Where oh where has my little blog been?

One of the sweetest sounds to my ears:

"Mama, I want to hold your hand."
*Sigh* I know these days will someday seem so fleeting, so hearing phrases like that makes me want to drink them up.

This particular time was this morning. Dale and Alan and I went to see my Mom, and then walked a few blocks over to visit Nana too. I gladly pushed that stroller with one hand so my other would be free for Dale. :)
Don't get me wrong - there are also days that Greg and I look at each other and say (adamantly) - We are not having any more kids. And then there are moments when I actually wish I wasn't a mom at all. Thankfully those are pretty rare.

At any rate, I usually don't blog on those kind of days. :P

But - that is not the sole reason is has been over a WEEK since my last entry. We have been out of town! :) Left after church Sunday and caravanned to a nearby lake with my parents and grandparents. Stayed 4 nights and had a wonderful time! Very relaxing - well....as relaxing as camping with an often-cranky, teething 8 month old and an active, mouth-never-stops-running 4 year old could be. :)

First night, my aunt and uncle joined us for hamburgers. That made 11 of us!

Reading by flashlight before bed....now is that camping or what!?!

"Whhheeerrrre's Alan?"

PEEKABOO!! :)














When we were first setting up at the campground, we were happy to discover that one of our picnic tables was move-able. We pulled it to the center of our sites, and had a great common area. Good for eating together, but we spent much more time creating at that table than eating.

My mom has a unique (but rapidly growing in popularity) hobby called altered booking. This weekend she generously laid out all her supplies and invited us to join it. What fun! And how good for the mind to sit and unwind and create!

For more details of the hours we spent at the picnic table.... Click Here!

Not long into the trip, Dale found a pile of fine sand, just right for a little boy. Mimi supplied some cups and Dale was set. He spent a significant amount of time in that sandpile every day. What would we have done without it!?

One thing about camping with Alan - you get an early start to each day! He was a really good sport for the whole thing. He spent time in his stroller, play-pen, walker.....and mostly laps. :) There were just so many laps for a baby to choose from! This time it was PawPaw:

Let's not forget that even though we were away from home, Kid Camp continued. Music Monday's activity was the shaker that didn't get made last Monday. This worked out great, since Dale wanted in on all the picnic table creating. To see more kids making shakers (and where I got the idea for a balloon ending (what we are doing in the picture to the left)) click here. (scroll down to Saturday July 21st) (Hi girls!! :D)

Thomas Tuesday - I brought the big Thomas from last week with us, and wouldn't you know... Nana had a rug out at her campsite that had pictures of buildings, roads, and... train tracks! all over it. We also had an assortment of Thomas books with us, great for nap time. Water Wednesday - Dale went fishing out in a boat with Gramps and his other great grandpa (camped on the other side of the same lake as us). Thinking Thursday got skipped over, as that was coming home day.



Drinking from a cup is sooooo much easier when your whole face fits in! You can see what you're doing!! :)

More to tell later (I still haven't mentioned Kristin, the water mister, and other fun stuff!), with pics, but I promised Dale the computer quite a while ago!