I usally make lists, with ideas for each kid. That way I go to the store prepared, and I can make things as even/fair as I can. Have to make sure they get the same amount of gifts, right? … I’ll have to finish up my lists and post my ideas in a private post soon. (I can no longer talk about gifts in the open, as Josh reads my blog on a regular basis.

What’s really strange though, is the fact that we no longer shop for Christmas presents on the toy aisle… When in the world did they all get so old that we rarely buy toys anymore. *sigh*

These kids are growing up way too fast…

And yes, I know I need to do some blog hopping as well… All in good time, all in good time.

Josh FINALLY lost another tooth. It’s one that has been loose for over a year now. Yes, you heard that right, and no, I am not exagerating! The permanent tooth came in behind it in March of 2009, and he’s been baby-ing it ever since. I’m glad that it’s finally out, and now I can only hope that the new tooth moves forward some… Anyway, it came out last Thursday, on the 2nd.

The free bowling program from kidsbowlfree.com has come to an end, much to the kids’ sadness. Now there will be no more (almost) daily trips to the bowling alley. We told the kids that, during the school year, we would go on Friday nights, for them to practice. Then they have their kids’ league on Saturday, which starts up again on the 18th. Jared, Josh, and Alicia will also be doing a junior/adult league with Joe on Sunday evenings… Bowling 3 days a week is more than enough during the school year, don’t you think? … Of course, the boys don’t entirely agree with us.

Speaking of bowling, Jared had an AWESOME game on Monday. He bowled his first “clean game” … Which means that he didn’t leave any pins standing, getting all strikes and spares, and came out with a score of 245!!! … TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE!!! … How awesome is that?!?! … Unfortunately, Joe and the boys had gone alone, so I didn’t get to see it. *sigh* He always seems to bowl his best when I am not there to watch.

I wonder how long it will be before he can top that high game! *lol*

One of the things I wanted to get done this summer was to paint Alicia’s bedroom, and we finally got around to doing it this last weekend… Nothing like waiting until the last moment, huh?

On Thursday we emptied Alicia’s bedroom, piling all her furniture, etc into the living room. We were going to prep the room on Friday, but we ended up being out too late, so we got to it early on Saturday. It only took us 3 hours to paint the room, after which we cleaned up and went to the bowling alley… That night, right before heading to bed, I went to check on the room, to see if the paint was dry. That’s when I noticed that the blue didn’t all match. We had opened up a second can of paint, and used it for part of the room, and it was a slightly different shade… Actually, the green did the same thing to us, but we decided not to stress about the green, as the obvious parts would be hidden by furniture… So, on Sunday, as soon as Joe came home from work, we hauled all the paint back out and put another coat of the blue paint on the top. It was a royal pain in the other side of my lap, but it’s worth it, as it looks much better now.

That evening, after the paint dried, we got the trim up and then moved the furniture back in. By this point we were all too tired to do anything else, so I finished up Alicia’s room on Monday afternoon… Well, almost finished up. There are still some pictures to hang, and I need to sew up the valance for the window. I will get pictures of the completed room as soon as those two things are done.

Amanda kept coming into the room while we were working and going on and on about how she wished she had done horses in her room too. I’m like, “Oh no! We already did your room in Hannah Montana, and it’s going to be a LONG time before I redo your room!” *lol* … Stinker!

Anyway, Alicia loves her room, and she loves how I set it up. She kept going on about how pretty it was, and how I was so good at decorating. *lol* … I’m not really, they just impress easily.

We started our 2010/2011 school year yesterday… And MAN, did I get some grief about that on facebook! People just couldn’t believe that I would make the kids do school on Labor Day, which is a national holiday. … We have always started school on Labor Day. When I make up the lesson plans for the year, the OCD part of me HAS to have Monday-Friday weeks. I just CAN NOT do a four day week! It would mess up the flow of things, and I can’t have that! … And you know what, it has never bothered the kids one bit… It’s not like they never get time off school. Heck, they just got off a FOUR MONTH summer vacation! *lol*

So I guess I am now known as the cruel mom who makes her kids do school on Labor Day. *rofl*

Anyway, the day went smoothly enough, considering that there are four of them in school full time now. (I can’t believe my baby is in 1st grade! ) … Though, MAN, Jared has some hard school work this year! He’s in 7th grade now, and some of the questions they ask are tough! Especially in his Life Science book. School work was never that hard when I was in 7th grade. Trust me!

A few weeks ago, my friend, Annika, said that she would like to see an updated version of one of my “Day in the Life” posts, since it’s been 5 years since my last one… So, one day soon, I will be working on that, so you can sort of see what it’s like to be a homeschooling family of 6.

One realization hit me today, and that was I am going to have to learn to blog in the evenings again. I now have no more time for morning blogging, or anything else for me, for that matter. *lol* … After this weekend, there won’t even be any sleeping in until Thanksgiving vacation. *sigh* … We have to get up early on Monday-Fridays for school. Then, starting on the 18th, we have to get up early on Saturdays, for the kids’ bowling league. Then, of course, there is church on Sunday.

So… For now on my blog posts will be written at night… At least until next summer.

So… Hmmm… Is there anything else going on? … I don’t think so! So I’ll catch ya on the flip side!

Anyway, back to Prineville, as I never wrote about the last day.

I got up at around 7:00 and went and took a shower in the camp showers… Turns out that 7:00 is a bad time, as everyone and their mother is taking a shower. *lol* … But I managed to get a mostly hot shower, which is better than no shower at all.

When I got back to the campsite, Joe and the kids were all up. So we had a simple breakfast of toast and/or cereal, and then I sent Joe and the kids to take a shower while I did the dishes. Once they were back, I did the girls’ hair and off we went. I wanted to do our “homeschool portraits”, so they had all dressed in nicer clothes… We went to 3 different areas and I snapped a bunch of photos of them. When we got home, the hard part came when I had to choose the pictures to be the “official” school pictures. *lol*

After I was done taking pictures, we headed back to the trailer and got ready to go. I think it was around 12:30 when we were pulling out of the campsite.

Joe had called 511 again, and it sounded like parts of hwy 126 (the Santiam Pass) was possibly closed due to the forest fire, so we decided not to chance trying to go home that way… Wouldn’t want to try to make a u-turn while pulling a 26 foot trailer with our little Durango. So instead we drove north west and went on the pass by Mt. Hood… I have no idea what that pass is called. *lol*

The kids were quite impressed by how close to Mt. Hood we got, but I didn’t bother to take any pictures. The top half of the mountain was hidden in clouds.

There were some delays on hwy 26 though, as they were doing the “Hood to Coast Relay” … While Joe drove, the kids and I watched all the runners… I would have watched more closely, had I known our friend, Erika, was running in it! … Joe and I used to work with Erika at PayLess, and I found out today, on facebook, that she ran in it for the first time… Pretty cool!

We made it into Sandy, Oregon by 3:30, by which time we were all pretty hungry. So we stopped at McDonald’s for a late lunch, and then headed home… I think we were home sometime between 5:00 and 5:30… We spent the next hour and a half, to two hours, unloading the trailer, unpacking, cleaning up after the cats (you WOULD NOT believe the mess two little kittens can make in the bathroom!!!), etc.

The first thing the boys did when they got home was to run into their rooms, grab out their bowling balls, and kiss them. *lol* … Going 7 days without bowling about killed them.

The boys wanted to go bowling as soon as everything was put away, and Joe thought it would be easier to just take all the laundry to one of the laundry mats in town and get it washed all at once, instead of having me spend all weekend doing it.

Joe thought we should go to the newer laundry mat, as it was nicer, but I am now wondering if it would have been better going to the old one… The washing machines cost $2.00 a piece to run them! The ones in Redmond were $1.50 to use… When you have 11 loads of laundry, that can really add up! … Plus, while the dryers cost the same as in Redmond, they didn’t dry as well so you had to run them longer, which meant that they really didn’t cost the same. … So 2 hours and $29 later, all the laundry was washed and folded.

While I was at the laundry mat with Amanda, Joe and the other kids went to the bowling alley and bowled 3 games… The boys were sure happy about that!

On Saturday, Josh and the girls had a Bible Day Camp to go to, with their Sunday School class. Like they did in June, we dropped them off at the church at 11:00 and they were bussed to Feyrer Park. Then we had to meet them back at the church at 3:00… They had a lot of fun, got to have a BBQ, play games, and came home with lots of little goodies.

While they were doing that, Joe, Jared, and I went to the bowling alley again, as a treat for Jared, now that he is in the youth group and didn’t go to the Bible camp… Jared talked me into bowling too, and he was thrilled to have us both to himself. We had lunch there too, since the others were having the BBQ.

As for the rest of the evening, we didn’t do much of ANYTHING. Just sat around on our rears, watching movies and bumming… And I’m sure that Joe got some naps in.

Oh wait! … I forgot… Joe, Alicia, and I did go to Walmart on Saturday, to get some groceries for the week. We left the other kids at home, but Alicia needed new shoes, so she came with us… We had to buy her size FIVE! She can fit perfectly into size 4s, but we wanted to give her some growing room.

She sure is growing up in a hurry! *sigh*

Since Sunday was the last day of his vacation, Joe wanted to be bad and skip church. He wanted to sleep in and get a lazy day in, since he won’t get another vacation until March… So that’s what we did… We did do a little bit of housework, but mainly we just bummed.

As for today, Joe is back to work, and the kids and I got some housework done… I’m also doing some laundry, as Mondays are my usual laundry days (along with Thursdays)… Well, the dryer just stopped, so I better run! … Catch ya on the flip side!

I meant to come back last night and finish my post for yesterday, but I guess I was too lazy. *lol* … Since everyone is still in bed, I thought I would come finish up… We’ll be leaving the campsite today, so as soon as everyone is up, It’ll be time to get busy.

After kicking back in the trailer for a while, we decided to go on a walk. So we grabbed our cameras and the wagon for Amanda (her legs get tired easy), and off we went. We wanted to go past the camp entrance, to get some pictures of the reservoir from there.

After we had walked for a while, we stopped so I could get a picture of the kids by a big rock. As we were walking back to the wagon, I happened to look down the hill and there was a buck laying down in the shade of some trees. He was only about 75-100 feet away from us, and just laid there and watched us… Which I admit, made me a little nervous. *lol* (I kept imagining that we would tick him off and he would come after us with those antlers of his. ) … Anyway, it was pretty cool and the kids were thrilled.

I wanted to walk farther, but cars would drive quickly around the corner, coming rather close to the corner. I decided it was too dangerous to continue, so we turned back and went back to camp.

We decided that it was too windy to chance building a fire, so we made either ham sandwiches or leftovers for dinner, and just kicked back in the trailer… It’s amazing how messy the trailer can get when we’re stuck inside! *sigh* … I have a lot to do in here this morning, when we’re getting ready to clean! It’s a disaster in here!

Well, sounds like everyone is waking up. Time to pull out some cereal and make some toast for breakfast, and then send everyone down to take their showers while I do the dishes… I want everyone looking their best today, because I am going to take the kids’ “back to school” portraits today, with the reservoir as the background.

Catch ya’ll when we get home!

First of all, the boys seemed to do well in the tent. I was the only one who was traumatized by it at all. I made Joe keep the trailer door open all night (with the screen door closed), so we could hear if there was any trouble. Also, Jared had not only his cell phone with him, but one of the walkie talkies as well, and we kept the other one, in case they needed something.

Secondly, it’s Joe’s 43rd birthday today! … Happy Birthday, honey! Hope you had a somewhat OK day.

I got out of bed at around 6:15, and went to take a shower. It was a beautiful morning. The sky was blue, and the sun was just coming up over the reservoir. So, after my shower, I went and grabbed my camera and took some pictures.

We got the kids up at 7:30-ish, and by 8:00-ish they were dressed and ready to go. The plan was to go to the Black Bear Diner in Redmond (now that we knew that Redmond had one!) for Joe’s birthday breakfast, and then go to the McKenzie Pass to see the Dee Wright Observatory. Then we would come back to the park and let the kids swim for the rest of the day.

That was the plan, anyway…

We got to the Black Bear Diner at around 9:00 and had a wonderful breakfast. That has got to be one of our favorite restaurants. It’s too bad that we don’t have any in our area. I know there is one in Beaverton, but that’s quite a distance from Molalla. … When we were there, I saw a shirt that had a huge bear sitting on one of those “Big Dog” dogs. The shirt said, “Big dogs make great chairs”, or something like that. Joe and I loved that shirt, especially since Joe’s Dad is addicted to Big Dog shirts, which made the shirt even more funny. So I told Joe that he should get one for his birthday present, but when we went to pick one out, we couldn’t find any in Joe’s size. L They were all too small for him. *sigh* … We were both disappointed.

We then went to Walmart, as we needed some more water and juice for the kids, then we were off, heading toward Sisters, Oregon … The Dee Wright Observatory is about 15 miles west of Sisters… We had just gotten under way when I decided to check my face book page from my cell phone. Earlier I had mentioned our plans, and a friend of mine commented that she had heard that Hwy 242 (McKenzie Pass) was closed, due to a forest fire. So we called 511, and sure enough it was closed… So we couldn’t go see the observatory. … The forces seem to be against me this week, as I just can’t seem to get there!!!! … But THANKFULLY, we found out before we drove all the way there… But I was still disappointed. *sigh*

To cheer ourselves back up (or at least me ), Joe took us to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. This time the lady actually didn’t put too much oreos in mine, and I was able to finish my Blizzard. *lol*

By the time we got back to the campground (at around 1:00-ish), it had gotten REALLY windy. The kids still wanted to go down to the water, because it was their last day to swim. So we grabbed our chairs and the kids’ tubes, and down to the water we went.

It was MUCH windier down at the reservoir!

As soon as we got down there, Jared let go of his tube for half a second, and the wind snatched it up and took it away. Joe and the boys took off after it (with Alicia following behind), while Amanda and I waited by the water… and waited, and waited… Turns out the tube flew up over the rock embankment, across the parking lot, down the bank on the other side, and was halfway across the lake before they could get to the edge of the water. A boat was going by, and they hoped that the people would grab it and bring it in for them, but they just waved at Joe and the boys and went on their merry way. In the mean time, the tube was across the lake and going up the bank on the other side. It was literally “gone with the wind”!

Jared no longer has a tube.

Jared was pretty upset with himself, for losing it. We told him that it wasn’t his fault, and that it was only $5 and could be replaced, but Jared tends to be pretty hard on himself. It took a while before he was smiling again.

Anyway, I thought that with the wind, it was too cold to go into the water, but that didn’t stop Alicia. She dove right in, and had some fun. The wind was strong enough to make some nice waves, which is pretty fun to ride while in the tube. So she was in their giggling… Josh saw the fun she was having, and said that he would go in too, but only because it was the last day… As for Amanda, she got her feet wet, but Jared (who was still upset), didn’t go in at all.

They didn’t stay in too long, and when they came out, Alicia’s teeth were chattering with cold… Time to go back to the trailer…

When we got back, we noticed that the wind seemed to be getting worse and worse. Joe and I were worried about the awning, so we put it away, and put some other things away that we worried may get blown away… I guess that will make our morning easier tomorrow, when we’re packing up to go home.

I am just hoping that it dies down enough to start a fire tonight, as I really wanted to roast hotdogs on our last night here.

As for now, we’re just kicking back in the trailer. The wind is picking up too much dust to enjoy being outside… So Joe and Jared are playing checkers, Josh is playing the bowling game on my phone, and the girls are watching “Garfield” on the portable DVD player.

Oh, we also decided to put the tent away, as the wind kept blowing it into the picnic table… It was rather funny to watch Joe and the boys try and put it away in the wind. *lol* … But at least now I can get some sleep, knowing the boys are safe in the trailer.

We also closed the awning, the wind was that bad! We were afraid that it would be ripped right off the trailer! I noticed that we weren’t the only ones to put our awning up.

Well… I’m off for now…

On Monday we had toast, sausage, and scrambled eggs for breakfast at around 9 am, and then after I showered and did the dishes, we ended up leaving the campground at close to 11 o’clock. … While I was doing the dishes/shower thing, Joe and the kids went on a little hike on one of the trails near the campsite. It’s a really pretty area, and it’s where I plan on taking the kids’ portraits on Friday.

Like I said, we left the campground at 11:00 and had quite the long drive into Bend. We made it to the High Desert Museum at 12:30 … I honestly didn’t think it would take that long to get there! … But, according to the kids, it was worth it. They loved it there… Mainly because they have a few animals in exhibits, and we even got to see a “Bird of Prey” show. Not that it was all about birds. *lol* They showed us an owl and a hawk, as well as a badger and a skunk. Let me tell you, that was a smart skunk. They had it walk along this railing thing, while they gave it all sorts of little treats to eat. While they did that, they talked about skunks. They get back to the starting point when the skunk turned around and went through it again, knowing full well that he would get more snacks. *lol*

The hawk was very beautiful, and seemed to love people. In fact, they had it fly back and forth over peoples’ heads. One time it flew directly over Jared’s head, and it flew so close to Joe and he could feel the brush of it’s wings against his cheek… I tried to get a video clip, but he flew so fast, I couldn’t really keep up with him. *lol*

The last time I was at the High Desert Museum was in March of 1994, with Joe… So what, 16 years ago. Man! That place has sure changed in 16 years! There was so much to see and do. If you’re ever in Central Oregon, I highly suggest you visit there. (It isn’t cheap though. It cost $66 to get all 6 of us in. *yikes* … It’s a good thing we only do one sight seeing vacation a year!)

It was 3:30 when we left the museum… So we were there for 3 hours. We even went through some of the parts at the end kind of quickly, because Joe wasn’t feeling well. I think he has borderline diabetes, because he gets sick if he is late for meals (his dad has diabetes) … Anyway, since Joe and the kids were all very hungry, we had to skip going to the Dee Wright Observatory, because it would have been too long of a drive. We had promised the kids we would take them to the Black Bear Diner for lunch, and at the time, the only one we knew about (besides Beaverton) was in Madras, and that was a 45 mile drive from the museum.

We made it to the Black Bear Diner at 4:30, and it was well worth the wait! The food is so good there, and the place is decorated so cool! Bears everywhere… If we had the extra money, I could have had some fun in the gift shop, buying cute bear shirts, mugs, and knick-knacks.

After we finished eating we drove back into Redmond and found a laundry mat… Since there are 6 of us, we can’t go a full week without doing laundry. But it sure is nice doing it there, since I can do four loads of laundry at the same time. *lol* … We were still there for a while though, since I had to fold all the laundry too. I think we were there for around 2 ½ hours. We left there at around 9:15-ish and then made a quick stop at Dairy Queen for a Blizzard before heading to Walmart for a few things… It was probably 10:30 before we made it back to the campground.

We pretty much went straight to bed, as soon as the laundry was put away and everyone had changed into their pajamas.

We slept in a bit on Tuesday, as we weren’t in any hurry… We are on vacation after all! J … Joe and the kids got dressed, I took a shower, and we had hash browns, sausage, and eggs for breakfast. Then we grabbed the sun-block and floaties, and down to the reservoir we went.

We spent around 5 hours down on the water. The kids had so much fun, and even Joe went in a few times too cool off… I don’t go into the water, because NO ONE deserves to have to see me get wet. *shudder* (If I get down to 140 lbs by next summer, like I am hoping … 110 is my ultimate goal… Then I will probably join them when they swim.)

To keep myself cool, I sat my chair right into the edge of the water, and soaked my feet in the lake (reservoir) while I watched the kids play. I especially liked it when a boat would speed by and send us some waves, because then the water would splash up my legs and cool them down.

At 5 o’clock we packed up their swim toys and headed back to the trailer. Joe BBQ’d hamburgers for dinner, which we ate outside. Our site was now in the shade, and there was a wonderfully cool breeze blowing. OMWord, it was soooo relaxing! Once it started getting dark, Joe built a fire, and we sat around that, chatting for a while.

For some reason, I was extra tired, so I ended up going to bed at around 9:30… Which is just about unheard of from me… I think Joe is still in shock. *lol* … But I tossed and turned all night. I had gotten a bit of a sun burn, and was feeling extra hot. I think I would have slept better, if only I could have had a fan blowing on me or something.

This morning we dinked around as well. I made French toast for breakfast, showered, and did the dishes. We made it down to the lake at 12:30, a half an hour later than we did yesterday.

It was about 10 degrees hotter out today (it got to 96.8 today), so I got even more burned. *lol* … And even though we put sun-block on the kids, Jared and Josh seemed to get a sunburn too, as well as Joe. The girls seemed to make it through OK, but they were already tanned from spending the summer out with their friends.

Once again we came back to the trailer at 5:00, and once again Joe BBQ’d hamburgers for dinner… We brought other things, but the hamburgers are just hitting the spot. *lol*

I had one troubling moment (that is still going on)… Jared and Josh sweet talked Joe and I into setting up the tent for them to sleep in. *sob* … I AM NOT ready for my boys to be old enough to sleep in a tent by themselves!!! I mean, I know that the tent is only a few feet from the trailer, and that I slept in tents with my friends when I was younger than Jared …. BUT STILL!!!! ACK! … I don’t know if I am going to get ANY sleep tonight! … But, we have two very happy boys on our hands, who kept thanking us over and over, and telling me that they were “mountain men” and didn’t need any mattresses or anything to sleep on.

At around 8 o’clock, Joe and the boys went on a “boys only” hike, and left us girls back at the trailer. I worked on this here blog post, while the girls watched a movie on the portable DVD player.

By 8:30, Joe and the boys were back, and we all walked down to the day use area. They had their telescopes out again, and the girls and I wanted to see them… There wasn’t much to see yet, but we were able to see Venus. Pretty cool! … And that telescope! OMGoodness! They had a HUGE one, and the ranger lady said that it would cost $3000 to replace it! I was almost afraid to look through it.

After that was shower time for a couple dirty girls, and some boys as well… And now I’m about to climb into bed… NOT that I will get much sleep, between the burns on my legs, arms, face, and head… And the fact that the boys are SLEEPING OUTSIDE IN A TENT. ACK!!!!

Joe decided that he wanted to take advantage of being on vacation and he wanted to sleep in, as he never gets to do that anymore. So I think it was 9:00 before any of us climbed out of bed on Sunday morning. While it was the day we left Silver Falls to go to the Prineville Reservoir, check out time isn’t until 1:00, so we weren’t in a hurry… Mainly because Joe thought it would only take a couple hours to drive to Prineville… He was so very wrong about that, by the way.

Anyway, we got up at 9:00-ish, and after the kids got dressed we sent them outside while we cleaned up the trailer, made beds, etc. Then we called them back in for an easy breakfast of either leftovers from Saturday, cereal, or something easy like that. Then Joe and the kids left again while I did the dishes, took a shower, and got the inside of the trailer ready for the drive to Prineville.

When I was done, I went over to Bev and Joe’s campsite (Bev is Joe’s Dad’s cousin) and Joe came back to get the trailer unhooked and ready to go. Then we stood around and chatted for a while… It was 1:00 before we were finally pulling out of the campsite… Though we didn’t get to leave right then, because we had to go to the dump station first.

The drive to, and through, the Santiam Pass was a lot longer than we anticipated.

We did make a pit-stop at 3:30-ish, at a view point to see Mt. Washington and Suttle Lake. I wanted to take some pictures… Also, that area had been burned by a severe forest fire sometime, and Josh was quite interested to learn more about that. You could see miles and miles of burned timber. The trees were no longer black, but had turned white-ish, and it had been long enough that small trees and undergrowth had come in under the burned trees… The signs said that the fire had burned for aprox 90,000 acres… Suttle Lake seemed to be on the edge of where the fire ended… Once we have internet service again, Josh and I will have to google it, and see if we can figure out when the fire was (the signs didn’t say).

From what I could see from the highway, it looks like there is a pretty nice government campground on the east side of Suttle Lake… I wouldn’t mind going camping there sometime, as it’s very beautiful!

We made it into Sisters sometime between 4:00-4:15, and we stopped for some gas and to grab a (very) late lunch at McDonald’s. Then we were on our way again … On a side note, Sisters is a very beautiful town! It would be fun to go back there, when there was more time to look around town.

We had wanted to hit the Walmart in Redmond when we drove through, but it wasn’t on the main drag going through town, and we didn’t want to go looking for it while we were pulling the trailer. So we just kept on driving and FINALLY made it to Prineville Reservoir @ 6:15 pm.

The first thing we did was to visit the restroom and then set up camp… Joe and I decided to actually try and use the awning… Normally we only use it when Joe’s parents are there to help, as we don’t seem to have a knack for getting it out and then back in… But we decided to live on the edge and give it a go… And it was a rather interesting time. … It took us a while, and passer-bys were giving us odd looks, but we did finally manage to get it out. I’m glad too, because it gives the campsite a homier look to it.

By 7:30 we were finally able to go on a walk… Which felt really nice after being cooped up in the Durango all day! We walked down to the reservoir and took some pictures… And I kept thinking about how much better those pictures would be, if only I had my Cannon Digital Rebel! *lol* … I also need to get better about holding the camera straight while on uneven ground… It felt straight, but the horizon line is QUITE off in some of the pictures. *sigh* … Thank goodness I can fix that in Photoshop Elements when I am scrapping the photos!

We went to the amphitheater at 8:30 to see the show that the rangers were putting on. They do them on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays… Unfortunately, we missed the ones on coyotes (Friday night) and cougars (Saturday night). The one we saw last night was on the different owls in the area. It was actually pretty interesting.

When it was over Joe and the boys took us girls back to the trailer, and then they went to the day use area where the rangers have a big telescope. They got to get a close look at the moon, and see some of the constellations. The boys really enjoyed that… Maybe tonight the girls and I will have to go down too.

By 10:00 we were settled down in front of the campfire. We roasted some hotdogs, and Amanda got the roasted marshmallow that she had been whining for since we left home on Friday. *lol* … While it was nice kicking back by the fire, we were all pretty tired. So after eating a SUPER late dinner (the hotdogs), we decided to call it a night… I brought the girls into the trailer to take a bath while Joe and the boys watched the fire burn down.

We were in bed by 11:45… Late for Joe and the kids, but not so much for me! *lol* … Actually, I was up later than that, getting the pictures off the camera and getting them renamed.

Well, it sounds like the kids are starting to wake up, and Joe is back from the shower, so I shall let you go… I looked the weather forecast up on my phone, and it’s only going to be 77 today (and get hotter throughout the week), so today we’re going into town. We want to go to Bend, to visit the High Desert Museum. Then we want to see the Dee Write Observatory in the McKenzie Pass, and have lunch/dinner at the Black Bear Diner in Madras… I also want to visit the laundry mat and also get some groceries at Walmart… Should be a busy day!

Anyhoo…

Yesterday was a busy day… It was Joe’s last day of work, before his vacation, and I was busy getting ready for our camping trip. We had been out late on Thursday, so I didn’t get much of a head start. Also, we had invited the twins to come with us to Silver Falls, since the Johnson Reunion was today, They spent the one night with us here, and then went home with Scott and Debbie this evening… So we had a couple extra kids in the house while I was trying to get things ready.

I was up and into the shower by 6:30, and I just kept on going… I had to make the cupcakes for Amanda’s birthday party (which was today, after the reunion), wash a ton of laundry, fold it all, and put it away. I had to pack for all 6 of us, clean the kitchen, get the kitties set for the week, and load the trailer. It doesn’t sound like much, but I was going from 6:30 until around 3:30, when Joe finally got home and started hooking the trailer to the Durango, etc. I only stopped long enough for some breakfast at around 10 o’clock.

By that point I was too pooped to pop! *lol*

Andrea asked about the cats… Only Cuddles was allowed full run of the house. At 6 years old, she is very well trained, and just too lazy to get into mischief. *lol* We left her one of the litter boxes in the laundry room, a casserole dish full of water, and a round cake pan filled with food. (We have someone coming by on Tuesday to check on the cats and make sure they still have enough food and water.) … As for Buddy, he is spending the week in the kids’ bathroom. I’m sure he’s not happy in there, but we can’t trust him in the house unsupervised, and there is no way we’re leaving him outside, day and night, for a week. He probably wouldn’t survive that, not with coyotes and cougars running around. Anyway, we put a litter box in there, gave him a bed, and he had the same amount of water and food as Cuddles, though he doesn’t eat as much as she does. *lol* … As for Tootsie and CeeCee, we put the both of them in our bathroom, with a litter box and twice the amount of food and water as the other two got. We also made sure they had some toys to play with, since they are still extremely playful… I took every last thing out of the bathroom, so they wouldn’t break anything. *lol*

On a side note… Speaking of cougars, Joe actually saw the cougar on Friday morning!!!!! Turns out that there must be more than one. The one that friends of ours has seen is full grown, but the one Joe saw was only about half grown. It was about a half mile down the road, and was running along side the street. Joe said it’s paws were huge!

Scary stuff!

Anyway, back to our vacation… I think it was sometime after 4:00 when we were finally able to leave the house… Since the kids and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we made a quick run to Mickey D’s for a burger, before heading out to Silver Creek Falls.

I’m not sure what time it was when we got here… Maybe 6-ish??? … Once we were in our site, the kids ran off to play in Grandma and Grandpa’s campsite, while Joe and I got our campsite ready to go. Then we grabbed our chairs and moseyed over there. We pretty much spent the evening chatting with the relatives around the campfire, being too tired to do anything else. *lol*

Sleeping two extra people in the trailer was an interesting feat! There is a triple bunk bed in the back of the trailer. Jared sleeps on the top, Josh in the middle, and Alicia used to sleep on the bottom (but now I use it to hold the kids’ duffle bags with their clothes). Anyway, we had Jacob sleep in the bottom bunk… Now Jacob is a big kid… And that bed never looked so small, until Jacob climbed into it! I don’t know how he did it! I would have been way too claustrophobic! He never complained and said he slept well, but MAN! *lol* … While we’ve never done it before last night, the table turns into a bed, and that is where Alicia and Amanda slept. It was quite roomy enough for them, and they were very happy there… The couch turns into a bed as well (it’s where the girls usually sleep), and that is where we put Jamie. She is too tall for the table/bed, so this was the best option for her… But the funny thing was, she is so tall that her feet hung over the end of the bed. Every time I came out to use the bathroom at night, I would accidentally run into her feet.

Since we had gotten to bed late, we ended up sleeping in until around 8 o’clock. We had the kids get dressed real quick, and then sent them outside… There was no way I could cook breakfast with that many bodies in the trailer. It just isn’t humanly possible. As soon as they were out, Joe and I turned the beds back into the table and couch, and picked up the trailer. Then I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast… After we ate, I did the dishes and took a shower.

It was 11:30 before I was done. *lol*

I was able to kick back for half an hour, and then back to the trailer I went. The potluck was at 1 o’clock, and I needed to make the spaghetti that I planned on taking.

After lunch, and after the kids played a game of “Apples to Apples” with their cousins, Joe and I decided that we wanted to go on a walk to the South Falls. So we, along with our nephew, Shandon, took off… From our campsite, it is probably 3/4th to a mile walk to the top of the falls. It was a nice walk. It wasn’t too hot, and it’s really pretty around Silver Creek… But MAN, was the park busy! … When we got to the top of the falls, we stopped to take some pictures, then we turned around and came back. There is a nice trail down to the bottom of the falls, but while it’s nice going down, the trek back up makes me literally feel like I am going to have a heart attack. *lol* I have some more weight to lose before I try that again!

Actually, there is an even longer hike down there… the short hike takes you behind South Falls, and then down to the bottom and back up. There is also a 7 mile hike that takes you on the “Trail of 10 Falls” … Someday, when I am closer to my goal weight, and when Amanda gets old enough to handle that long of a walk, I want to go on that hike and see all the water falls.

When we got back to camp, we let Amanda open her birthday presents… She had been bugging me about it All. Day. Long! I was so glad that I no longer had to listen to it! *lol*

She got some nice things… Joe and I got her a Hannah Montana fleece blanket, a Hannah Montana beach towel, and two Tinkerbell DVDs. Josh got her a Hannah Montana shirt, and Jared got her some Hannah Montana jeans to go with the shirt Josh bought. Alicia gave her some Hannah Montana headphones and a Hannah Montana mini purse thing, that is meant to carry cell phones or mp3 players. Grandma and Grandpa gave her an outfit with a 3 pack of socks and a Hannah Montana place mat. Gene and Dorothy gave her a Hannah Montana sticker book, a Hannah Montana bag thing, with a mini notebook and pen, as well as a shirt. Bob and DeeDee gave her $15, and Scott and Debbie gave her a Hannah Montana bike helmet and a couple of those fuzzy posters that you can color with markers.

She is one spoiled girl!

After roasting hotdogs for dinner, and getting into the cupcakes, I took the girls down to the showers… I had wanted them to just bathe in the trailer, but they begged to be able to go down to the showers… But I swear, they will be using the trailer from now on! (and I think they agree with me!) … As soon as we got in there, a huge group of teenagers came in, and the girls had to hurry to make sure they got hot water. Also, the water pressure was so hard, they were extra loud about their complaints. It was embarrassing! I was glad to leave and get back to the trailer.

When we got back, I settled the girls into bed with the portable DVD player and one of Amanda’s new Tinkerbell movies, while Joe and the boys went to take their shower… It was late when they got back, so everyone, expect for me, went to bed… But I am about to head there in a couple minutes! *lol* … I’ll check in with you next from Prineville! (I sure hope our phones get service there, as they don’t here… I haven’t been able to post on face book!)

There hasn’t been too much going on around here… A whole lot of bowling is all! *lol* … But as of this afternoon, all the summer leagues are officially over. Last night was the last night for the Have-A-Ball league (The Johnson Boys came in 2nd place for the league!), and today was the last day for the kids summer free league… Jared was excited because he got to bowl against the Hartrampfs today, who pretty much make up the dream team of bowling.   Jared’s team beat them on all three games! … Of course, it’s because they have a higher handicap. The other team actually knocked down more pins, but our team was bowling above their averages, which brought the pin count higher because of their handicap score.

I spent a good portion of yesterday baking cookies for a couple birthdays, and for our camping trip. For the first time I made peanut butter chocolate chip (I used mini chocolate chips), and I think they turned out pretty yummy! … I also made a bunch of regular chocolate chip cookies.

You want to hear something funny though… I put a bunch of cookies in a ziplock bag, to take to the bowling alley for the employees. I gave the bag to Teri (one of the owners), and she took the bag home and didn’t share a single cookie! Next time I will have to give her a bag, and then put one on the counter for everyone else!

I am just about ready for school to start… We’re going to start on September 6th… I now have all the lesson plans done for all four kids, for the entire school year. The only thing left to do is to print out the lesson plans and get the kids’ binders ready for the year. But right now I am out of ink, so it’s going to have to wait until we’re home from vacation. Once we’re home, we’ll have one full week of vacation left, and then it’s time to hit the books.

I CAN NOT believe how fast the summer went by! *sigh*

Can you believe it?! My baby girl is 7 years old today… SEVEN! … How the heck did that happen?! Hasn’t it only been a couple years since I announced my pregnancy here on the blog, and now she’s SEVEN!? I can’t believe how fast she is growing up. If only I could grab time by the tail and slow it down… Because 7 years shouldn’t fly by as quickly as it has.

Amanda is still our little ray of sunshine… And she certainly likes being the baby of the family! In fact, she is always telling me that she wishes she was still a baby. *lol* While most kids are in a hurry to grow up, Amanda would just as soon stay little. I think it’s because of the extra attention she thinks she would get, if only she was younger.

She will be starting 1st grade in just a couple weeks, though she has informed me… more than once… that she would rather just do kindergarten again. She does want to hurry and start school though, because she says she misses doing her handwriting lessons. *lol*

Amanda’s favorite things to do are; playing outside with their little friends, especially Darian and Hunter. Though she still considers Shelby, from the bowling alley, to be her “best friend forever”… Amanda also loves her Barbie Dolls, stuffed animals, her baby dolls, and her play kitchen. But most of all, she LOVES Hannah Montana.

She also really loves music… She got a Hannah Montana CD player for Christmas last year, and when she is in her room, there is music playing. She listens to Hannah Montana, my old Amy Grant “Heart in Motion” CD, Taylor Swift, and Alicia’s Girl Pop CD. She also has a set of 4 CDs that has children’s Bible songs on it that she likes to listen to. Getting new CDs makes her very happy.

She also likes to dress up in pretty dresses and clothes, and loves to wear kids makeup and fingernail polish. This is a side that she does NOT get from her Mama!

She is still our little charmer. All the employees at the bowling alley just love her! She flits around the bowling alley, taking the time to talk to all of them, and she loves to draw them pictures as well (along with her sister). I’ve been told by more than one of them that the drawings are at their homes, hanging on their fridges.   … One of the ladies who works in the restaurant even gave Amanda a birthday present! She bought her a little Hannah Montana purse (see picture) with some craft supplies in it. She also gave her the balloon. How sweet is that?!

Happy Birthday little Pixie-Girl! I love you so very much!