2015. The year of extra crazy. With Andrew not working, and Aotis giving me an excuse to leave my job, we're taking advantage of some extra flexibility in life. Translation: getting to spend more of the year in Wisconsin. This is our year to spend Christmas in Wisconsin, and with only a few months between the end of summer and xmas, it made sense to just stay here. Except for the brief trip back to CA for the annual Keane-Miller family camping trip, which we drove back for. So yeah, we're doing the cross-country drive twice (well, four times really). We've got 3 of 4 down now, with only 1 left to go when it's time to return home and to reality after the holidays.
So here comes a completely random assortment of photos from the camping trip. Another fabulous week of camping for the memory books!
Since this is the only picture I managed to take from our road trip back to CA, I figured I'd include it here. This is from Pyramid Lake, just north of Reno. Of course the forecast for wind was worth the detour...
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| Andrew sailing on "the moon" |
By Friday night, we all arrived at the campsite that Baba and Dave had graciously arrived early to snatch up for us. In true Keane-Miller fashion, we set up camp in the dark, but by Saturday morning, these little munchkins were all smiles playing in the "playroom" (screened shade tent with a tarp underneath).
Gus enjoyed setting up towers of blocks for Sloane to knock down. :)
Aotis got to enjoy a nap in Baba's arms
Arjen and I caught in a sweet moment :)
Auntie Casey getting some play time too
This guy loved making S'mores so much so that he learned how to build a fire every night so there'd be no excuse to not make more S'mores!...
…we learned quickly to encourage him to kill time gathering small sticks for his fires!
We also put him to work refilling our camp water jugs!
And he spent plenty of time fishing too...
...Arjen with his first fish of the trip, caught while fishing with Grandpa Dave...
…and he even participated in the cleaning of the fish he caught!
Gus proudly displaying his catch too!
Our campground is named "Cave Camp" for the Subway cave created by lava across the road. The boys didn't seem to remember walking through it two years ago when we were last here, but definitely enjoyed the trek this time. So much so that I couldn't even get them to pause at the end to turn around for a photo op. So it goes.
We're sisters…wah wah wah… (everyone needs a little black tank to wear when camping!)
Of course this guy decided to really test our parenting skills with repeat blow outs on this trip. Letting him soak in a little Vitamin D between wardrobe changes here.
The double BOB was perfect for getting these two to nap every day. Made me really appreciate that none of my kids were twins! Sloane still has Aotis in length, but he clearly has caught up, and then some in girth. Have you seen this kid's thighs?
And while the wee ones were peacefully asleep, the adults ventured upriver for some chilly fun (The creek is freezing cold snow melt! A couple years back we upgraded to the queen size air mattresses from the inflatable pool air rafts we used to use as kids. Makes for a much more pleasant float down the creek!)
Of course there always has to be one crazy kid in the bunch...
And the crazy guy's offspring… (p.s. while it looks relatively tame, you can clearly see from Brian's scrambling to turn his raft that it's not totally a relaxing, lazy float!)
I just had to throw this treasure in. Wish I could claim credit for the artistry, but it was truly just a coincidental, yet perfect!, find in the ladies room. :)
Did I mention this little guy liked waking up with blowouts? Keeping him warm in bed with Dad while I fished out some clean, and warm, clothes. Again.
The boys loved getting some cousin time on the Keane-Miller side of the fam. No one complained about getting dirty, that's for sure!
Perhaps all the blowouts were due to this guy starting solids on this trip! (I'll probably have to do the token 'first foods' blog for this guy I suppose)
Other new adventures within this camping trip, included Arjen showing more interest in taking pictures, especially with the new selfie stick we acquired. Just a few faces of Arjen:
And since he had commandeered my phone, I also asked him to take some pictures of his favorite things at the campsite. Among them:
Hat Creek, site of some successful trout fishing!
The trees! (which provided all of our firewood thanks to a major windstorm that had blown a bunch down earlier in the year)
Our tent. Our massive, must-think-we're-texans-because-bigger-is-better, orange tent. Fondly known as Taj Mahal.
The campsite (with creek just off the right hand side of the picture)
And of course, the token multi-generational picture, with the younger generation teaching the older generation about taking a selfie. (And another favorite about camping…Baba!)
This one was perhaps one of my favorite moments towards the end of the week (yes, we camped, in the dirt, for 6 nights and 6 days). All three napping at the same time! Man oh man did they (and I!) need that!
Good to know that Gus can keep to his usual self and "schedule" while away from home as well...
The older boys enjoying their fire on our last night (Gus is in the reclined chair on the left)
And this guy didn't dare miss out on cards that last night either!
We were fortunate to have Baba keep the kids entertained while we broke down camp to pack up. They found a "Christmas" tree, and proceeded to decorate it with ornaments they made out of pine cones and "fuzzy sticks" (aka pipe cleaners). It was pretty sweet. They thoroughly enjoyed this activity.
After a weeks worth of camping, these guys could've been mistaken for Pig-Pen from Peanuts.
We upgraded the camping experience to include a sun-shower this year, so everyone got a preemptive rinse off before being thrown in the car to head home.
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| Don't look too closely, but the shower is way out there |
The march back from the shower
The gang's all here!
