Summer is flying right by...Rachel has lost another tooth since this picture was taken. Running camp is going on right now. We all spent about 4 days up there last week. It was fun to be in Pinetop in the cooler weather where the kids can play outside all day, but it is always exhausting to be at camp--to bed late and up early. Dave took the four oldest up a couple days early while he set up so I only had Lizzie and Rachel home for about three days. It was so weird! I didn't know what to cook for the three of us! The house stayed clean and there was barely any laundry to do.
We've driven up and down to Pinetop three times now--one more trip than planned because I didn't take enough medicine for Meg. Lizzie loves listening to the radio while we drive. So when a song comes on that she loves ( like every other one), she wants to tell me, in every detail why she loves it so much. Her carseat is two rows back from me in the van, so I have to turn the radio way down to hear and talk with her. By the time she's done with her explanation and we turn up the volume, the song is just about over. Funny girl. This drives Rachel crazy--she just wants to listen.
One other thing to put down in things to remember this summer. Michael ran 12 miles on Friday--he did the big Sunrise Run the campers do at the ski resort on the last morning of camp. I knew he was going to run a little bit of it, but I never thought he'd do the whole thing...starts at 8000ft and ends at almost 11000. This was the furthest he has ever run by 5 miles. He's tough, no doubt about it.
We have a high school freshman in our home! When we dropped him off today, one of the first people we saw on the curb was a kid with a bright red mohawk. It was like a scene out of one of those crazy high school movies. He has been running with the cross country team most of the summer and went to band camp the last two weeks=busy guy who wasn't quite ready for summer to end. Keep going Michael! We are proud of you
We spent 4 days camping in Greer early this summer. I usually don't think of camping as much of a vacation because it is so much work getting ready for it. Dave makes sure we taking everything we "might" need so we take an incredible amout of stuff. Our 15 passenger van was packed with kids and stuff, plus our dog Ranger. Once we got there though, it was so fun. It is easier now by the single factor of not having a baby in the mix anymore, crawling through the dirt, to keep out of the fire, etc. The kids explored all over and played great together. We went fishing a couple of times and caught a couple of little trout. This traumatizes Meg, to see the fish die, so Dave tries to throw them back in if they aren't too injured. This works most of the time, but every once in awhile they swallow the hook...poor fish, poor Meghan. I love it that the kids are outside so much, exploring nature since we don't get so much of that where we live. They love sleeping in tents and sleeping bags, roasting marshmallows, being DIRTY. Finally, after all of these years, the camping is growing on me...
