The weekend before school started we went camping at Pineview Reservoir with a bunch of families from our neighborhood. I think there were about 9 or 10 that came up for at least part of the weekend. Our girls were so excited about it. The girls and I went up on Thursday afternoon, set up camp and enjoyed the evening. The plan was for Steve to join us Friday afternoon and we'd all stay until Sunday. The first morning we woke up to see this site ... hot air balloons.
The girls were very excited about the balloons. It was a really pretty morning. Here are my girls and a few others with teh balloons in teh background - although you can't see them very well.
The group we went camping with was heavy on the girls. Friday the weather was really nice so we went out on the boats. Tubing time! Check out these two tubes ... yes, there are 12 kids on them and 11 are girls!! In the 6 families that intended to stay the weekend, the girl boy ratio was 12 to 6, but 4 of those boys are under the age of 3. :) Taylor is in the front middle on the yellow tube and Alyssa is back middle on the red tube.
Jess didn't want to tube so she hung out on the boat with me.
Taylor getting splashed! She's on Jeremy's lap.
Alyssa loving the ride! She's the one on her tummy.
Jessica just isn't sure about tubing - I think she doesn't like the spray in her face. She tried it for awhile on Aimee's lap and we got a few smiles out of her, but for the most part, she just wasn't interested.
After tubing for awhile, we took a break on the beach.
My OCD child! :) Taylor was done playing in the sand - tired of the sand stuck to her. So, she rinsed off in the water and then had me carry her to this dead tree branch so she could dry off ... and wipe ALL the sand off her feet!
While they waited to eat, some of the little girls played London Bridges. Taylor wasn't willing to put her Sprite down though. :)
Time for more tubing! This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend! Check out the double thumbs up from Taylor - FASTER, FASTER, FASTER!! She loves the speed! She loves the waves! She loves every bit of going fast!
Once again - GIRLS! Taylor is in the back on the right and Jess is center.
Tess, Paige and Jess (Tinkerbell swimsuit)! Tess and Jess are both in preschool this year. Paige just started kindergarten. Paige is one of Jessi's BEST friends. She loves to play with Paige all the time. Tess is in Jessica's preschool class so they enjoy seeing each other too.
This is actually out of order - its Thurs evening. The kids all played games until bed time and then the grownups visited around the campfire. Alyssa is on the left side of hte table at the far end.
I am so grateful for such amazing friends. These are friends my kids will remember forever! So, what about the rest of the trip ... Friday night, Steve came up as planned. He arrived just after dinner. We managed to go out on a boat for about an hour before sundown. Then, as we came back in, the wind picked up ... And then it picked up MORE!! The boat owners all went to pull their boats out of the water while the rest of us scrambled to put things inside of boxes, coolers, cars, tents etc to prevent it from blowing away and getting wet when the coming rain hit. Our tent had to be moved because it was out on a point of a cliff and too exposed.
The wind got so bad by about 10pm that we all confined ourselves to tents because the sand was blowing so much. We played games in our tent for awhile with some of the other adults and then they went to bed and we laid there and tried to sleep. Steve didn't bring his ear plugs so he never fell asleep - the wind was wipping and howling outside our tent and really wiggling the tent. The lightning and thunder kicked in at some point, and it was so close the lightning flash and thunder crack were almost simultaneous. We were all a little worried the kids would all wake up and/or that the lightning would hit one of our tents!
About 2 or 3, the wind and lightning backed off ... just in time for the rain to start!! By about 4 am, the problems really started for us (remember, keep in mind, Steve still hasn't slept yet!). When we moved our tent, we didn't get it setup perfectly so door wasn't angled very well and the rain started dripping inside on Steve. The wind was also blowing the rain in through the windows (we have flaps that tie down rather than zipper windows). We rearranged so he wasn't getting as wet and made sure everything else was away from the edges and water. I finally drifted back to sleep and was woken up about 5:15 by Jessica crying. The roof above her wasn't sloped so the rain had puddled and was dripping in multiple spots on her upper body. By the time it woke her up, she was soaked (quilt, sleeping bag, PJs). I changed her and moved her into my sleeping bag with me. We used towels to soak up as much as we could of the water and carefully moved Taylor over so she was farther from the leak. Taylor slept through it all and Alyssa, fortunately, slept through it all in her little tent with a friend - totally dry! I think I slept another 15-20 min that morning (add it up - less than 2 hours for me ... maybe 15-20 min of dozing for Steve). We were both done, so by 8am we were packed, loaded and pulling out. It was not a fun night!
We spent the rest of the day, napping and then washing everything - we soaked 3 of our 6 sleeping bags, about 8 of the large beach towels and a quilt. But everything else was wet too so we ran the washer for the next 2 days to get it all cleaned before we put it away. We set up the tents and rinsed the dirt off of them and then let them dry. CRAZY camping experience! Oh the memories! We did get to enjoy a camping/pot luck dinner that night at our neighbor's house with 3 of the families that had been camping. Everyone else stuck out the morning but came home that afternoon.
Since Steve and I aren't typically campers (this was Steve's 3rd night of camping in 13 years - my 4th if you don't count girls camp!), everyone has asked will we go again? The answer - YES! But we are buying a new tent before next summer (with zipper windows) and if it looks like rain, we're bailing! Actually, we're camping again next week - just closeby for one night though. :)
Taylor took my camera and was taking pictures of Jessica bouncing on the ball ... so the pics below of Jess on the ball are taken by Taylor. The ones of Taylor and the camera were taken by me. They were so funny. They were laughing their heads off, hardly able to stand up because Jess kept bouncing off the ball and falling on her bum and Tay just kept trying to take pics of it. 
I took the camera away from them - worried about it getting broken so they did swinging and biking instead. Crazy little girls. They just love to play! 
Jess climbed up on the bar and started swinging. I couldn't believe how high she got! She also kicked her feet up on the bar and flipped upside down a few times but I never managed to get a picture of that. 
Our trip is all booked! We've booked the condos! We've booked our airfare! We've booked Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (a private party in the Magic Kingdom from 7-midnight with many rides open only to guests of the party, a parade, fireworks, character visits, treats, Santa and snow falling)! And for character dining, we've booked Princess Storybook at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for lunch and 'Ohana at the Polynesian Resort for breakfast!! We'll get to see the Disney princesses and some of their friends, Lilo & Stitch, Pluto and of course Mickey! Our kids still don't know!! We are planning to tell them Halloween weekend!! We just might dress up as some Disney characters to tell them! :) 
I'm really excited about our trip! It will be fun to see my brother and sister-in-law and their 3 kids not to mention the NASA Museum, beach, DisneyWorld and the joy in our kids' eyes when they get to go on all the rides and see all their favorite characters and get to enjoy the MAGIC of Disney!
