Copalis River RV Camping Trip - Day 3 & 4

On Monday, June 26th, we got up had breakfast and then hung around camp waiting for Michael to get back. 

The girls had fun being artsy. Anna had this cool clipboard that would open up and hold extra paper and her color pencils inside. It was so neat I ordered one for Ella just like it. 

The girls headed off into the wood to swing on the rope swing again. 

By this point some of the kids' thighs were starting to feel sore from gripping the rope. 

But that didn't stop them! 

Michael got back right around 11am. I was teaching the kids how to play Kings in the Corner. 

Here's was Anna's finished art project! She did such a great job. There are tons of birdhouses all around the campground. One of the residents there builds them and gives them away for donations. Last time we stayed here we got one and then we brought it home and either Ella or Zeke painted it. We planned to get another one this time. 

Around 12:30 we were at the beach at Ocean Shores. It was windy and very misty. In fact you could only hear the ocean you couldn't see it when we first got there. 

I had bought a kite at the store prior to coming out to the ocean. Michael was helping Zeke get the hang of it. 

There's just something so sweet about this picture. A daddy with his youngest! 

The girls had been out closer to the water posing. They decided to come in so Ella could use my phone. I thought they looks so cute running in! Once Ella had my phone they were off to pose for more pictures. 

Such sweet friends! 

They actually did a really good job showcasing their personalities here! 

Beautiful friends! 

I was freezing because of the wind, but after this picture Christina got me a picnic tablecloth and it was the best windbreaker. I was so nice and warm! 

Kids decided it was time to make sand sculptures. 

They were so creative! 

Caleb decided to make a mosquito...it's fly straight out of the sand. It was honestly quite impressive and hilarious! 

Back in the woods! 

Yippee! 

Exploring the shoreline by the river with an additional friend. The Kuch's neighbors just so happen to be camping at this same campground. They showed up on Sunday so we got to hang out with them for about a day. Their daughter Ellie was a part of the same Homeschool Choir so that's how Ella knew her as well. 

Biking around the campground. 

Not only are their birdhouses all over, there are also all sorts of cute garden sculptures and statues. They really do take great care of this campground. 

Sitting around visiting after dinner. 

Zeke and Caleb were having a really good time hanging out together. 

I'm so thankful that Caleb was so sweet to Zeke. 

Time to gather around the fire! 

Now that's a fire!!! 

The wood that came from the campground wasn't the best wood. It hadn't cured long enough so it was tricky get the fire to actually burn. Michael figured out the more weight and the more fuel the better. 

I was in heaven! 

Ellie parents came over and hung out around our fire too! 

It was fun getting to chat with Sue outside of the choir. 

Of course the kids needed to take care of their chores. I love that Ellie just jumped right in to help out the kids even though she didn't have too! 

Some of the best memories are make around a campfire! 

We stayed up until it was dark and all the wood had burned down. 

The next day, June 27th, it was time to pack up and head out. 

Of course the girls wanted to go on the rope swing until the very last minute. 

Ellie joined them...her Dad has a really nice camera so he walked out there and took these amazing pictures. 

The quality is so much better than the photos from our phones. 

Wish it had worked out where we were camping with the Armstrong's the whole time! 

One last climb in his ladder tree! 

On top of having bird houses for donation they also had these wooden stars. Zeke decided he wanted to have a star instead. Here he's showing me how he can make a shadow star. 

All packed up and ready to go!

Copalis River RV Camping Trip - Day 2

The 2nd day of our camping trip was June 25th....Pa's birthday! 

Since I was sure he was going to find out somehow I decided to give him his birthday present right away. Pa loves my sugar cookies that I make every year at Christmas. He is also really hard to buy for since everything he wants or needs he just buys so I figured why not just make him sugar cookies in June! He loved them!!! 

Since Owen and Jack were leaving later in the day the boys wanted to get as much play time in as they could. 

Addison just loves to play around with peoples hair, she had braided Ella's hair the day before so she braided Ellen's hair for her this morning. 

Ellen has some pretty short hair, but it was amazing how Addison could still braid it. She did a great job! 

After breakfast the Kuch's and Pa all decided to head into Ocean Shores to go to a church that Pa & all their friends used to come to every year they came out to Ocean Shores for Santa Al's birthday. Ga-Ga, Ellen and our family decided to stay back at the campsite. Prior to breakfast Ella wasn't feeling good and she ended up puking. She said she didn't sleep well that first night so we sent her back to bed. We ended up letting her sleep until about noon and then I woke her up. Thankfully she was feeling so much better.

While Ella was napping, Michael and I decided to go on a trek in the woods to see where the trails went. 

We followed a couple trails that led to dead ends. Then we decided to follow another one and it led us to the rope swing and amazingly no one was there. 

I decided to give it a shot. While swinging on the rope I was singing the Miley Cyrus song Wrecking Ball. It seemed appropriate right! The longer I swung though the more I started to slip and thankfully after a little begging Michael came to my rescue and helped me down. He of course got a video of the whole thing, but I won't be sharing that! ;) 

Of course he had no troubles swinging on the rope swing! 

Ta Da!!!! 

After we got back from our trek in the woods, we sat around chatting and then that turned to talking about music so we started bringing up YouTube videos of songs and singing along with them. It was so fun! 

When they all returned from church, we set up the sandwich fixings and everyone made themselves some lunch.

Fruit anyone! 

Sandwiches, chips and fruit....the perfect camping lunch! 

The girls went on a nice walk with Miss Christina after lunchtime! 

When they got back from their walk, we were sitting around the fire...with no fire...visiting. You can see Pa was having his afternoon nap. 

Just a minute or so later we decided to it was time for Pa to stop napping and open his birthday presents. ;) 

Ellen got Pa this cool sign that says 'Kneel for the Lord, Stand for the Flag'

Ga-Ga got Pa one of those handy electronic temperature gauges you can stick in your window. 

The kids bought Pa cards and wrote sweet things in them. Owen wrote that Pa was his best friend. It was so precious! 

The Kuch family didn't know/remember that it was Pa's birthday which was totally fine. They felt bad though so on short notice they decided to each go around and share some of the reason they love Pa and Ga-Ga too since they are a package deal. :) Such sweet words were spoken and even a few tears shed by more than one person. In a lot of ways those gifts are even better than the ones that you buy with money. It can be easy to go out and buy just any ol' gift, but taking the time to share how you feel about someone and how they have impacted your life can be very vulnerable not to mention sharing it verbally with them instead of writing it down on a card. I think we need to do that more! I feel like sometimes we wait to share those types of wonderful things until the people we love in our life are gone. Why not openly and freely share those things with them face to face while they are still here. It really was a great teaching moment for all of us really! 

After presents it was time for cake...Carrot Cake...Pa's favorite! 

While sitting there enjoying the festivities, Ella took some rocks and spelled her name! 

I really wanted to play this game with everyone and since Michael was going to head back that night with the older boys I knew we needed to play it that afternoon. 

We bought this game called Left Right Center Wild a while back and just started playing it recently. It is so fun! It honestly takes no skill...you just have to be able to roll dice. The game comes with tokens to use, but we like to up the stakes and use quarters. I didn't want to ask everyone to bring quarters so I just brought enough for everyone. 

Each person starts out with 3 quarters and over the course of the game those quarters move around from to the left, right or center...that's the pot...depending on what the 3 dice you roll land on. The wild part is where you can steal a quarter from someone. So I guess there is a little skill involved in that part. If you land on all 3 wilds you get the whole pot. That ended up happening to Jack this game and then everyone just picks on you and always steals from you since you have this massive pile of quarters. The thing I like about the game is even if you lose all your quarters you still have a chance to get back in. If the person on either side of you rolls correctly they could be giving you their quarters. 

As luck would have it, it got down to Anna and Pa and then Pa, on his birthday, won the whole thing! The whole game took about 30 minutes and it was so fun! We had people walking by the campsite just smiling at us because they could see we were having so much fun. In all we were able to fit 14 people around one picnic table and Pa went home with $10.50 in quarters. Actually he ended up putting them all in Ga-Ga's purse. Then the next day we drove into Ocean Shores and Ga-Ga was shopping and she couldn't figure out why her purse was so heavy....then she found the quarters. I don't know if Pa slipped them in there without her knowing or if he told her in passing and she just forgot, but $10.50 in quarters is a noticeable weight change in your purse! :) 

After all the excitement of almost winning $10.50 in quarters it was time for Anna to chill with her mom in the hammock! 

Now there's a fire! That's more like it! If I had my way the fire would be going the entire camping trip! 

After dinner it was time for the boys to head home. The next day Jack was starting his Fire & Emergency Summer Program at the Puget Sound Skills Center. Owen had to go home with him because Jack needed someone to drop him off at the high school so he could catch the bus and be there in the afternoon to pick him up. Plus I didn't really like the idea of Jack being home alone. 

Michael was driving the boys home and spending the night at the house, but then he planned to get on the road to come back out right after dropping Jack off at the bus the next morning.

At first we were a bit bummed about older boys not being able to stay the whole time because Caleb really enjoys hanging out with them and vis versa. Zeke and Caleb hung out together though and had a great time! 

My rule while camping is parents cook and kids clean! This mama does enough planning and preparation for the camping trip and then cooking on top of that so this mama isn't doing dishes. These kids did a great job working together to clean up!