packing, unpacking, repacking

Yes, we are still alive! It has been awhile since I've had time to post. Now that the weather is nice, it seems like we spend most of our evenings outside. The girls have been going to bed a bit later than normal, which means that I have very little time to myself in the evenings. That's okay though, I will definitely take the trade off for some nice weather and family time!

It seems like most of my recent evenings have been spent packing, unpacking, doing laundry, and repacking. Last week, the girls and I went camping with my Mom, Dad, sister Rhonda, and four of Olivia and Violet's cousins. I know it sounds crazy, but it takes me all week to pack when we go somewhere on the weekends. Yes, the girls are much easier to pack for than they used to be. There are no more bottles, diapers, sippy cups, bibs, etc. but those things have been replaced with nighttime pull ups, waterbottles, snacks, and of course the arsenal of stuffed animals that they HAVE to bring for bedtime.

Anyway...back to camping. The girls and I drove up on Friday morning and met everyone at the A Maze'n Farmyard in Eden Valley. Violet grabbed cousin Alex's hand and took off running toward all of the animals. She enjoyed petting puppies, kittens, goats, bunnies, miniature donkeys, and several other farm animals. She even rode a horse! Olivia was a little more reserved, and it took her about an hour to warm up to the idea of petting the animals. She eventually came around and had a great time too, although she never built up the courage to ride a horse. However, she did go down the huge slide on a gunny sack with Auntie Rhonda. Both girls had a blast jumping in the inflatable bouncer, and playing in a bin of corn.

We left the farmyard and headed to the campground by New London. The girls and I stayed in a tent with Rhonda and her daughter Emma. My parents stayed in their camper with the other kids. The girls enjoyed fishing, swimming, playing at the playground, and riding their scooters. Violet was like a fish in the water, and had a permanent grin while going down the water slide. She even went out to the diving platform, climbed up on it, and jumped into the water. She would resurface and immediately say, "I want to do it again!" The weather put a little damper on things. We had to head into the campground's storm shelter on Friday evening. Hail, heavy rain and strong winds blew through. Luckily, we didn't have any damage and the tent withstood the storm. But everything was so muddy that the girls were a dirty mess the rest of the weekend! They sure had a lot of fun though. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they adapted to everything. They've been kind of wimpy lately, so I thought they might be scared of the camper, the rain, and anything else that made loud noises. But they did great!

When we got back on Sunday, I started the process of unpacking and doing laundry. We are heading up to my parent's and in-law's this weekend, so I've been spending this week repacking. Phew! What a process.

Camping pictures will be posted soon. I haven't had a chance to organize them yet!!