Church Camp Out

We joined the church camp out in Oxbow Park on July 25-26. Jeremy couldn't come because he was on his business trip in LA (supervising the filming of the first Skippy commercial!). So I teamed up with Leighsa and her kids, and I also brought two girls from our youth group. 

Tanner was so proud to wear his camping vest. He got lots of compliments on it. 

Can you tell how concerned he is about this little girl sitting in Dallin's camping chair? Oh boy, it was hilarious how possessive, but passive aggressive, Tanner was with these chairs.

 Here's Dallin with one of his buddies.

We had hobo dinners, which I guess is the Minnesota way of saying tin foil dinners. Ours turned out super yummy!!

The evening was way fun, with a skit, devotional, camp fire songs and eating lots of desserts. I learned how to make pudgy pies and banana boats. Tanner got super sticky from his s'mores!

We got a little rain that night, but we stayed SO warm in our tent. The secret is to have a lot of people piled up together. We had 9 people in our tent, and yes, it was like a sauna! We giggled for a couple hours telling jokes and stories. Best part: Dallin and Tanner slept really well. 

The next day, all the boys played by the river and caught little critters. Can you see Leighsa holding that thing?

Dallin has a pink pacifier because a few nights earlier back at home, we couldn't find ANY of his pacies. So I ran to Walmart at 11:30pm, only to find that all the boy pacies were sold out. I was forced to get bright pink ones. Oh well! 

 My two boys really do love each other!

 After packing up camp, we toured around the Zollman Zoo and nature center. It is free and so, so fun!

 

Watching the bear.

 The bison.

 My little munchkins looked so teeny next to these giant bison!

We had a great time camping while being surrounded by so much green and so many wonderful friends! 

12 Ways That We've Enjoyed Our Summer Days

#1- Working in the garden. We're learning more and more about the importance of  watering and harvesting the veggies at just the right time, haha.  

 #2- Doing Art Projects. We paint, color, chalk, and make cool things like robots out of junk.

 

#3- Playing with Toys! Daddy and Dallin made this cool tower.

 #4- Working on House Projects. Refinishing the deck only took about 3 weeks. Our learning curve is still pretty big as we figure out how to take care of everything on our property!

#5- Making Apple Pie. And apple juice, apple muffins, apple butter, apple crisp, and other apple treats with apples from OUR OWN apple tree!

Last year, we only got 2 apples from this tree. This year it's about 100. Dallin loves the little ones!

#6- Eating School Lunch. Almost everyday that we've been in town, I've taken the boys to eat their FREE lunches at the school in our neighborhood. They love it, especially when we go with friends. And they eat better at school than they do at home.

#7- Biking and taking walks through the neighborhood. Tanner is getting really good at riding his trike, including down hills. What a stud!

#8- Spending time with friends from church. I've also been teaching friends and families with the missionaries and I've been very busy with the girls in our youth group.

#9- Playing in the backyard. Notice how good the deck looks now?

#10- Golfing... Sort of.

 

 

 #11- Visiting the County Fair. Tanner is at the fair, holding hands with some of his best friends. This fair was definitely different from my experiences at the Orange County Fair mostly because this place was dominated by TONS of animals, farming stuff and 4H events. It was a nice change! But I gotta admit that I missed all the OC entertainment.

Gaming Room at the fair. I never knew there was such a thing!

Dallin chatted with some of his stroller friends while Tanner looked at the fish.

#12- Saying prayers of thanks for all that we have during this BEAUTIFUL summer! Especially our two adorable little boys!

Cousin Adventures, Part II

Effie Yeaw Nature Center & American River

Our day at the nature center and river was beautiful and hot. Almost everyone enjoyed exploring the nature center (Tanner was super cranky, so I had to supervise him while he was in time-out). Then, we all found a spot for a picnic! Tanner perked up once we ate.

Little buddies!

Dallin looks so funny in this selfie. I think he was half blinking.

Four in a row, sitting still enough for us to see all of their eyes! ...well, sort of!

Walking down to the river! 

Dallin just walked right out into the water without any hesitation. 

Tanner searched for gold rocks with Aunt Katie and threw rocks into the water with his cousins.

Dallin tried drinking the water and was successful on several attempts. Yuck!

AH! Everyone ended up in just diapers. What a fun little adventure!

Great Grandma Davidson's House

These four little rug-rats played so well together in Grandma's backyard. They helped push each other in this car!

I played beads with the kids in the family room. The red string that Tanner is holding is actually a giant wad of beaded necklaces. 

Swimming in the Backyard

The kids swam several times during the week. This was our last day of swimming. (Tanner was sleeping).

Painting Nails

I got to paint each of the twins toes on our last day in Sacramento. They loved it!

It was fun watching them try to rub it off and then be confused how the paint was still on their toes.

Goodbye Pictures

Boys with Aunt Katie

I love this picture!

Goodbye, Uncle Steve!

Tanner: "Wait, Mama! We can't go now!! I have to finish lawn mowing the grass!!"

Golden Gate Bridge

Our flight back to MN was out of San Francisco. We were able to make a detour to the Golden Gate Bridge on the way there!

Tanner, of course, had to wear his backpack. He was really excited to see the bridge because there are pictures of it in one of his books.

It was such a beautiful, clear day!!

Once we got to the airport, Tanner saw a poster of the Golden Gate Bridge and said, "Hey, I went to that place before! That's the Golden Gate Bridge!!" 

Grandma helped us get all the way to the gate, which was cool because I didn't know airports let you do that these days. Both boys were getting sick and congested, so I gave them decongestion medicine that also got them drowsy. I am now a big fan of drugging your kids on airplanes, especially if you're the only adult traveling with kids. It worked out great for me because only one boy was awake at a time, and Dallin slept on my chest for most of the flight. 

Wow, now I am finally done blogging about our West Coast Adventures! (It only took 8 posts!) From the Portland food trucks to the Oregon Coast to the Fulsom trains to the streets of Citruis Heights to the San Francisco Bay, and all the aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins in between, we had a BLAST!!