Kamden and the Purdue Hat

Nathan's brother, David went to graduate school at Purdue. When his parents traveled to Indiana for his graduation, Grandpa Benson bought a little get up for Kamden! It didn't fit at the time but we recently pulled it out of the storage and it fit! I can't tell you how much Kamden loved that he had a hat attached to his pajamas and how cute we thought he was in it!

He found his dad's Amsoil hat from Grandpa Oler in the morning and had to try that one on too!

I sure love that little guy!

Grill/Swim Party

After we got home from our failed attempt at camping, we had a surprise visit from Jen. It was great and just what we needed. We went ahead and filled up Kamden's little pool and had tin foil dinners outside in the back yard. We love having Jen so close and really enjoy it when she comes to visit!

Yummy...not!

  

It was a nice way to spend some of our extra time!

Birthday Camping Attempt

For my birthday this year I asked Nathan for one thing...to go camping! It's been quite a while and all my family had a fun camping trip in Idaho recently. I was jealous of awesome scenery pictures and Facebook posts! We researched a good place for quite a while and whether we wanted to do it at a theme park, water park, national park, in a cabin, in a tent, or in an r.v. We decided on traditional camping in the tent of a national forest in Virginia. It was the cheapest option and also more of camping than the other options. We spent a couple days getting everything ready and packed up to go for 4 days. We checked the weather and mapped out the perfect camping spot. It was supposed to be in the low 80's when we reserved the spot.

The day to leave came, Nathan got off work early, and I was scrambling to get stuff done but the kids were not cooperating! It took forever and we didn't get to leave until around 5 or 6 p.m. which was much later than we had planned. When we got there we got things set up for the most part and I organized the tent while Nathan started a fire to make some dinner for our starving little family. We finally got some dinner and enjoyed our night. Unfortuantely, the camping spot wasn't what we had planned though and it was very warm for being so late. We retired to bed after a while and while we slept pretty good that night we woke up feeling like we just jumped out of the shower or went swimming. It was so humid. We didn't have to much for plans that day other than maybe hang out at the campground, play games, and let Kamden run around, or maybe go to the pond.

Little did we know that it would get really REALLY hot and humid that day. It was in the 90's by noon and the temperature kept climbing. Kamden was a sweaty mess, Kali was overheating and we were trying to deal with two kids that were both a sweaty, miserable mess. I spent much of my time in the suburban trying to cool off while I nursed Kaliana and we went driving around just to cool off. Let's be honest I had a bit of a break down, and in tears I told Nathan of my woes and how this was not the idea I had in mind when I wanted to go camping. If we weren't dealing with one hot, grumpy child we were dealing with another. There was no time for relaxation and I was completely disappointed.  I just knew that there was no way we would make it four days so that day around 4 we packed everything up and headed on our way. It started pouring on us the last 15 minutes of packing up so by the time we were out of there we didn't regret leaving one bit. We spent the rest of the camping vacation in an air conditioned house, venturing outside every now and then to use the grill!

These pictures are my proof of the hot, sweaty, dirty mess we all were!

July 4, 2013

For the 4th of July this year we had a very full couple of days. It was packed full of fun and we had a blast!

In the morning of the 4th we went to a ward breakfast to celebrate. Kamden ate loads of pancakes and ran around all morning on the playground staying busy! 

When it was all over we packed up and headed home to work on our own little party for that night!

After we ate, the kids started in on the sidewalk chalk and had a blast!

Kamden and Eva are only about 2 weeks apart and they just love each other!

Sparklers and a few fireworks ended off our night! Shhh...don't tell...fireworks aren't legal in Prince Georges County.

On Saturday there was a parade and fireworks that we decided to do. We had to clean the church that morning and didn't think we would get done in time to go to the parade. We got done just in time to run home, change our clothes, grab some water, and head over to the parade.

I think our favorite part was the weiner mobile and Kamden's favorite part was the candy and the lights!

After the parade we had the Toone's come over to our place for a little water party with the kids since it was so hot! I was all shuttered out for awhile so there are not pictures of the water fun.

However, later that night we finished off the day with the firework display in Laurel at the park.

We had a great 4th of July! I can't tell you how perfect it is we have such a great excuse for a party, a parade, and fireworks so we can celebrate together the freedom of our country!