Beaver Creek: Part Two

These little cousins had so much fun together. Line and Daniel are pretty inseparable. Maggie and Charlie can be independent but they also like to follow the older kids to see where they're going. Hudson is just kind of in his own little world, and he's pretty happy about it :) They went on many hikes together and explored every inch of our campground together. I was a little worried that all these kids would mean a more stressful trip, but it turned out to be the opposite. 

Line lead the way for climbing and Charlie really enjoyed keeping up. Daniel was more frustrated that Charlie was cutting in on his Line time.

Line is the sweetest lover girl. She loves her cousins and sisters, it's so sweet to watch her.

Beaver Creek: Part One

This past weekend we went camping and decided to give Beaver Creek Campground a try and it was fantastic. The campground was smaller than most which translated into a more quiet campground. Except for the birds, I was not a fan of those. There were two owls (that were possibly in mating season) who would screech through the night with this terrible noise and they continued until at least 3 am. And then the crows would start and it sounded like small children screaming at the top of their lungs. Needless to say, I did not sleep well on the first night, but I was so exhausted by the second night that I slept pretty great.

Besides these demon birds the trip was surprisingly relaxing. Charlie absolutely was beside himself with joy. He loved climbing on all the fallen trees, exploring with his cousins, and just being able to get dirty. I am very excited to go again in a few weeks now that I know it is not as stressful as I had imagined.

First thing he did was play with the grates over the fire pits.

Line loves to hold her baby sister, but Arden doesn't quite enjoy it yet

Babies in the morning are one of my favorite things

Pizza Picnic

The other night we decided to go have a picnic at the park, and we decided that we also wanted pizza so that's exactly what we had. I never really thought about bringing pizza to a picnic, but let me tell you, it was quite wonderful. Easy clean up and no hassle with bringing lots of stuff. Now, we didn't bring salads or anything so I'm sure you could bring those along if you really wanted to have a healthy dinner, but this was quite delicious. 

Snack Time!

These are the only pictures I ended up taking of my brothers birthday party. And the party definitely didn't start for another hour. Oh well. The kids were adorable while they were snacking, all scrunched down and sharing the stool. But just to let you know, the actual party was pretty fantastic. We just relaxed outside and BBQ'd some burgers and had a grand time. Really. It was wonderful. 

On Wednesday Charlie and I ended up going to the farmers market and it just so happened that our timing was perfect for a concert. They had these adorable kids from the Mansanko(?) Orphans Choir; they are orphans from all over the world and they put on a little show for us. It was adorable. Anyways, I wish I had brought my camera, but I didn't, so boo.

Saturday Adventures

I have once again gotten out of the habit of taking photos. I think it is mostly due to the fact that Andy has been working and hasn't been coming with me and taking photos. It's definitely not my fault though. Just in case you were wondering. But enough about me, here are some photos of little Charles. On Saturday we decided to go to the Perry Street Fair for the first time. First we walked through the booths, then we went to the playground and stared at other children playing, and then we ended it by staring at other children jumping in the bounce houses. If Charlie was older and a little braver I would have put him in, but I think he would have just cried. But after the fair we went home and got to play with the hose, which is Charlie's absolute favorite past time.

Also he loves to chase the neighborhood cats.

Couer d'Alene

It turns out that we decided to take about zero pictures of our day trip to Coeur d'Alene, oh well, what are you gonna do? We played in the park for a bit before eating our picnic lunches and then most of us played in the lake. Charlie desperately needed a nap so I ended up walking him around the park until he fell asleep and then hanging out in the shade while he slept. I missed out on the water, but I didn't mind it. The day was nice and the breeze was fantastic. It turned out to be an extremely relaxing day for me and zero sunburns over here!

Riverfront Park

While my brother was in town we decided to head down to Riverfront Park and spend the day there. It turned out to be super fun! Charlie did pretty well on the rides, mostly he was just unsure about them. Didn't hate them, but didn't enjoy them either. Surprisingly the one ride that he really didn't like was the carousel. He didn't mind being held or sitting down on the bench with me, but being up on the horses really freaked him out. But Kennedy is a little daredevil! She loved all of them and went on the Scrambler multiple times. I was very impressed.

Line was definitely not impressed with this one.

Teacups were a nice safe ride

Cooling the kiddies off