Jellystone



Little Miss Trouble and Monkey

Bug-a-bug riding the bikes

Princess riding the bikes

Poor daddy doing all the work and pedaling the bikes

What a smile!

Lots of fun on the water

Getting ready for the hay ride with all the characters from Yogi

Hayride!!  Monkey had no idea what was going on and she didn't like those characters at all at first!

The girl dressed here was a favorite among my girls.  I later found out that she's homeschooled and works there on the weekends.  She was so very sweet.  They all were, what a great time we had.

Surprise!!  A photo with both of us in it!!  I think I'll use this for our Christmas photo this year!  lol

TL pedaling away

We had a fantastic time at Jellystone at Cobb Mountain in CA.  The people there are fantastic and the kids had a blast.  We had a bit of a time trying to get there.  Mapquest took us this crazy way and with our size rig, the poor truck was ready to overheat!  It was awful, much easier getting out of there!

If you ever get a chance check out the Jellystone campgrounds.  They're mostly in the east, but so much fun for everyone!

Camping at Baker Lake

The chiefs in our command get together every year to go camping at Baker Lake. We usually have a great time. We do not have hook ups in our camper-no water or power so its back to basics camping-well at least as much as I can do. We do have a generator which we use when we have to run things-Kevin needs his coffee pot and I like the hair dryer. I guess we really don't "rough it" do we?

It rained on and off all weekend long. I was grateful that we have the generator because the kids all came into our camper and watched a movie. When you have 9 kids in your camper, its easier to have them all sitting!

Just a little mossy. Its so wet here that the trees always have moss on them:


Here's a view of the lake. We came about a month earlier this year and this year has been much cooler. If finally got to 70 yesterday here. The snow on the mountain hasn't melted yet. Usually, this area is totally covered with water. It was fun to see what was uncovered without the water there.


Mount Baker should be right there in the background but with all the cloud cover, we didn't see it at all this weekend.


Some of the kiddos and some of their friends:


The view of the lake from our campground:


This last shot was taken the day we left-the only sunny day we had so we didn't get to enjoy it much! Maybe next time!

Menu Math and camping

I just found a really neat company called Remedia Publications. They have math books that teach life skills-budgeting, checkbook, etc- but the really great find is their Menu Math series.

I have ordered the Menu Math books for the girls. I also placed an order for extra copies of the menus-let's face it, they love to play restaurant and these are exactly what I was looking for. Menus with the picture and the word next to it. Good way to practice their writing/spelling skills too. The word problems are basic, but a good review for the summer and fun too.

For TL, I ordered the Ice Cream Parlor multiplication and division. (with extra menus for playing of course) and the Department Store Math. I will print off a page from each for him to do each week. Looks like about 16-18 word problems a week, he can do that!! Easily. Keeps the skills up and a little fun at the same time!

About a month ago, we went camping at the KOA in Lynden, which is a few miles from the Canadian border. We had a blast. The weather was great and we were parked right behind a pond that we could fish in. Thankfully, the very nice people next to us, let the kids use their poles. We watched The Toothfairy on a big outdoor screen and had popcorn the first night we were there. It was a blast. Here's the view from behind the camper.


The next day was gorgeos so we decided to splurge and let the kids rent the paddle boats. Poor TL had to do all the paddling as Little Miss Trouble couldn't reach the pedals. They were pretty tired after the thirty minute ride!



And here's Daddy and Chunky Monkey watching the paddle boats. Daddy was also talking to a friend that was camping down the way. The Navy is a small world.


I also just saw on Yahoo news that the girl trying to sail the world has been reported as missing. Her parents spoke to her and although the Indian Ocean was really rough, she was okay. An hour later, the Coast Guard was at their door becuase both of her emergency satellite beacons went off. One is in the life raft and the other is on an emergency life suit. They're hoping that if the sailboat starting to sink, she grabbed her ditch bag and went into the raft. Praying for her safe return. What a remarkable young lady!!

Its raining, its pouring......

Yes, that's what it did almost the entire weekend of our camping trip. Luckily, we paid to stay at a nearby KOA so we were treated with activities for the kids, which included an indoor swimming pool.

We arrived Friday night and ate dinner with a few sprinkles. We went to bed and the sky opened up on us all night long. We woke up to our camper and patio being dry and surrounded by a lake. If we walked down along the camper to the street, we could jump the puddle, otherwise it was just a lake.

The 75 year old guy who owned the KOA with his kids came out with his tractor and dug a drainage ditch. In a couple of hours, we were much drier and could get around. Thank goodness because the firepit was under water and you can't roast s'mores under water.

While he was digging the trench, his daughter showed up and said, "and we didn't even charge you extra for the lake front property." We got quite a chuckle out of that. I told her that if she'd let us know ahead of time, we would have brought a boat.

The kids swam, we played bingo(and I won the $64 pot), and so when the rain paused for an hour on Sunday we played minigolf and rented three wheeled bikes with my winnings. It was fun, although wet. I'm SOOOOOOOO glad we don't tent camp. Those people were miserable and why they stayed the whole weekend, I'll never know

Rain, rain go away.......

Many of you know that last year we bought a camper. This move was purely selfish on our part. Due to our transfer from overseas to the States, we had a three month time period of being homeless due to my husband attending school between duty stations. We could have lived in hotels and become bankrupt. Our housing allowance comes no where close to paying for hotel rooms, plus we'd have to get two rooms for our family size and find one that takes the dog. So in order to avoid bankruptcy and save my sanity from hauling stuff in and out of a car every night, we purchased a camper.

Not any camper, a 34 foot four bunk camper, with a slide. Did I mention we lived in here for 3 months-its a pretty small space when its rainy and cold out for seven people and a giant dog. I guess I could leave the dog out in the rain but eventually he has to come in and then smell like wet dog.

We're actually thrilled with our purchase. It allows us the flexibility and affordability to go on vacations and weekend trips! Yeah!! I will tell you that we've NEVER had a family vacation because we're always heading home to see family. I love my family and treasure every moment with them, but it will be really nice to take a family vacation this year. We're planning on heading to OR to see Crater Lake, LaPine Forest, and stopping at Mt. St. Helens and Mt Hood during our traveling.

On the weekends, we've been exploring our back yard, I guess you could say. WA is gorgeous and has alot to offer. My only problem is that several weeks ago, it was warm and sunny. Starting last weekend, its moved to cold and rainy. And the forecast is extended into this weekend. And we're going camping again. Its supposed to clear up some tomorrow and more on Sunday and I'm praying it does or the forecaster is totally wrong. The good news is that next weekend will be sunny and gorgeous-cause we're not camping you see!

Time flies

And then another week has gone by. These are our highlights from our first camping trip over Easter. It was pretty chilly and overcast with a little drizzle here and there, but not too bad.

We went camping at Deception Pass State Park, which is gorgeous. We normally hang out near the ocean and watch for whales, but since the weather wasn't great we hung around camp. This is a photo of Cranberry Lake.


Chunky Monkey hanging out with Daddy


Little Miss Trouble loving the egg hunt in the woods


And they're off!


This was taken off all the girls together. Two other families were with us. TL was of course, too cool to participate in the hunt and therefore did not get a picture. Rest assured, however, he made sure that all the candy was safe to eat by tasting it himself!


The campground is pretty tight, especially when you've got a 34 foot camper. We were trying to turn down the road into our campsite and I was telling my hubby that he needed to turn more. He of course, responded like any other hubby and told me that he did not need my help driving.....

wait for it.....





wait for it.......




about thirty second later........




crunch!

Do I bother with the "I told you so" or just tease him alot? Yeah, he's getting alot of teasing.....including my reminding him that I drove the camper by myself, pregnant, with four kids and a dog from VA to MT and I didn't dent it!! I'm so mean!


Chunky Monkey chewing on her finger. She cut her first tooth the other day and another two are getting ready to cut through.



Bug-a-bug getting her blue kinkerkicks belt.


This weekend we bought and dear hubby put together a swing set for the kids. The closest park is down the street and there aren't any swings there. Girls love to swing so off we went. We couldn't buy a cheap metal swingset, because the wind is so bad here on the island. I'm talking around 50mph at least once a month. Its crazy!

I was able to finally put up our bird feeders. I didn't expect any hummingbirds but saw at least six different ones visiting my feeder. They're sucking through the feed. I only put about two inches in on Sunday and it was gone Tuesday night. I noticed what I put in last night is almost half gone tonight. I must be feeding the entire population. I don't care though, I love hummingbirds. I missed them when we were in Japan.


The kids got me this feeder for my birthday last year. We filled it to the top on Sunday and I had to refill it this morning. They're loving it. Look at this red winged blackbird. See how he struts his feathers? He does this to scare the other birds on the feeder. There's about three of them that visit it, but this is the biggest, and baddest, or so he thinks!


I have pictures of the swing set, but I've probably bored you enough for one day. Tomorrow we're vising the Island Historical Museum. It should be fun and I'm hoping that the weather holds up. Have a fantastic week everyone!

Camping at Jim Creek

I have finally had a few moments to download the photos from our camping trip at Jim Creek two weeks ago. Enjoy the view-it was gorgeous there.

Little Miss Trouble checking out the water at the creek (and that's crick for you silly people that think its a creek).



TL playing in Jim Creek.



View from the top.



The leaves were just starting to change two weeks ago.



Check out the moss on the trees.



Even Shadow had a playmate, even if it was a smaller one!



The girls and our neighbor having a blast camping. They did so much together and had an awesome time!




This is a shot of the Twin Lakes that are at the top of the mountain. We literally drove straight up, on a gravel road, without a barrier and a cliff on one side. I don't do heights well and was freaking out the entire drive, but the view was wonderful.


This is a another shot of Twin Lakes. You can see the marsh land really well here. They have wonderful signs describing the wild life and the purpose of marsh land.




This is a picture of Jim Creek. This was a little bit from our campsite, but very pretty indeed.



The gorgeous view from our campsite. It was so nice and relaxing there.



Bug-a-bug chopping fire wood for the camp fire, and yes, we did have s'mores.



I should have the blog finished up this weekend, I hope anyway. I have five large bags of apples to make applesauce with and can. Thank you Angel, for your apple butter recipe. And special thanks to Heather for giving me the links needed to change my blog around.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!