Camping: Lessons learned

1-When the campsites say on the phone that they are 'first come, first serve' they mean it. And they'll fill up before you get there.

2- When Abby says that the little cardboard sign pointing up the mountain to some random campground probably isn't for the general public, she's right.

3-Brent won't listen and we'll go there anyway because the Subway sandwiches are getting soggy and we're all getting cranky.

4-Small girls and pregnant women will accept chocolate chip cookies as dinner in the car.

5-When you get to afore mentioned random campground and you find a beautiful little site, get out quick before anyone else takes it.

6-When you are sitting eating your late dinner and strains of 'Love at Home' float by on the breeze get a little suspicious of your neighbors.

7-Sending husband to ask neighboring campers if this is a stake campground is a good idea.

8- Mormons are nice and will let you stay, even if you're not part of their ward and it's their ward campout.

9-They'll even let you borrow their air mattress blower-upper since yours just happens to not work and you're 7 months pregnant.

10-Forgive husband because the pretty darn nice bathrooms are just a shortcut through the brush away.

11-Enjoy watching little girls having a great time crawling on rocks and digging in the dirt and picking wild flowers on our nature walk up the beautiful mountain side.

12-'Dragon snaps' are dangerous flowers that you have to avoid or they'll get you!

13-Enjoy the cooler weather in the mountains above Huntsville.

14-Make lots of yummy roasted marshmallows and laugh that mommy forgot the grahm crackers. Make delicious alternative with chips ahoy cookies.

15-Little girsl won't want to sleep in their own sleeping bags, even if they're pink and red and special.

16-Accept the fact that no one will sleep very much, especially on a half inflated air mattress.

17-Bring more blankets next time so Laura won't wake up at 5:45am with cold toes and refuse to go back to sleep.

18-Brent's allergies get worse in the mountains, come better prepared, but be glad you rememberd Abby's heartburn pills.

19- Despite the rough night, Laura and Eden loved their first mountain camping experience and want to go again soon.

20-Next time, we'll go for the day and drive home late to sleep in our own beds.

Where are they?

Laura and Eden's idea of a great place to hide... but all those giggles tend to give them away:)

We planted four rose bushes this year, and I've been anxiously watching them for a few months. Two of the bushes have only made a few outcroppings of new growth, but the other two seem to be doing really well. Yesterday I went out ot check on the buds and was delighted to find one lavender and two beautiful yellow roses.

Blogger can be really dumb

I just spent the last half an hour, my only internet time of the day, trying to get the new blog list loaded, see Sarah's blog, and twice it shut me down with error crap. adslkfj alksfdj klasjdf lkas., I'm just mad. grrrr. technology.

I'm not very good at doing little girl hair. I know I should be, but most of the time I just stick to the basics like pony tails. After staying in Idaho this month with aunts who are fantastic stylists Laura wasn't satisfied with just a pony tail. So here is my first attempt at braiding Laura's hair in french braids, and I must say I was quite surprised with how well they turned out! She looked adorable if I do say so myself. Maybe next we'll try strawberry mermaid hair like Allie's:)

p.s. Laura's had a fever for the last two days that I'm having a hard time getting to go down below 99. Plus she's super grumpy although you can't tell from this ballerina picture. It sounds like it's a nasty bug that's going around here. Bah.

Big Girl Bed

This week we took the plunge and converted Eden's crib into a toddler bed. I was very reluctant to make the switch, we've only recently made significant progress in getting Laura to stay in her bed at night, and since the girls share a room I had visions of bedtime nightmares. But lifting Eden in and out was really hurting my poor pregnant back. So...






But Eden has really surprised me. She loves her bed and goes right to sleep, more or less, for both her naps and bedtime. Only once this week have I had to lock her door and let her cry herself to sleep, and when I went in after the crying died out she was snuggled in with all three of her favorite blankies.

While the parents are away, the ladies will play!

While Brent and I were relaxing in California the girls were living it up in Idaho for the week. I was, of course, nervous about leaving them for a week, but these pictures prove my fears absolutely pointless! Rather than overwhelm my blog with 20ish pictures at once I put together a photo-collage in Photoshop. I'm going to add the journaling to these pages, but I wanted to get these on close to the other California posts.