Camping and the 4th

It's my favorite holiday again, and time for a vacation! We decided to break in the new camper at Bear Lake and see how Will liked his first camping trip. It went pretty well for us, he seemed to enjoy it even though none of us got much sleep!

We got an early start Friday and found a decent spot before everyone else arrived. It was beautiful, and not close enough to the river to make me nervous, but it was right on the road and ATVs and dirt bikes are very annoying when you're not the one riding them! Will had a great time finding bugs, and telling us that he was camping (a new word), as well as trying to bait us into hiking up the trail every chance he got. He discovered s'mores, and chased the dogs around with the marshmallow forks much to their dismay. He zoned out on the fire and slept very well most of the night in the cozy trailer until our pilot light went out on the heater and we woke up cold!

The next day we drove over to the lake and visited with my family that are usually there too this time of year. After playing on the beach all afternoon and evening we headed over to their place and were just in time for the four-wheeler/golf cart parade and hamburgers. Will was totally pooped from lack of a nap for two days straight, but he managed to have fun driving my uncle Bob's golf cart and a random tricycle (sure to be a hit on his upcoming birthday!).

We then headed back for another night of "roughing it" and Terry and I fell asleep soon after Will from sheer exhaustion. In the morning we took it all down and headed up the trail for a little hike before heading home. We saw many different beautiful butterflies and learned from Will that horses have "big poop!"

We pulled back in to Ogden in the early evening on the 4th and my heart sank when I found that there were no fireworks on the 4th! ARrGH! It ain't right, I tell you! God would want us to barbecue and do fireworks to celebrate this great country on its Independence day, not reschedule it around the sabbath! But...I digress. We cleaned up, and did what good Americans do...we were too tired to cook so we headed to Famous Dave's for our barbecue and did our own fireworks in the driveway! Then we had a great night's sleep in our own warm beds! Good times!

Boat Party!

Finally! The boat party has arrived! Will woke up happy and ready to captain the mighty "Knot 4 Sail". He wore his pirate hat at breakfast, and helped me get everything ready. We cooked enough food for an army and planned lots of fun games. Several friends from my work brought their little ones, and of course Nick, Andi, Grandpa, Grandma, Chris, Shelly, Nana, and Uncle Harry came.

Chris, Dominick, Will and Nick even dressed for the occasion, and we had some very authentic activities. The kids had a sword fight, dug for buried treasures in the sand, pinned the eye patch on the pirate, splashed in the water, and decorated fish cookies. The final contest was for a parent to swallow the fish as quickly as possible, and Mike put us all to shame! We added up the gold coins and distributed the loot. Will even managed to pillage a few unattended plates during the event!
It was a smashing success!

Mother's Day and Andi's Birthday Party

Mother's Day was fun since we had four moms to share it with this year. We had a beautiful and delicious meal as usual up at Grandma and Grandpa Guida's. My mom had the kids make potted pansies in the garage as a gift and I barely managed to get them all in one shot--even Clyde! We made some more progress on the boat, and silly Daddy pushed Will around in his diaper box car.

Miss Andi wanted a swimming pool for her birthday so Nana and I went out and found one, but Will was the only one who seemed interested in jumping in...shoes and all! It quickly became a dog water bowl for Clyde, Doyal, Baby and Penny, but Will didn't seem to mind. His sweet cousin Nick brought out just about every toy he had that would float for him, and we finished up with ice cream sundaes....mmmm!