Cangry

I made up a new word. Cangry. It's a combination of camping and angry. I'll use it in a sentence: Meg spent half her time being cangry on her family's most recent camping trip. 

Car camping with my family usually puts me in the best mood and I'm yes-mom and we do all the things and have all the fun. Current circumstances had me on edge: we were constantly pulled in two directions: big kid exploration and there's always a baby napping and we have to stay put. It's a hard tension to carry-the big kids want to explore the campground and be free and we're always putting someone down for a nap and threatening  any noise made in an effort to give the babies some much needed rest. 

The real problem was that we didn't have good sleep the first night. Camping never gives us great sleep, and we usually have to help someone once or twice. This particular night was rough and John and I spoke in sleepy anger and it was not our best. By the second night, the baby had a little cold and I ended up taking the littles home a day early. 

So we had a not-good camping trip? They can't be all good, we get that. We are in a tricky season, but we will press forward. 

A few highlights: 

Fern found a snake and handled the situation well. A brush with danger where no one gets hurt always ramps up the adventure.

We had a fun creek and swimming hole within yelling distance of our campground.

The big kids made friends and used their run-wild freedom well. They raced bikes, climbed trees, played tag, and ran! (John and I are always impressed with how well our kids make new friends wherever they go.)

The woods beside our campground were stunning, a miniature redwood forest. 

The kids were adorable. 

We are looking forward to a huge camping trip we have in October. We have seven or eight families camping together in this same spot. To Fern's delight, some of the families have daughters, such a rare find in our circle of friends! Hopefully the sleep won't be as daunting (I should start praying now!)

We need to redeem ourselves and hopefully this next trip will be it. 

The Power Of Dirt

John always reminds me that boys/guys/men bond by DOING stuff together. These boys have a common love for trucks, wrestling, dirt-like any boy their age. 

On a day when their mamas wanted to chit-chat, the weather was good, and the dirt was prime, they had full access to get as dirty as they wanted to. What cute smiles!

The Bigs & Littles With The Fountain!

Here's what I do around here: I take pictures of a little outing with my children, add some overthinking words and hit "post." After a slight evolution, that's the main dish that I serve on my blog. This post is a perfect example. 

Early one morning towards the end of summer, we hit the fountains downtown. There was hardly anyone there-such a stress reliever! I didn't have to keep my littles from being knocked over and my bigs from knocking people over. 

Rewind to the days I only had Burl and Fern, we filled our time with these little baby outings. (As Fancy Nancy says, "outings is a fancy word for short trip.") They've slowed down considerably, because of two reasons. First, wrangling four kids has kept us more homebound than usual. The outings are still there but they are not as numerous. Second, with one foot in big kid world and one foot in toddler/baby world, engaging everyone is becoming challenging. I have to integrate small activities with ones that engage the big kids' freedoms. 

Now the big kids are in school and it's just me and the babies, but I remember these summer outings fondly. I love this mom gig and doing fun things like this is my speed. 

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