His Birthday Eve

I mentioned in a previous post that Bammy was down from Connecticut to help Caleb celebrate his birthday.  Well, since she's down for a little while, we thought we'd put her up in some pretty nifty accommodations- our dear Peggy.  We set her up at a campground at a local park in town, about 15 minutes from the house.  On Caleb's Birthday Eve, we headed over to Bammy's place to help her get settled in and have some dinner and s'mores.  Caleb wanted to light the charcoal.

Then Baba had to head back to the house for a few things we forgot  (of course).  So in the meantime, the dumplings played with Bammy.  Caleb might have also pretended to be Santa Claus.

The meat head that I am brought my Nikon but left all my CF cards at home.  Duh!  But thankfully I had my Fujifilm in my bag and made do.

Havi may or may not have had a thing for the s'more sticks.

Eventually Baba made it back to the site as the sun went down.  We managed to eat by candle light, which was cool.  Then, although I don't think they're actually allowed in the campground, the dumplings played with some sparklers.  I guess you could call us rebels.

I wished I hadn't forgotten my CF card for my Nikon because it does so much better in low light that also has a lot of movement.  My Fujifilm is just slower in the dark, and my subjects have a hard time being still.  Not necessarily the best combination. lol Anyway, I'm glad I was able to capture the moment the only way I could.  Perspective. ;)

We had a lot of fun that night.  Good thing we just might be joining Bammy later in the week.

A new playground

You all know how much I love our little park on the river, right?  Well, it's still my favorite-y favorite park around.  But, unfortunately we don't get to visit nearly as much as we used to since we moved.  And a lot of that has to do with the fact that Caleb (and now Madeline) play so much tennis in the opposite direction of the park.  Well, what's a mama to do when a practice is too short to go home and has already gone to the grocery store the day before?  Find another park!  Now, we pass this park every day but have never stopped to play at it because we usually drop Caleb off at practice and go home.  But this past week was different.  I decided to take the girls to this small park with a playground that happens to be at the end of a deep water canal.  Now, it's not the river and has no shade...but it's still on the water (which is so relaxing) and a nice little spot to pass the time until Caleb's practice is up.  I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot more time here.

 Madeline wanted to snap a photo of me with Havi.

 Havi was so upset because she wanted to swing on the big kid swing, but I said no.  She's too young to support herself without falling off.  Poor little girly just didn't believe me and threw a nice little fit.

 So I finally took her out of the baby swing and put her on her belly.  That was enough to satisfy her, for now.

To bike or to shoot?

After our last camping trip, we realized we accidentally left Havi's pre-balance bike in our RV when we stored it.  So while Madeline and Caleb have been off riding their bikes lately, she has taken to "riding" Madeline's first pedal bike. We lowered the seat as low as it will go for her (about 16" high). So she can sit on it and walk it while on her tippy toes.  (Her inseam is about 14"-14.5".)  This is less than ideal for good balance because she needs to plant her foot firmly on the ground AND the pedals are still in her way....however, she has been pushing along quite well, with the pedals in the best possible position.  In fact, she can get going at a pretty good speed considering she is only pushing with the balls of her feet.  I'm amazed at how well she can balance and push in spite of this less than ideal situation.  About two weeks ago, I finally ordered her a real balance bike.  Sweet girl can't get enough bike videos to watch on my computer since then.  It's precious to hear her shout "new bike" or "pink bike".  In fact, she has been known to shout "pink bike" in the middle of the night during a diaper change.  Seriously!

So the other day, she was out "riding" when she warranted a diaper change.  After going back inside for said diaper change, I decided to grab my big girl camera.  Well, remember the other day when I let the girls snap photos with my Fujifilm?  This little girl does! So back inside I had to go to get that camera for her to play with so she can take "shipahs" (pictures).  And there went my plans to shoot my little girl riding/walking her sister's pedal bike.  Oh well...I rolled with it.  I don't ever want to forget these precious days of this little girl 'working' that pedal bike without using the pedals....or the days her face sparkles when taking photos with my camera.

A little camping

As I mentioned in my last post, we went camping two weekends ago.  A few days before we left, we picked up Charlie the RV from storage and parked him out in front of our house so we could load him up.

Caleb actually had a pool party to go to for a friend on the first night of camping.  So Patrick showed up with the girls, and he and I pulled in later that night.  Well, as soon as we did, Caleb began complaining of pain in his foot and started limping.  It was so bad that we thought he was going to have to withdraw from his tennis tournament. But instead of being hasty, we decided he should keep off of it all the next day and see how he felt come tournament time.  Well, that meant having to spend the entire next day hanging out inside the RV.  Throughout the day he would say his foot was feeling better, but as soon as I asked him to walk, he went back to limping.  Poor boy couldn't even ride his bike around the campground.  It was a long, long day.

The next morning, though, he declared his foot was feeling much better and that he could walk on it.  So he and Patrick headed off to the tennis tournament.  He almost finished his match, but then it was called for rain.  And that rain delay, which lasted three hours, eventually turned into a cancellation of all matches for the day. Bummer! The girls and I went to the beach with our friends before the rain eventually fell on us too.

Eventually the rain stopped over us too, and Patrick and Caleb finally made it back from the tournament.  Then it was time to grill up some good eats and hang out.

I love being outside at sunset.

The next day Caleb and Patrick headed back to the tennis tournament.  Caleb eventually lost that first match in a heart breaking third set tiebreaker.  He won his next match handedly but then lost his third from sheer exhaustion.  Again, while the boys were at tennis, I took the girls to the beach but didn't snap any photos with my cameras.

Well, the boys finally made it back to the campground late Sunday afternoon. We had been planning to go home at that time.  But since Caleb had missed out on two beach outings because of his tennis tournament, we decided we would stay an extra night and hit the beach for just a little bit. The dumplings played around with their boogie boards and soaked in the last bit of sun for the day.

Despite Caleb's foot injury, we had a great time camping.  I don't think we'll be combining tennis tournaments and camping anymore.  It's just too much to juggle.  Still, we're thankful for the time we had together.  Camping at the beach makes for some pretty awesome memories, that's for sure.