The first few days of August, the kids were still in their two week Digipen summer camp program.
Katie was experimenting with 3D Animation and Mikey was putting together robots.
The first day of August, the kids decided that they wanted to ride home with Daddy.
We dropped off their bikes in the morning and he "picked them up" on his way home.
Mikey was a bit under the weather and had to stop some extra times for water and to blow his nose.
Both kids had fun and there were no major injuries.
Katie "bit it" just once.
Not bad.
That next day was "Showcase Day":
The kids show what they've been working on at camp.
Mikey thought that his Robotics class was just "okay."
He got to build LEGO robots just about every day, but he said it was kinda boring.
He would like to go back to a game design class next year.
The last day they had a Robot Battle.
Katie loved her 3D animation class.
Here are some examples of her work.
Her very happy "Bag o' Gluten"
A walking dog.
An experiment in 3d modeling.
Her final project featuring Cosmo the dog.
Who, I bet you didn't know, has telekinesis and loves cookies.
Summer camps were officially over for the summer.
Mikey got to swim with his friend at the local pool before they both went away on trips.
They wouldn't see each other again until school started.
The beginning of the next week brought with it another Katie-free few days.
A friend that had moved about an hour away invited her over for a two night stay.
Off she went and Mikey and I were left to fill the void.
And what better way to do that than with scrumptious blueberries.
I'm not quite sure how this happened.
Mikey was delighted though.
After extracting the bucket from his butt, he began to fill it.
It's very hard to get Mikey to stop picking once he starts.
There's always another "BIG ONE" that he needs to get.
This year, the farm had signs all over asking people not to eat the berries before purchase.
They recommended that people could sample if they wanted, but just a few.
Despite the clear signage, I caught Mikey shoving whole handfuls into his mouth.
Multiple times.
After a stern talking to (in between eating handfuls of berries myself),
he pressed on and managed to fill his bucket.
He asked that the berries be placed on the seat next to him so that he could keep watch over them in case the elusive Blueberry Monster struck.
Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic and please do not avert your eyes!
You do not want to miss the wonder of the century!
For the first time, a photographer has a captured an image of the ravager of all blueberry harvests.
The ruthless.
The savage.
The bottomless pit.
The
BLUEBERRY MONSTER.
Luckily, more than half the blueberries made it home.
Ralph likes to destroy paper towel tubes.
He'll also chew on toilet paper tubes.
Here he is "recycling" his absolute favorite, a gift wrap tube.
It was time for "neighbor" camping.
We hadn't been as a group in a while. Last summer, there were many conflicts and it just didn't work out.
All of our neighbors have RV's or pop-up campers.
We don't.
In order to remedy this, they selected a place that would allow us to rent a
tiny house.
Here is where we stayed.
Meet Otto.
(Ralph placed there for size comparison)
There was a sitting area when you walked in.
The stairs on the right go up to a loft with two beds - a queen and a twin.
Directly ahead, is the kitchen with a bathroom off to the right (behind the stairs).
Here's the kitchen.
Small fridge, cook top - but no stove.
Here's that sitting area when you first come in.
They had a pretty grody pull out couch to sit on and a TV with cable.
Here's the upstairs beds.
They were pretty clean.
Huzbend decided that Mikey and I would share the queen.
Katie got the twin and he would sleep downstairs on the grody pull-out couch.
Ralph took the mat by the door.
I felt sorry for him.
Huzbend, not Ralph.
We got there in time to eat dinner and hang out.
We were in charge, along with another family, of providing dinner that evening.
Burgers and Dogs it was.
Here are the chefs....
The kids were responsible for making desserts.
Each night we had two dutch oven creations - one GF option and one regular.
Katie was on the Dessert Creation Team the first night.
As the sun went down, we explored the RV resort a bit more.
They had a pool and a rec hall with old video games and ping pong.
Mikey gave his approval of the pool.
We settled in for the night.
The next day, it was pool time.
After playing with the other kids for a while - I could not figure out WHAT they were playing - they went to play with Huzbend.
I had to take pics from behind the fence as we had Ralph with us.
There was this deflated crocodile that the kids were obsessed with.
Katie was able to get on it first.
It took Mikey a while, but he was able to get on.
Then, they found pool noodles and held the Inaugural Pool Noodle Olympics.
It was quite entertaining to watch.
They soon got tired of swimming and we headed back to our tiny house to eat grilled cheese sandwiches.
At first, we started cooking on the cooktop in the tiny house.
They had all the pans, plates, etc. that we would need.
The problem was that the window behind the cooktop didn't open and there was no fan.
The tiny house quickly filled up with smoke from the frying grilled cheese.
Huzbend quit cooking, we opened all the windows and I grabbed a towel to use as a makeshift fan.
We're lucky the fire alarm didn't go off.
Camp stove grilled cheese outside, it was.
Katie's done eating in this picture.
But she LOVED the grilled cheese.
Which is weird because she usually hates anything related to GF bread.
We think that it was because of the cheese.
We used havarti.
The kids ate all the havarti.
After lunch, we walked with the kids up to the resort mini-golf course.
Nothing fancy. Just a small 9 hole course that probably could use some love.
The kids had fun.
On the way back to the campsites, we found some of the rest of the crew playing shuffleboard.
We decided to give it a try.
For some reason, I only have pictures of Mikey.
Katie played too.
It got rainy in the afternoon and the kids did their best to stay occupied.
Video games and....
...board games.
The adults kept occupied too.
........................
This nights dinner was handled by the other families, so we got to sit back and relax.
Yay for taco night.
Mikey was on the Dessert Creation Team this night.
The rest of the night was spent being lazy bums.
Rise and shine, Mikey!
Rise and shine, Katie!
Rise and....
Oh.
Good morning, Ralph.
We had breakfast outside of the tiny house.
I think Ralph was sad to leave.
He really liked hanging out on the sunny porch of the tiny house.
We had another camping trip the following weekend, but first we had to take care of some "housekeeping" items.
Dentist appointments for both kids.
Doctors check-ups for both kids.
And Katie decided that she wanted to celebrate her birthday a few days early as we'd be camping on the actual day.
She got to pick dinner.
Costco rotisserie chicken.
She also made, frosted (with some Mikey assistance) and decorated her own cake.
Happy Birthday, Kiddo!
PHHHHHTTTBBBBBB!
She probably wished for more cake.
Present time!
Thanks, everyone!
She had some very interesting requests this year.
A toaster.
A typewriter.
Buff's (multi-functional head wear that she wears on her wrist and neck).
Candy.
Graphic novels.
Nerdy t-shirts.
Books about math and physics.
I think she was most excited about the toaster.
My kids give the best facial expressions when opening presents.
It could be a pair of slippers and they'd just about fall out of their seats with excitement.
I got Katie the candy she requested.
I also thought it would be funny to get her dehydrated marshmallows as she asks for marshmallows all the time.
Note to future buyers of Anthony's Real Marshamallow Bits on Amazon:
The bag is WAY bigger than you think it is.
She spent the rest of that night reading all her new books/graphic novels.
Wait. What?
Yeah. We went camping again.
We had to rent a car to fit all of our stuff and Ralph.
This time around we were with the crew that's known each other since preschool.
First thing Mikey wanted to do upon setting up camp was to go swimming.
The ocean water was pretty cold.
I think they might've been challenging themselves to go deeper by throwing the tube out into the water.
Just an assumption as Huzbend took these pics.
Finally, Mikey was challenged to put his head under.
Not one to back down from a challenge that would definitely make people laugh
(I see this possibly being a problem in the future),
he accepted.
He confirmed what everyone already knew.
It was cold.
But, garsh darnit, he made people laugh.
The teenagers (and almost teenager) chose to hang out on driftwood and read.
Ralph came too.
I was trying to get a picture of the middle schoolers/soon to be 8th graders, but.....
.....Sigh.
I'm pretty sure we had tacos for dinner.
Or maybe it was s'mores.
Maybe it was just marshmallows.
Definitely. Marshmallows.
One of the things I like best about camping is waking up super early and taking Ralph for walk.
It's so calm and quiet.
Sometimes there's wildlife to spot.
Ralph so very badly wanted to chase the seagulls.
The kids have a hard time getting out of their sleeping bags in the morning.
Here is a picture of Mikey smooshed up against the side of the tent.
Yes.
That is his FACE.
Katie was up semi-early (early for her) this day.
She came over for breakfast.
Mikey.
Slept late.
At least he didn't suffocate on the tent.
Soon, everyone was up and moving.
After some charades.....
....some decided to go for a hike to the bridge.
Some meaning my family and a stow away.
Katie did not want to go on the bridge.
"It's scary."
I'm not sure if Ralph had an opinion.
Huzbend took the two other kiddos with him.
Ralph waited patiently for them to come back.
He's such a good boy.
"We made it!"
And here's a few more photos of these pals.
They make a good pair. They're both hams.
I think I like this one best of all.
The rest of the crew were playing card games on the beach when we got back.
Katie was tired from our hike, I guess.
Or was just enjoying the sun.
CUTE ALERT:
Brown squirrel.
And a chipmunk.
After lunch, it was time to swim.
No ocean this time. It was a lake.
Katie's not in this one. Mikey's got his goggles on.
Chicken Fight!
Round 1!
Sibling vs. Sibling!
Katie wins!
Chicken Fight!
Round 2!
Boy vs. Bigger Boy!
AK!
Nobody wins!
Chicken Fight!
Round.....
?
Boy vs. Bigger Boy!
Again!
(How is this going to work?)
(Um. Is anyone else nervous about this?)
Nobody wins!
Katie soon abandoned the chicken fights to play with the youngers.
Mikey and the two older kids worked for about an hour or so to try to pull off a "triple-decker" - one on bottom, one on their shoulders and another on top of that persons shoulders.
Long story short, it didn't work.
Katie was soon done. She needed a snack.
Mikey was the last to get out.
Not surprising.
Everyone washed the blucky lake water off themselves and headed back to the campsite to get changed.
And get warm.
Some played a card game....
....while others did some MADLibs.
We had burgers and dogs (not the four legged kind) for dinner.
Mikey had a hard time eating as he had a loose canine (again, not the four legged kind) tooth.
Every time he bit down, it would hurt him.
He was not a happy camper. Literally.
It was Katie's official birthday!
She got presents.
And, she got a marshmallow birthday "cake".
She then got to eat all the marshmallows on the plate.
She was in heaven.
We chilled out by the fire playing a game of "What is your favorite?"
Favorite dessert, favorite Marvel movie, favorite Disney princess....etc.
Hey!
I was there too!
The next morning, I got up early, but there were already other people up.
They went along on a hike with Ralph and I and hugged some trees.
When we got back, Katie was still asleep.
We packed up the campsite around her, including the other sleeping bags in the tent.
As a matter of fact, she was the last thing to exit the tent.
"Um? Hello? Can, uh, somebody take this thing off my nose?
So embarrassing. If I only had hands...."
While we cleaned up the sites, we let the kids go off exploring.
The youngers found something they wanted to share.
A fish head on top of some rocks they'd been climbing.
They had a grand old time poking it with sticks and ewwwwing over it.
We said goodbye to our friends and headed home to recover from camping.
We had one day to get some laundry done and to finish packing for our next summer adventure.
Remember the tooth that was bugging Mikey?
It came out.
