First Camping Trip and Father's Day!

It took us longer this year, but we finally went camping for our first time. We decided to go on Father`s Day weekend. The girls went to school on Friday morning, and I flew into Lethbridge to get a few things. I was able to drop DJ off at the farm with his Uncle David. That saved me a lot of time!

I came home and started to pack. I had gotten the trailer ready and few weeks before. So I basically had to pack up our clothes and some food. I put the girls to work to clean the house. They did a pretty good job. We got all packed up and hooked up ready to go. Then we were out of here.

We got down to Echo Lake at around 7pm. The kids were super excited to be there. We decided to take our trailer back down to Robinson`s at Echo. Just like we did last year. Richard started setting up the trailer while I cooked us some supper. The kids ran around like crazy, outside. It was a little hard to get them to settle down for bed. So we all went to bed pretty late.

Saturday morning after we ate breakfast we headed into Kalispel. We went and did some shopping at Walmart. We had to get food for the trailer and a few other things that we missed. That took us a few hours. Then we decided to take the kids to a movie. We went and saw Epic. It was a good movie and the kids had fun watching it. Cadence and DJ got a little scared, but they all made it to the end!

Then we came home and had a late lunch. It was so nice out, so we played outside and walked down to the dock and threw rocks in the water. The kids were all mad at me because I forgot to bring their life jackets. I didn't think it would be very nice. We left on a very rainy day. But I was wrong. So they splashed in the water a little bit. We didn't let them go right in. Brianna went to go splash me, she bent down to splash me with her hand and she fell, head first into the water. I wasn't very close to her, but Richard was right there and he quickly grabbed her and pulled her up. I was laughing, and she was so mad at me. She was not happy, which, for some reason made me want to laugh more. So she went back up to the trailer with her dad.

Richard and Brianna dipping their feet in the water!

DJ getting more rocks to throw into the lake!

Cute Brianna with her goofy dad!! ha ha!

The kids had fun splashing in the water!

DJ wasn't sure if he should put his feet in or not!

Here's Cadence with her new hat we bought her. She needs something to keep the sun off of her!

DJ got a new hat too! So cute!

We spent a lot of time practising playing catch. I brought our gloves and balls. Abbi has been doing coach pitch and we needed to practise catching and throwing. I was very impressed with all my girls. They did very well. We probably spent hours just throwing and catching. They loved it. We only had a few mishaps. Richard threw a ball to Abbi and it hit the top of her glove and then it hit her mouth. Poor girl. Her lip was bleeding and she was pretty sad. She ended up with a big fat, black and blue lip. Cadence got a soft ball in her face too! But overall, they all loved playing catch!

Abbi and Brianna playing catch with a tennis ball.

DJ and Cadence had fun exploring in the trees and making little forts!

Abbi playing catch with her dad.

Brianna playing catch with her awesome dad!

Sunday we got up and got ready for church. We got there in time and stayed for Sacrament meeting. Our kids were a little wild. Not sure why, but DJ was hard to control. Sheesh! So we came back and had lunch. Then we relaxed for a little bit. We promised the kids that we would go for a Sunday drive in the afternoon.

We loaded up and decided to go check out Swan Lake. Away we went. We got there and parked and decided to follow a paved path down to the water. As we were walking I noticed a caterpillar hanging in the air. DJ almost walked right into it. I stopped him and had him walk around it. Then we looked at the tree and noticed it was COVERED with caterpillars. It was disgusting. We hurried on and got down to the water. We were there for all of 30 seconds when a little fly flew by DJ. Well he about freaked out. He was waving his hands in the air and dancing around and screaming his head off. Everyone was looking over at us. I couldn't get him to calm down though, because he thought there was bugs all over him. So I picked him up and that helped. Then I heard Richard tell Abbi to hurry and get out of the water. I could tell something was wrong. I looked over and there was a HUGE leech in the water and it was floating towards Abbi's foot. AAHHH, so disgusting. It was huge. Richard and I looked at each other and we said, "Let's go!" So that was an Epic fail. But as we were walking back to the car, Cadence was catching all these floating caterpillars on a frisbee. She wasn't touching them with her hand (because she doesn't like bugs), but thought it was funny that she was able to have them land on the frisbee. She probably had over 10 on it. When we got to the car she flipped the frisbee over to dump them out. But a few were still hanging on. I told her to STOP, because there were more caterpillars. Well she screamed and threw the frisbee in the air and started dancing around the parking lot. It was really funny. We got to the truck and there were caterpillars all over it. So gross. To say the least, I felt a little creeped out by the time we got going. Then we had to stop, because everyone was screaming, because Cadence found one on her pants. DJ was crying! It was mayhem!! ha ha! We finally got everyone settled down and told everyone to stop talking about caterpillars even though we could see them crawling all over our windows (on the outside) as we were driving. DJ finally fell asleep. Poor boy, was a little traumatized!! We went for a little drive as he slept, which was nice and calming!

Going for our nice calm drive after all the craziness. Cadence refused to sit back on her booster, she was sure that's where the caterpillar came from!

DJ sound asleep! Love how he sleeps, so cute!

Then on the way back to the trailer, we stopped at the tire park and let the kids play. We sat and watched them. We didn't stay very long, but it was nice to let them run around. Luckily we didn't have the caterpillar problem at our camp site!

Brianna trying out the new tram! She also got a new hat!

Cadence going on the tram!

Abbi decided that she was too big for the tram. I told her to hold her legs up, but she thought it was funny that she could touch the ground!

DJ playing with his awesome matching outfit!! ha ha!

We had a yummy supper of chicken and rice. Oh I forgot to say that it was Father's Day and the kids were super excited to give their stuff to their dad in the morning. I helped DJ get his dad something. It was a pocket knife. I told the kids not to tell him what it was. Abbi liked to always bring it up and she would tell him it was something crazy. Then DJ said, "No me got daddy a knife." It was kind of funny! We got Richard some yummy Father's Day cupcakes that we had for dessert. He is the best dad ever. So grateful for my husband. It was a fun way to spend Father's Day.

DJ eating the icing off the cupcakes!

We were all finished and he decided to eat some more!

Cupcakes for the #1 Dad!!! DJ loved that it said Superman!!

We stayed over one more night. We packed up on Monday morning, while Richard ran to get a plumbing part for the Robinson's. When he got back we were ready to go. We did stop at a few stores and then had lunch at Famous Dave's. Then shopped at Costco and then we were on our way. It was a fun weekend to get away. So glad we did.

Kite Day and Grade One Field Trip!!

The Monday after I got back from Vegas it was the girls Kite Day at school. They were all super excited. They did it the last hour of school. So DJ and I showed up and flew kites with them. I basically helped kids the whole time and they ran around like crazy. It was funny to watch.

DJ running with his kite, just before all the kids came out.

Cadence trying to keep her kite up in the sky!

There`s Abbi (in the middle of the picture with a pink shirt) flying her kite. She was able to get her kite up and used up all her string. She had it up super high.

Brianna was good at running everywhere with her kite. DJ liked to follow her.

After flying kites, we came home and all the girls got their hair cut!! Here`s all their hair!!

The school called and asked if I would drive bus for the Grade 1 Field trip and I said yes. They told me I could bring DJ along too. That worked out perfect for us. The Field trip was the next day, after Kite day. It was Tuesday, June 11, 2013. It was a full day too! I dropped the girls off for school and DJ and I went and got the keys for the bus. We went and got it and pulled it up behind the school and waited for all the kids. We got an extra long bus, so all the Grade 1`s were able to go on the same bus! It was crazy times!!

We first went to the Galt Muesem. We were there for about 2hrs. I was very impressed at how good all the kids were. Sorry, but it was a little boring, but the kids did awesome. We got to go into a pretend teepee and learn some history.

The kids listening to the lady. They are looking down into the coulees.

Brianna sitting with her friends in the big teepee.

Brianna got to dress up as a teacher in the olden days!

Every time someone went out to dress up, all the kids had to close their eyes. Here`s DJ closing his eyes! Too cute!

Abbi kind of closing her eyes and Cadence squeezing her eyes tight!

Brianna hiding her eyes!

They loved sitting in the teepee room. Here`s Cadence, DJ, Abbi, Bailey, Brianna and Tessa!

Cadence wearing an old coal mine helmet.

After that we loaded up again and headed down to Indian Battle Park. We had a picnic there. The kids all had fun running around and playing afterwards. There were lots of things to climb on. As kids were playing the teachers split them up in 3 groups and they went up to the look out point. DJ and I went up with Cadence first and stayed up there and waited for the other two to come. I had to get pictures of all my girls!!

Abbi coming onto the bus.

Cadence, with her goofy smile! Love her!

Brianna coming on the bus.

A picture of everyone on the bus. Love the dazed and confused look on Mrs. Fisher`s face!! ha ha!

I caught DJ in mid air, falling! Poor boy, hit his bottom so hard. He was not a happy camper.

Beautiful Abbi with the train bridge behind her!

DJ by the climbing wall!

DJ and Cadence both climbing the wall!

Cadence showing off her climbing skills!



Cadence and DJ at the top of our little climb. You can see our bus in the back ground!

All the other kids down playing on the playground!

DJ and Cadence with other grade oners by the train bridge.

Cadence walking back down with Mrs. Fisher.

Abbi coming up the hill.



Abbi at the top, by the bridge! Love this picture of her!

Brianna climbing up the stairs!

Brianna with the train bridge!

DJ and Brianna

Proof that I was actually there! Me and DJ!

Brianna playing at the play ground!

DJ determined to climb the big rock!

After that we went over to the Helen Schuller Center. Again the kids were split up into 2 groups this time. The 1st group went on a nature hike and the 2nd group went into the center. We were in the 2nd group. So we went in and checked out all the cool animals. DJ was in heaven. They all got to feel some snake skin, and see the snake in her cage. There was a cool looking lizard too. It was fed while we were watching. We got to watch 5 crickets hopping around the cage. The lizard just sat there and watched them. DJ had his face plastered against the glass. Then all of the sudden the lizard moved super fast and ate a cricket, which was right by DJ face. DJ jumped so high. It was pretty funny. He thought it was so cool to watch. The girls had a blast in there too. Lots to do.

DJ loved watching this cool looking lizard!!!

Abbi by the snake aquarium!

Abbi checking out the snake skin.

Cadence checking out the cool bird.

Brianna at the fishing pond.

DJ so happy that he caught something!

Lucy and Abbi busy watching the lizard eat the crickets!

Cadence looking really tired!! ha ha!

DJ busy at the craft table!

Then we came out and listened to a worker explain the importance of bird immigration. They played a fun game afterwards too. Then they went on a nature hike. DJ was so done by this point. He was hot, tired and grumpy. So we left and slowly walked back towards the bus to wait for the kids. As we were hiking we heard a train. DJ was super excited to see a train cross the big bridge. So we sat there and watched it.

The girls ready to go on their nature walk!!

DJ waving hi to the train!

Then it was time to go home. By the time we made it back to the school I had DJ and Cadence sound asleep. We were suppose to go straight to soccer, but DJ was super grumpy, because I woke him up. Oh I should say Cadence was super grumpy too, so they sat in the vehicle and watched a movie while I coached soccer for Brianna and Abbi! We were all super tired that night. I went to bed at 9pm. The kids all went to bed so good, even though two of them had a nap. It was a good day!