Trip here Trip there

Traveled to the S side of the family for some hugs, love and catching up. It was a good visit like every visit is. The kids were able to swim a bit in Nanny/Grandpa’s pool and loved it! Along with this trip some of us loaded up and headed out for a little hike at Barrier Falls. We fed some fish at the hatchery and then headed up the trail to see where it took us. We hiked along the river/creek/brook first and the rule was “don’t get wet we just got here, and if you do there will be no complaining”. What were parents thinking taking the kids to water first? Cole slipped and went in up to his shoulders! He was a trooper though, hiked on for another hour soaked with not one word that he was wet. What a guy.

Just wanted to share this photo of a duck at the hatchery. I just picture him singing Bing Crosby songs or some thing like that.

Made a day trip to spend an afternoon with my folks (and the kids cousin Derian) for my fathers 69th Birthday. We grabbed some sandwiches and went to River Forks (Umpqua River) to play in the water and hang out. The kids got to play on the whales (one of my favorites when I was a kid) and then we all skipped rocks and tried to catch fish with buckets at the river. Wonderful afternoon.

Cole and Jo finished another round of swim lessons. Cole graduated into the next class and was very excited to move on. I was very happy for them at the end of this set of classes. They both went down the slide with out having to wear life jackets and did not need any help getting back to the stairs to do it again. I also watched in shock as Jo not only went off the diving board with out any jacket but she also went off the HIGH dive! (I almost cried I was so happy for them)

Camping?

Yes, we managed a tent camping trip as a family. It’s a barrowed four-person tent and we are wall to wall sleeping but it was great fun! Our bed was firmer (rock/dirt solid) than ours at home but Oma and I thought we slept ok and were not sore from the night. Whewh
Good MORNING campers! Moma was up long enough to have a good fire going and the pot of water hot for cocoa. They all managed to climb from the tent dressed warm and ready to snuggle up to the fire to finish the waking process.

We hung out by the lake for a short time, the water was so low that it was muddy and quite smelly from the marshes.

Cole can always find a light saber out of almost anything. And believe it or not, this was not the dirtiest he became over the weekend.
(Uncle Todd reincarnated I'd say)

Jo seems to hear music where there isn’t any at times.
She always wants to look pretty, pose and dance!

Finally we finished off each night with roasting marshmallows and eating s’mores!

All in all we had a good time. A few goofs here and there but nothing to stop us from heading to our next camping trip later this month! Whooohoooo! Moma’s having fun!