mamalogues

a great abenture.

This last weekend we went camping. It was our second time as a family, and first time as a family of 5...or 6 if you count Hank. The first time we went, Mila was almost 2 (and an only child) and we went to Duroga Park with my sister, brother-in-law, Hailyn and Kam. This time we went to Brennegen Creek which is way up the Entiat and a little more "rustic" than Daroga Park.

David went up Friday night with Hank which meant I got to pack the kids' stuff, my stuff, all of our food, the pack-n-play, jonesy's einstein mat, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, coolers, three bags of ice, and a backpack full of Barbies. I met up with our fellow camping companions or "campanions" if you will, at the park 'n ride at the North end of town at 9am Saturday morning. It took close to 2 hours to get to our spot, the last 2-3 miles of the drive were up a long, dusty, steep, dirt road with steep clifs, it was a little scary.

As we were unloading the car Mary notices one of my tires is completely flat, to make things even more awesome my spare was also flat. I have the best luck. David had to go back to Wenatchee anyways so he was able to get my tire fixed. After getting everything set up we just let the kids (all nine of them) run free. Mila kept yelling out to everyone, "C'mon guys, let's go a great abenture!" Over and over again I heard her say it. They had fun exploring little trails, the tiny creek, picking berries, playing with barbies, and sword fighting of course.

Jones did great; he hung out in his little portable crib for a while then took a nice 2 hour nap in the tent. Scout was filthy dirty for the next 24 hours, and had an awesome poop which consisted of half-digested poop covered grapes that kept falling out of his shorts and diaper while I was changing him.

After dinner we put the kids to bed, Jones and Scout in David's and my tent and Mila, Hailyn, and Kam in a tent right next to ours. Our tent was a little cramped since it's only a 2-man tent and we had two sleeping boys totally sprawled out between us and Hank at our feet. The girls did great in their tent, Mila woke up once, whimpered a little bit, after I fixed her sleeping bag and blankets she went back to sleep. We got up around 7:30, ate donuts and bananas and packed up our camp.

Scout was a wreck, falling down every few minutes and getting a mouthful of dirt every time. David finally told me to take Jones and Scout home while he and Mila finished packing up. I was a little nervous on the ride down since David put my tire on by himself, I just kept waiting for it to fall off. We made it home around 9:30 and gave the boys baths. Sarah called and said she was able to get DMB tickets for the concert that night...that will be tomorrows post though :)

Some pictures from our camping "abenture"

It also happened to be Teagan's 4th birthday so we had a little pinata action and some birthday cake.

 

 

 

Sarah brought some stick-on moustaches. Pure awesomeness. Lo didn't like hers.

 

 

As I said before, filthy.

 

Peeking in on Jonesy.

 

Blurry, but here they are with their fearless leader, Tyler, on a great abenture.

 

The bathroom facilities were amazing.

 

Such a trooper.

 

And one more, Mary took this one, amazing. My little Mario.

 

a wonderful weekend.

I don't think it's fair that the work week is 5 days long and weekend is a measly 2 days, it's bullshit. Sorry mom, bullpoop.

On Saturday my beautiful cousin, Courtney, was married up at Mission Ridge and let me just say I l-o-v-e my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, all of them. Of the 15 "Cooper" cousins there were 12 in attendance, some I see quite regularly and some I don't get to see as often because they are stupid and moved to stupid Seattle, you know who you are...(Kelsey, Katey and Ryan.) Anywho, the ceremony was short and sweet and I cried when Court got a little choked up while saying her vows, we ate and visited and danced. At around nine we made our way down the mountain to hit up the happenin' "clubs" of Wenatchee...aka 10 Below. David and I never get to go out as a couple since we have like ten kids but we had a babysitter for the wedding and decided we should take advantage of a free night out!

 
 

David went home around midnight to relieve Jamie and I stayed with the girls. 3 too many pineapple mojitos later (I maybe drink once a month so this is a lot for me) I was ready to go home and go to bed. Jonesy thought it would be fun to wake up at 5am for an early-bird breakfast so I made David get up with him, then at 7:30 the rest of the kiddos woke up which meant I had to too. Didn't they know mommy was slightly hung over? David went to get my hangover cure: the McDonald's hash brown. It works every time. After eating two of those I can be vertical again instead of horizontal.

Mila and I went to my parents house to ride her early birthday present, a hot pink barbie bike, not what I would have chosen but Mila loves it. Kelsey and Kylee came over to see the kids before Kels went back to Seattle :( and then I took a much needed nap. At 6 we went down to the river to play in the water, Scout floated around and Mila made new friends.

 

he floated around like this for about 40 minutes.

 

Coolin' off his tootsies.

 

Coolin' off my tootsies.

 

Building castles with new friends.

 

 

 

Daddy and son #2

 

we took the damn kids to the damn dam.

David and I have been trying to do something fun the with the kids every Sunday, in the last three weeks we've gone to Moses Hole (hehe) for water slides, Lake Chelan to hang out by the lake, and this last Sunday we went to Rocky Reach Dam. I hadn't been there since the 6th grade for a field trip and David had only been there once, we put the boys in the stroller and went on a dam tour...a self guided dam tour that is.

After (barely) making it through security we went down to the fish viewing windows to see the salmon.

This is actually a dam tiger trout, there weren't many salmon when we were there.

 

the dam ladder

 
Then we walked over the dam museum, gosh Mila, don't look so excited to be at the damn dam.

 
 

 

 

the dam spillway

 

the dam generators

 
generating dam electricity.

 

Checking out the dam museum. Then my dam battery died.
 

After being in the museum for about thirty minutes Scout had reached his dam limit, he was hungry and needed a nap so left that damn dam :)

It was pretty fun, I appreciated it more than the last time I went that's for sure.

splash pad

On Sunday evening we loaded up the herd and took them to the splash pad for a little bit of water fun. We get there at about 6:30, it's totally packed. David and I found a bench to sit on, we parked Jonesy's stroller, stripped Scout and Mila down to their swimsuits and set them free...I wish. We should have just stayed home, Scout wouldn't go near the water and Mila was throwing a fit on the bench because she didn't want to either. I actually had to bribe them with gummy worms to have fun. That's right, I bribe my children.

Mila said she was cold and wanted to play on the toys and Scout stood by my purse and hunted for fruit snacks. Jonesy was a good boy, he just sat in his stroller wearing Mila's sun hat from when she was nine months old, he was probably too embarrassed to want out. After twenty minutes of playing on the toys Mila finally found a friend and went through the water, Scout just kept on eating.

Whining.

 

Scout, you dropped a fruit snack.

 

Looking for more...

 

 

Eating more fruit snacks...

 

I think he was catching his balance :)

 

 

 

New friends

 

Time to go home...

 

Scout's messiness

 

Really?

 

 

lately...

Its been a great summer so far, the kids have been spending tons of time outside either at the park with the "gang", going on daily walks with grandma, or just hanging out in our backyard. Their hair is starting to bleach out and their ghostly white skin is starting to brown. We had an awesome 4th of July weekend, David took Mila camping, we swam at grandma's house, and had a bbq with 10 adults and 11 kiddos at our house for the 4th...good times.

 

 

this tent has been in her room since last week, she has only slept in her bed one time since I set it up :)

 

 

the first time all three kids have taken a bath together

 

love him :)

 

happy 4th of july!