*Roughing It* Backyard Camping!

So Preston has been begging to have a campout as a family. Okay, truthfully I have been the one begging, but I put my friend Preston on the job of nagging Dad about it. Because Burke has been putting in such long hours at work, we were not seeing when we were going to get it done during the month of June (which is when I wanted to go) so we (I) finally settled for a backyard campout. It was soooo very fun!

Playing Hopscotch in the driveway while we were waiting for our dutchoven dessert to finish!

Roasting marshmallows over our very exciting "campfire"!

Preston just could not understand what we were doing with the marshmallows-- he kept lifting his up and nibbling quick bites and then holding the rest over the "fire"!

Me and my sweet baby girl :)

Burke and the kiddos set the tent up. We all squished into the tent and slept fairly well. It took about an hour for all of us to fall asleep together (which was pretty good considering!)

A few fun projects!

Preston might like painting better than just about anything else right now! We have been doing a variety of projects, but here are a few that involved paint! Preston really loves loves loves to create with vibrant color and I think he must feel free when I hand him a brush and put some paint on a tray :) I love to watch his little face while he concentrates (with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth!) and he works to create his masterpiece! I love you little buddy!

Somehow Preston really thinks it is more fun to obey the frog than to obey Mom-- works for me because these frogs have the best ideas of what to do next *wink*

Here is our attempt at creating a solar system poster! We have been loving the summer reading program at our library! It has helped our library trips be much more consistent these last few months! Last week we got a book about our solar system and the "milky way". We definitely were not going for accuracy as you will see, but it was a very fun way for us to apply some of our newfound knowledge about God's great Universe!

Preston painting his "very dark night space"!

Burke helped Preston run the glue, and the Preston decided where they ought to go! I think we ended up with an extra planet and a very chaotic cosmos!

Preston was so pleased with the finished project that he begged to hang it on his bedroom wall :)

The Taste of Summer!

I can't believe it has been a month already! I have many posts to update and I have even tried to do it, but Preston crimped the end of my camera cord so I had to wait until I had another to use! Thanks to Burke for going out to the garage to find my other one or it still wouldn't be done! Hopefully I will get several posts done in the next week or two to let you know a few things we have been up to!

These pictures were taken after a fun family Saturday--we drove the Monument (which we still hadn't done after being here almost a year) and hiked a tiny bit (but I forgot my camera!) and then came home and made fresh strawberry milkshakes. YUM! Here are the kids sampling theirs.

NapTime . . .

I was *hoping* the quiet meant he was doing this . . .
But he was really doing this:

I had a good nap though!

Bye Bye!

Rebekah is getting more verbal all the time. It is super cute but she has started something that is borderline annoying-- every car she sees driving by she says "Bye Bye" to. This started because the kids have a ritual every morning of waving bye bye to Daddy when he leaves for work. But now ANYTIME she sees a moving vehicle she feels the need to wave and say "bye bye". When we eat lunch and dinner we hear a lot of "bye bye" to the cars passing down our street. And when we drive to town, I hear about 12000 "bye bye" calls! Really I think it is quite funny . . . Rebekah waving at the cars passing by.

. . . plus how can I ever really be annoyed with this???!

CAN'T!

Freezer Jam

Preston getting ready to dive into the sink full of berries!

Preston and I made freezer jam about a week ago! It was really fun and we have been eating way too much of it! He is really becoming better help all the time :)

The official taste testers!

In the end we made 4 batches and ended up with about 30 cups of Jam! YUM!

Dinosaur Hill

We went for a little hike up Dinosaur Hill a few weeks ago. Preston has been asking to go back and sit on those "dinosaur bone seats" ever since!