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Carter wants to sleep in his sleeping bag – on the floor – every single night lately.  I can't imagine it is that comfortable but he loves it.  Funny little guy.  

After contemplating many ideas for a family vacation this summer, we couldn't think of something everyone would enjoy more than a trip to our favorite campsite.  And we were right.  

Nate had the fun idea to get a cool camping thing for each kid, and had them hold their hands out and close their eyes while he passed them out… he teased Zach by putting a big stick in his arms, and this was his reaction when he got his long-awaited swiss army knife.  :)

whittling soap – a huge hit!  and so awesome that the younger kiddos were perfectly fine with their plastic knives and that zach got to use his new pocketknife.  

Meg's face looks like this the whole trip, and everyone loved the night hikes with dad!  

Day 2:  off on a hike around the lake, with a quick stop to find the quarter we hid on the trail last year!  

And then we took a detour… for a beautiful view of the lake.  Of course, that wasn't high enough for anyone involved, and up we climbed… until they left Meg and I behind to wait while they climbed to the thing between the two pine trees as a "destination." 

Finally Meg and I got tired of waiting, and went up to see what they were doing:  

Awesome.  

View from the "destination."

And our best attempt at a family picture:  Meg grabbing my face and Carter crouching down out of the picture.  

As usual, the phone/camera died and we have no documentation of the super fun day we spent on the rafts on the lake the next day, the gliders that kept getting lost in the weeds, the horseshoe tournaments, the hikes with the walkie-talkies, and the lanterns that were Meg's favorite part of the trip (although hers only worked for about 10 minutes).

Couldn't imagine a more fun family trip!  

It was really great to go hang out at scout camp with Zach and the boys.  Great to watch them shoot arrows and BB guns and great to hike in the cool of the evening.  

It was not so great to get pulled over on the way home.  (Although it was funny to hear all the boys talk about their moms getting pulled over…)

It was great to go away from it with only a warning about not making complete stops (don't think I made a complete stop in the 10 years I lived outside of UT, since no one ever cared!) and another warning to immediately get a UT drivers license.  Almost 35, and still ticket-free.  :)

The sponge fights were awesome.  (Seriously, super fun.  Even for me.  We laughed so hard.)  I do think the neighbors may have thought we were crazy…

And we let Carter add his own parmesan cheese to his dinner… well, if you open the wrong side of the cap you get "parmesan cheese world".  Which was less awesome than the sponge fights.  (But still pretty funny…)

Every once in a while, a FHE turns out great.  This one had us all laughing, Nate didn't fall asleep, and the kids talked about it for days.  (Did I mention it was planned during dinner and adapted mid-game?) That's the magic of Bamboozle… 

We got a too-good-to-pass-up invite to a lunchtime hot dog roast when my dad and brother were working at home one day…

Carter was pretty excited to be roasting his own hot dog, but the fire at noon was pretty hot… 🙂

And then the next evening we headed up Milcreek Canyon for a spur-of-the-moment dinner, and Nate's parents joined us for dessert.  

 I think that it's impossible to have too many campfire meals in the summer.  

Sent Zach off to Mill Hollow camp for 2 nights and 3 days.  Hard for a mom, but so exciting for him. Nate stopped by the school on his way to work with a bag of chocolate chips to help me through the drama, one of the sweetest gestures of our marriage (and a mark of how well he knows me.  :)  He will laugh at this, but it was a big deal to this crazy mama.  

Of course he had a great time.  And despite an open invitation to use up all 2000 pictures on the memory card, he only came home with 12.  

With Zach at Mill Hollow, I thought I'd take the younger kids to something they would enjoy more than he would… and while we were trying to come up with a fun plan, the cousins called to say they were headed to the farm.  Perfect!  We had a great (hot!) picnic lunch, tour of the animals, and of course some time in the chicken coop.  

  

Carter loved petting the horse, and can you believe how long Meg's hair is?!

The girls passing around a ladybug they'd found… Emma was very protective of it.  

and that night we took a little walk… nevermind that it was still 90* outside, Carter had to wear his fleecy dinosaur pajamas.  Seriously, this is the stuff high school yearbook "baby photos" are made of…