July 2015

Here are just some random pictures from July 2015.

Pretty Alli having lunch in the park. 

 These are the professional dance pictures for Lydia. 

 Dare devil Alli. 

 Oh, I found out in July that I was pregnant again. I found out the day before I left for girls camp. At least it explained why I had no energy the entire time I was gone. 

 We went to the National Tribute Band with Chris and Christine. It was fun! 

 Don't you just love how much Spiderman looks up to Rafael? 

 She's just adorbs. Her hair has grown so much since then, it's amazing! Also, that was her very favorite shirt. She always chose the "puppy shirt!" if it was available to wear. In fact, just the other day she saw a neon green shirt in her drawer and excitedly pulled it out saying "puppy shirt!", but alas, that shirt has become too small for Allison. 

2015 Camping: Family Fun

There was a neat little lava crater cave right by our campsite. Most of the kids had lots of fun playing in it. The family photo in it was very hard to achieve though since it was difficult to get the entire family in the cave. For some reason William thought that entering the cave would mean sudden death for him. You'd think we were torturing him the way he reacted when we told him he was going to face that fear. But after we finally got him in there he said he enjoyed it and thought it was cool. 

We went on a little four wheeling ride with the family. I followed the trail that led to the most gorgeous place ever. The pictures don't do it justice, but the bright green growth in contrast with the black of the burned trees, the creek running through it all, and the amazing wild flowers were breath taking. 

 Crammed on a fourwheeler.

2015 Camping: campfire

Just some good ol' campfire fun. 

2015 Camping: underground smoker

While camping, David always has some project or another that he's working on. 

Here he is making the pieces for the trebuchet.

 I can't remember what he wanted to use it for, but this was when we made a little thatched fencey thingy. 

Champion wood splitter.

Ta-da!

David also made an underground smoker. 

 We had a pork roast that we brought for this purpose.

 But then while we were waiting for it to cook my dad asked, "Is your smoker supposed to have those large flames?" or something to that effect. No. No it wasn't. 

 Bon-appetite! 

2015 Camping compass treasure hunt

Before we went up camping we decided to make a treasure hunt for the kids.

 My parents had many compasses which they donated for the cause. Each child would get their own compass to use and they would follow instructions that we mapped out to find sticks and pieces of wood that we marked with bailing twine. After they followed the directions and got all the wood, David helped them all to make a trebuchet. 

Here's Grandpa showing the grandkids how to use the compasses. 

 Here the kiddos are following the directions and looking for the sticks. Some were better with the compass than others.

This was the last spot. Sticks and suckers awaited them. 

 Here they are all gathered to make the trebuchet.

And the video of all the hard work paying off...