Where to begin...

I have become so consumed with all that is going on around me that I don't even know where to begin when it comes to filling everyone in about the last 3 weeks. However, I'm going to give it a shot and will try to post something new and fun over the next few days. Too put it all in one post would make my head, and yours, explode.

So, fun thing number one: Our yearly camping trip with the Ricks family. This year it was in Stanley, Idaho. Did you know that even in the dead of August, when all around the country people are sweltering and sweating in 100 degree heat, the nights in Stanley get down to 28 degrees?! Can I just say @#$%^&*!! I like cool weather probably more than most, but give me a freaking break! So imagine with me, if you will, two families, 8 people: 4 adults, 4 children hopped up on s'mores and Capri Sun crammed into one small trailer. Add to that three children (Jonah, Tommy and Taylor) sleeping in the overhead bunk, Taylor sleeping perilously close to the edge. If you think any of us got a lick of real recuperative sleep, you are smoking crack. But let me tell ya, we had more fun than that proverbial barrel of monkeys. Enjoy the following pictures. I sure enjoyed taking them.

The kids went to a "Junior Rangers" class Saturday morning and learned about the local wildlife as well as "respecting nature." Here Tommy and Jonah hold their "warm fuzzies" that they made in class.

Here Cole accurately portrays how unbelievably cold the water was on the lake.

Jonah loves the water so much, by the end of the morning he was almost naked, only in his underwear, wading around and catching fish in a plastic cup. He'd bring them in to shore to show us moms sitting in lawn chairs in the sand, the cup shaking so badly from his shivering that some of the fish actually jumped out of the cup. Be free fishies!!

And of course, Nude Taylor, putting sand in her hair. She is such a little mermaid, you can't help but smile when she plays.