other main reason was the fact that I know the kids are going to argue and I did not want to be going up and down the stairs to the basement over and over. It also dawned on me that when the kids are older they will want to invite their girlfriends or boyfriends over to the house I do not want them in the basement. I wasn't sure what Michael was going to think about that especially since I just asked him if we could store the trailer down the easement in order to free up the garage. When I brought it up he actually said he'd been feeling the same way. Yahoo for being on the same page! 

 

Since we were getting the pool table for free, Michael thought it might be worth it to have pool table movers move the table for us. He found a company online and decided to call them. He figured if it cost a couple hundred dollars it would be totally worth it. Turns out to move it from Survey's first floor to our first floor which is less than 200 ft would cost us $1475!!!! Yeah....no that's a pass! 

After hearing that news, Michael got online and watched a YouTube video on how take apart and move a pool table. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we thought it would be worth a go. Michael talked with Violy, Survey's wife and set up a date for us to come disassemble the pool table. 

Saturday, September 5th we showed up at Survey's house around 10am. 

I hadn't see the table yet, but Michael told me it was actually in pretty good shape. He did read that once you take the table apart it's really wise to go ahead and put new felt on it. If you've already gotten the hard part out of the way....taking it apart it makes sense it to replace it. Plus the old felt will most likely get damaged so it's not worth trying to save it. 

The first thing Michael took off were the side bumpers and pockets. While he removed parts I took them over to the house. 

One thing we were eager to find out was whether or not the stone was one big slab or a multiple pieces. As you can see below...it was one big slab. We estimated that that slab weighed about 450lbs. 

I kept encouraging Michael to call some of his guys from work or even our neighbor Lance, but he wasn't having it. Darn guy just likes to do things without asking for help. 

He did borrow a furniture dolly from Chris at work. Look at Survey....he's out there in sandals moving a 450lb slab of stone. 

This was where things got tricky. The road slopes down towards our driveway and then our driveway slopes back up to the house. That's where the slab got stuck because the front end and back end were touching the ground, but the middle wasn't touching the furniture dolly anymore. That's when a neighbor we'd never met before just happen to be walking by and offered to help us.

Michael decided it would work if we used a traditional dolly and the furniture dolly together. He had me move the furniture dolly to the front side and the regular dolly to the other side and then the 4 of us worked together to lay it down on the two dollies. It was scary!!! 

We got the pool table legs on, positioned the table where we wanted it and then the 4 of us....Survey, Michael, our new neighbor John and I lifted the slab of stone up onto the table. 

Here's where we were after that first initial day. 

It was an exhausting experience, but oh so fun too! While Michael was busy taking the table apart I had been going online and spending money to make our new to us pool table everything we'd dreamed it would be. I ended up spending around $450. I got new felt, new pockets, a cover, a light to hang above the table and a billiard accessory kit that came with everything...balls, sticks, brushes...etc. 

The wood was in pretty good shape, but Michael thought he'd try to see if he could buff it a little to bring out the shine more. He used the same sanding pads he used for the kids' desks, but it didn't have any effect so he left it alone. He knew he was going to have enough work ahead of him already. 

A few days later on September, 8th we got to work refelting the table. Originally the table had this light brown colored felt. When I envision a pool table though I see standard green so that's what I got. 

I was worried about the fold lines in the felt so I was researching how to iron it. It totally freaked me out and I was sure I was going to ruin the felt. Thankfully Michael told me not to worry about it since he would be stretching the felt and it would pull out any wrinkles. 

Here it is after he stretched it and stapled it around the table. So pretty! 

When Michael said we were going to refelt the table I had no idea how we were going to do the bumpers. In the above picture you can see the little wood strip on the left side. That piece comes out, you then tuck the felt under it, you replace the wood piece and using a rubber mallet to bang the wood piece down into the channel it came out of. 

When you flip the felt over it looks like this. It's so cool! 

We then had to stretch the felt and staple it underneath. 

Here's the first bumper all finished. 

This is where we took a break on working on the table for a few reasons. One we were going camping and then two we ran into a snag in the process. We realized that the original pockets for the pool table were extremely small. When I ordered new pockets from Amazon I just figured they were a universal size. That is not the case though. Michael had finished all the bumpers and was trying to put the table back together and it was not fitting at all. It was so maddening. We had been working on it for hours when I finally pulled out the original pockets and we figured out that was why it wasn't fitting together properly. 

Here's the difference....new on the left...old on the right. They were the tiniest pockets. Since the first set of pockets I bought didn't fit I ended up sending them back. I tried to find smaller pockets and thought I had so I ordered them. They weren't any better. Then Michael decided that he were going to alter the pool table in order to make it so the bigger pockets would fit. The reason being even if we could find super small pockets like the original ones trying to actually shoot a ball into the pocket would be a nightmare. We wanted our kids to actually be able to enjoy playing and not end up getting frustrated over and over and not want to play at all. I had returned the second set of pockets since they weren't really the look I was going for and I ordered another set. Third times a charm right! 

While we were waiting for the new pockets to show up I talked Michael into doing other bits of work. At first I thought Survey was going to give us the light he had over his pool table but then he found out his son actually wanted it. No worries....I went online and found one. It wasn't actually a billiard light since those cost a couple hundred if not more. It's really for a kitchen island or peninsula, but I liked how it looked industrial and since our pool table was going in the garage it seemed fitting. 

Of course putting in a light can not be easy in our house. Michael was going to add onto the existing lights in the garage and of course once we opened up the existing lights there were some pretty weird things going on. It took a bit to figure out, but of course Michael did. He's a rockstar! He also had to go up in the attic above the garage in order to cut a hole right above the pool table for the new light.

 

The new light is amazing! I love the industrial vibe! 

It lights up the table so nicely! 

Now to fix the bumpers so the new pockets will fit. 

When we were stapling the felt onto the table we were using a regular staple gun, but once we started doing the bumpers it dawned on Michael to use the nematic staple gun. It made it go so much faster, however, when it came time for us to cut down the bumpers it made it difficult to remove the felt. Of course at the time we were putting the new felt on we never imagined that we'd have to remove it. We were also trying to be careful with the new felt so we wouldn't have to buy more. 

Michael took all sorts of measurements and figured out how much he needed to cut off each bumper. This was a bit scary since we had no idea if it would work and if it didn't how much it would cost to buy new bumpers or if the whole project would end up being a bust or not. Michael used the protractor I bought Owen for homeschool and measured the angle he needed to cut. He also taped all around where he was cutting. The part that gave him the most trouble was the front side of the bumpers....it's made of rubber so the balls can bounce off the sides and not damage the wood. When he was cutting that section the saw would jump on him. Scary stuff for sure! After a couple cuts he figured out which direction to cut it so it wasn't quite so scary. He did have to use his hand saw for the first cut since the rubber piece just wanted to move and tear with the miter saw. 

Measuring to make his cut. 

The new pocket fits perfectly! 

Jackson and I sat out in the garage watching Michael. We also drew up drawings for me to make him some BeyBlade display cases that will hold 25 BeyBlades each. I'm planning on making 4 of them. He already has over 70 BeyBlades. Of course Michael was shaking his head because here he is still working on one big project and we're already coming up with new ones. :) 

Looking good! 

Michael used C clamps to hold the bumper in place while he attached it to the table. 

All the bumpers and the pockets attached! 

It took Michael 2 days to cut all the bumpers to fit! It was such a relief that it was over and that it worked! 

Of course it wasn't totally finished since he still had to trim down the side decorative pieces and attach them, but that would happen on another day. 

On September 30th, the pool table was open for business. 

Michael always jokes that I seem to think that all these projects are SO easy. It's not that I think it's SO easy, it's that I know no matter what Michael encounters he will rise to the challenge. He will do what's necessary to figure out the problem and solve it. It's not necessarily easier for him to accomplish things, it's just that he's not the type of person that lets a problem get him down. 

One of the reasons I was open to having a pool table was because we were homeschooling. I knew that with the weather being as it is in Washington state there would be lots of indoor recess opportunities. I knew that it would be something that the kids could enjoy during those days. It's also something that will definitely grow with them. It's not going to be a toy they are finished with in a few months. 

We of course have had issues arise and kids have lost their privilege to play since there were so many disagreements. Thankfully one day Michael played with the kids and explained all the rules and since then we haven't really had any issues at all. If anyone does raise their voice they are automatically removed from the game. Also if someone makes a bad shot it's a bad shot...it happens there are no do overs...that's life. 

Since we were turning the garage into a sort of game room per se, I thought it was time to finally get around to fixing something we've had in our basement for years now....a Foosball Table! I saw it on the Des Moines FB Buy Nothing group and put my name on the comments and was chosen. The only thing was it didn't have any legs. 

I wish I had remembered to take a picture prior to cleaning it up. Like I said it had been in the basement for years. It was so dusty! I used the vacuum with the brush attachment to get most of the dust off. Then I used my Enviro cloth from Norwex to really thoroughly clean it. 

Another minor problem with the table was one of the scoreboards was missing and the previous owners kids thought it would be a good idea to use a Sharpie to keep score. :) 

You can see the new legs Michael attached in the above picture. He used simple 4 x 4's. 

If you look back at the picture of Michael with the pool table you'll notice that my Elliptical is on the other side of the table. That made it really hard to play on that far side of the pool table. I knew we needed to move it away from the table so it wouldn't impact the game. I had the kids help me move a few things from the garage down to the basement and that freed up this area in the corner for my Elliptical. I'm thinking I want to turn it around so I'm not staring into the corner when I go on it. I haven't actually gone on my Elliptical for months since Rachael and I were walking together at the track all summer. Since school started I wanted to get into a nice rhythm before I added something else to my plate. I'm also trying to figure out exact when I should use it. In the past I liked working out in the morning prior to getting the kids up for school. Then once they were off to school I would take a shower and get ready for the day. Now that I'm showering at night due to my allergies it seems silly to workout first thing in the morning and be sweaty all day. I suppose I could shower both in the morning and at night....not washing my hair of course, but that seems a bit much. The thought of working out right after dinner just prior to showering doesn't sound like fun either. I might have to give it a go though since I do want to get back in the habit of using it. 

Here's the area where the Elliptical used to be. As you can imagine it basically took up this whole space. Now with it being moved out of the way it makes this area so much more roomy. In order to prepare for the pool table Michael bought this handy organizer at Home Depot. It's very well constructed and has tons of storage. He isn't even using all the bins yet so there's plenty of room for future tools or hardware storage. We also chose to put his moveable workbenches in front of the garage door simply because we very rarely use that door and if we need to we can move them out of the way. 

Since we had a pool table and a Foosball table I had to buy a dart board. This was a cheap one...it's the plastic kind. I would love to get an electronic one someday, but those are spendy. This one was $34 on Amazon. We had this bulletin board laying around not being used so I had Michael mount it behind the board so the kids won't damage the drywall. Our billiard accessories kit came with the hanger for us to be able to hang up the new sticks. It fit perfectly right here. 

This is the corner where the Foosball table fit nicely. It's just far enough away from Michael's tool box on the left that out of the picture for him to be able to stand there, open drawers and get the tools he needs. It's also pulled out from the back wall enough where the kids can get on the other side to play or we can get back there to pull bins off the shelves and it doesn't prohibit the refrigerator on the right from opening all the way. 

Remember those Sharpie numbers....Michael taped off the ends and I sprayed them with black spray paint. I think it looks like it should have always been black on the ends like that. 

I spent about $85 in order to make our Foosball table top notch. I was thinking of putting new players on, but that is a whole long process so no thank you. The current players are not broken I was just thinking it would be fun to get some that were red and blue since I had found a scoreboard where one was red and one was blue. Since that was going to be such a hassle though, I just bought new black scoreboards instead. I also bought new end caps for each of the rods, silicone gel to lubricate the rods, a table cover and new foosballs that look like mini soccer balls. I wasn't sure if the silicone gel was going to do anything, but I applied it to the rods and now they move around like butter. It made a HUGE difference! 

Here's what the garage/game room looks like now. There's only one thing that Michael needs to do to make it 100% complete and that's to jack up the pool table and put on these adjustable leveling feet that I bought. The table is level right now, but not perfectly. It still leans just a hair towards the garage doors. He used a bunch of washers to level it since they're small and flat. This will definitely be a more precise way to get it level and it will be easier to adjust each individual leg to exactly the correct height. 

Now we just need to invite friends over and have game night! 

Oasis Camping Trip!

Early this summer when our camping trip to Deception Pass got canceled I immediately called up Oasis in Ephrata, WA. Michael and I have camped there many, many times just not with children. Of course they were totally booked up for the time frame I wanted in June so we booked a trip instead for September 11th - 15th. 

The same week we were supposed to go camping was when all the crazy wildfires started happening. I wasn't sure if it would be okay to go over the mountains, but Michael said we at least needed to try. No matter what we'd make an adventure out of it. 

We left on Friday, September 11th around 10:30ish in the morning. The weather by our house was fine at that moment, but all the smoke from the fires in California and Oregon was headed our way. 

It was so exciting getting to go over the mountains in our truck. We've dreamed of this for a couple years. The truck did fabulously and Michael actually commented on how he was having to hold the truck back because that baby just wanted to GO! Up in the mountains the smoke has this fun effect of making it so you could see the definition between the different hills. Normally it looks like one hill with a bunch of trees, but with the smoke it really accentuated the depth between the hills. It was actually quite pretty! 

Our plan was to stop in Cle Elm for lunch. We knew they had a nice Burger King there that we could go to, but our bad luck from the prior camping trip was still hanging on. That Burger King was closed down! Off to MCD's we went. Of course the drive thru was too tight for the trailer and the inside was closed. I ended up having to download the MCD app, order our food and wait by the parking spot that I indicated we were in since for obvious reasons we couldn't pull the truck and trailer into the parking spot! Good grief! It took quite a while to get our food, but it all turned out okay.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and actually it felt like it wasn't nearly as long as I had geared myself up for even though it was about 4 hours travel time to get there. 

When I got out of the truck to go check in I noticed that the ladies in the office didn't have masks on. I was holding mine, but once I saw that I was so excited! I actually told both of them it was so nice to see their smiling faces! We barely wore masks at all the whole trip and it was divine. 

We got camp all set up and Ga-Ga & Pa came to visit. They were staying down the road at the Best Western. I decided instead of going to the store prior to the trip I'd just buy the few things we needed at Walmart once we got there. With Ella in tow, Ga-Ga & I were off to Walmart. While we were there I noticed that Walmart had a trampoline for only $198! I had been trying to find one for the kids, but none of the Walmart's within 50 miles of home have one and everyone selling the exact same one I found at Walmart in Ephrata wanted over $350 for them on Offer-Up! I was so excited, but I didn't buy it because I wanted to talk with Michael about it first. 

That first night for dinner we decided to support local and got dinner at DK's Drive In. I ordered the food online and Michael and Pa went and picked it up. It's was SO yummy and the milkshakes were amazing! 

We rode bikes over to the office to check out the pool and we found out it was closed. I was so bummed! When I had called to make the reservations I had specifically chose this weekend as it's the last weekend that the pool is open according to the person I talked with. Unfortunately the pool was never able to open due to Covid. This was a major bummer since Michael and I had plans to golf with the older boys and we had hoped that Ga-Ga & Pa could hang out with the Ella and Zeke at the pool to keep them busy and they wouldn't feel left out from golf. 

That first night we didn't have the propane hooked up so we didn't use the heat, but the next day I had Michael hook it up. Once it started to get dark it cooled down in a hurry. 

Saturday, September 12th....Golf Day!!! 

Oasis has a 9 hole par 3 golf course and it's just perfect to learn on. Plus you can pay for all day golf and go as many times as you'd like. All day was only $15 for us and $12 for the boys. 

As you can see it is a little bit smoky, but it wasn't terrible. When we reserved for September the guy on the phone said they have the best weather with temps around 79. The week prior we were checking the weather and it was showing 90+ for temps. In actuality because of the smoke it barely got warmer than 65 most days. Of course we had packed clothes for warmer weather and basically ended up wearing the same clothes the whole trip since it was so chilly out. 

These boys LOVE golf! This makes Daddy very happy! This makes Mommy very nervous since golfing isn't cheap! :) 

Ga-Ga & Pa took Owen and Jack to the Farmer's Market & Starbucks so Michael and I took Ella and Zeke to play mini golf. 

The mini golf course is definitely in need of repair, but it was still loads of fun for the kids. 

The funny thing was later during our trip, Michael took the kids into the woods to go searching for golf balls and they ended up finding the old mini golf graveyard back there. I hope they'll be throw this one back there soon. Although since mini golf only costs $5 a person I highly doubt it will change anytime soon. The last full day of our trip the kids asked to go into the woods by themselves to search for balls. They ended up finding 31 balls...the day before they found 27 with Michael. Needless to say we came home with a lot of extra balls.  

This right here is the pond next to our campsite. This was our saving grace since the pool was closed. No, not because the kids went swimming in it...ewww! No...it had turtles and frogs in it and it kept Ella and Zeke busy for hours and hours! 

Side Note: This is also the pond that Michael swam out into to rescue an orange kitty that we named Pumpkin. She was so sweet and we loved on her for about a day and then she took a turn for the worst. We ended up taking her to a local vet that dealt more with horses than cats, but he told us that Pumpkin had feline leukemia and she wouldn't make it. Michael and I both held her as he put her to sleep. It was one of the hardest things we've had to do and we were both bawling like babies. I can still picture in my mind our huge tears hitting the stainless steal table that she was laying on. 

Here's our awesome campsite. It's site 69 and it's right across from the bathrooms. It's also right next to the pond and set back from the site in the right if this picture. Plus the 4 sites to our left are tent sites only and the majority of people who were camping were in RV's so those sites were empty thus making it a giant grassy area the kids could play on. 

The kids used the grassy area to practice their golf swings and hit balls back and forth. It was so nice not having to worry about them hitting into the next campsite. 

My boy who loves to camp, but also loves to read! 

Ella loves to practice her writing skills! 

She also loves to show off her writing skills! 

Ga-Ga bought this giant box of chips for the trip and the kids love it. I brought one to our camping trip at the ocean too. I believe that we only ended up bringing home a few bags of Cheetos. 

Ella Grace loves her Daddy. She also is never cold! I would be freezing if I was wearing shorts and a tank top! 

These two had some serious fun together on this trip! 

I wore these same Capri pants the whole trip since the only other thing I brought were shorts! It was no where near warm enough to wear those! See Owen's shoe being roasted...his foot sunk in a hole when Michael took the kids fishing. 

Speaking of fishing...Michael took the kids to the fishing pond that's on the property. There were signs up saying there was no fishing after Labor Day, but we asked and that didn't apply to guests. I thought the kids would love it since they had hours and hours of fun fishing up in the Big Horns in July. No such luck though. There weren't really all that many fish....the pond is stocked in the spring so it had been picked clean almost. Then Owen's shoe got all wet and that was that....he was done! They only fished the one time. There was an injured bird at our campsite that Owen tried to feed the worms to. 

Using that Road Trip grill again! This thing was worth every penny and really it wasn't that expensive! 

Later that day, Ga-Ga & I went back and bought the trampoline. When we first went shopping there were 3 of them, but when we went back there were only 2 left. I had talked with Michael about it and at first he thought there would be no way we could fit it in the truck with all the kids bikes. I told him it was basically a the size of a giant Christmas tree box so then he felt okay getting it. I thought that Ga-Ga & I would be able to just pull the box off the shelf and into the cart, but NO WAY! I couldn't even budge it. I had just asked an employee a question, he was so helpful I decided to track him down again and he helped us. He got a flat cart, loaded it up and took it to the customer service desk and put it under my name. After I paid for it the lady there said she'd help us out by herself and that's when I told her how heavy it was. She was really surprised and asked another lady to help us. It was hilarious really. I had visions of Ross from that Friends episode yelling..."Pivot!" because one lady couldn't lift the box high enough to get it up on the tailgate of the truck. We finally just shoved it over and rolled it on it's side. Right after we got it in the truck one of the guy workers came over and was like...why didn't you ask me! It would have been so nice to ask him, but we didn't see him. He did get the box all straightened out and push back in the bed of the truck. 

September 13th was an explore day! 

I wanted to take the kids to Dry Falls and have some educational experiences. Unfortunately the smoke had other plans for us. 

It was really bad, but we made the best of it! 

Dry Falls is behind them, but you can't tell at all! 

Cute kiddos! 

Standing out on the lookout! It was a bit freaky being out there, but heights aren't my favorite thing! 

It would have been so fun to see it without all the smoke! 

Of course the kids saw these binoculars and wanted to use them to lookout. At what....smoke!!! :):) 

The Visitor Center was closed of course, but at least they had some information boards we could read. 

At the campground they gave us a brochure that talked about things to do in the area. I read about the Lake Lenore Caves and thought those sounded like fun. After not being able to see Dry Falls I was hoping this one would be a win. Ga-Ga & Pa just hung out in their car while we went on this adventure. 

The smoke was still bad, but at least we could see where we were going. 

The beginning part of the trail up to some stairs was paved which was nice. This was the only time during our hike where my chest was burning. It probably wasn't the best time to go hiking, but we had to work with the hand we were dealt! 

Here's the view looking out. I'm sure it's normally way more amazing than this, but even still it was pretty! 

You can see our vehicles over there in the parking lot! When we pulled in there was one other vehicle...we saw the family that was hiking go by on another trail. Other than that it was just us! 

The rocks were so cool! 

When I read about caves I was thinking more like the Ape Caves down by Mt. St. Helen's, but these aren't those types of caves at all. Which duh...now that I think about it of course they wouldn't be the same. The Ape Caves were made by lava. These types of caves are created most likely from erosion and the rocks just breaking apart and falling away. 

The landscape was so cool! We live in such a fun state! 

Even though it was smokey and the heat from the sun wasn't coming through I got all sweaty from the climb. 

This cave was pretty big! 

The rock formations were just so out of this world! 

Jack found his throne! 

The overhang was a little freaky. I was just praying there wouldn't be any earthquakes. 

There was even this bunker type situation that some previous visitors had built. It was a bit difficult to get down in there, but the kids tried. 

Even though the caves weren't exactly what I had envisioned we had so much fun exploring. 

If I were to hike the caves again I'd make sure to wear shoes with better soles. I didn't even think about it and just wore my slip on tennis shoes. Good running shoes or hiking boots would definitely had been better with all those pointy rocks. 

The sun was trying it's hardest to shine through all that smoke! 

The coolest landscape! 

There was one GIANT cave! 

Another Lyndsay had been there too. 

Fun fact...in middle school I toyed with the idea of spelling my name differently. I thought it would be fun if it was spelled LynZ. Thankfully I changed my mind. 

Michael and the kids were venturing into the cave thats not quite pictured in the lower right hand corner of the above shot. The smoke sure makes it look even more out of this world. 

I decided to stay up top while Michael and Jack headed down. 

Shortly after Owen and Zeke followed suit. 

Ella Bean was going to stay up with me.

Then she saw that her brothers were doing something fun and she didn't want to miss out. 

Off she went! 

I thought it would be fun to walk around and stand on top of the cave.

Here's the view from the top of the cave...oooohhh....aaaahhhh. LOL!

 

Here's the view from down below in the cave! Way more impressive! 

After that big cave the trail pretty much ended. You could have hiked further, but we were tired and almost out of water. 

When we got back down to the parking lot we took the obligatory picture by the sign. 

Because of all the wildfires and the fact that it was supposed to be so hot we didn't even bring any wood with us. The first night we saw other sites had fires in their fire pits and found out as long as the fire was in a contained pit they were still permitted. The next day Pa went and bought some wood for us. The folks in the campsite next to us came up and offered us their leftover wood which was so nice. Pa did end up buying another batch of wood though so we could keep the fire burning.

The kids were so excited that we got to show Ga-Ga & Pa the fun color changing fire that we experienced with the Kuch's out at the ocean. 

All throughout our trip Ella and Zeke had so much fun catching frogs. They even started naming them. 

They were so sweet to the frogs and very careful not to hurt them. 

It was so crazy how the coloring of the frogs differed so much. It made it much easier for the kids to distinguish between the frogs. 

A boy and his frog! 

On our last full day it was so cold! I didn't even want to come out of the trailer. In fact Ga-Ga, Ella and I stayed in there playing a game for a while. 

Later I couldn't stand being inside anymore so we sat down at the picnic table and played Catan. 

Michael took the boys golfing more and we sate around the fire pit chatting and watching YouTube comedians. It was SO cold we all had to bundle up. 

It was just so crazy that we were excepting 90+ degrees and it was barely 60 degrees our last full day of camping. 

Ella only brought sandals and flip flops for the whole trip. She hiked in the caves and ran around in the coolish weather all with no real foot protection. Crazy girl! 

Since we couldn't go swimming, fishing was a bust and all the smoke made it difficult to see we had to make the best of a bag situation. It can be super fun sometimes to get really bored because you learn about skills you never knew you had...like spelling your name using pretzels! 

I am so proud! :) 

Joking aside....it wasn't exactly what we had pictured when we envisioned our camping trip, but we made the best of it. What has actually turned out the way we expected this entire year?!?!?!

On our way home the smoke was crazy nuts. In fact I think the smoke was less over in Eastern Washington so it was actually a good thing we were east of the mountains. 

Once we unpacked the trailer, I started laundry and then decided it would be fun to get the house all decorated for fall. It's my most favorite season! 

Every year it's our goal to camp at least 4 times with the trailer. This year we were only able to use it 3 times, but that's pretty good with the crazy year it's been. Hopefully next year we'll actually meet our goal!!!