Camp for Supers!

After we got home I had a week to finish preparing to go to girls camp!
I love camp.
It was really hard to leave my kids though. The night before as we got the kids in bed, Rylee was crying not wanting me to leave. then of course I was also in tears. It was the longest I'd be away from them, and not really even be able to call/talk much either :( I told Rylee I would be home all night but that I was leaving in the morning. She asked if I would wake her up to say good-bye and I promised I would. She had a very hard time falling asleep- every knock on the door (people dropping stuff off to take) had her out of bed. It was early when we left but I made good on my promise and went in to hug/kiss her good bye. I was nervous we'd both be in tears again and she just opened her eyes and said "bye." and rolled over. much easier :)
Thankfully, We had friends watch the girls during the day and then Michael was home with them at night. It was hard, but worked out.
I had a blast. It was fun to spend time with the girls, most of my work was getting the girls READY to go and once I was there, just helping out wherever I was needed.
We stayed at a summer camp in cabins with a camp cook (seriously, all the girls had to do was clear the tables and sweep the floors). They had classes, ropes course, zip line, swimming, devotionals, a spirit walk with parent letters, testimony meetings and lots of songs, hugs, laughter and tears.
A highlight for most was the spirit walk. The youth leaders do most of the planning now and we went for a walk where they had scenes scriptures set up for us to ponder. All in silence we walked back to the pavilion where there was a huge picture of the Savior projected on the wall and then we watched a couple mormon message videos and pondered on our Heavenly Father's love for us. The spirit was felt so strongly. Then all the girls were given letter from home to open and read and the group was overflowed with tears.
Our YW President turned to me and we both said "I want a letter from my Mom!!" You know, all gushy telling us how great we are and what "superhero powers" we have. ;)
It was really nice to get away from the "every day" for a few days. Friendships were made/strengthened and of course our testimonies. I'd say mission accomplished

I ended up spending most of my time with the 4th years. They are amazing and it was fun to be able to get to know them a little bit. I'm sad its only a one year gig :) Though, with little kids, that would be hard to do annually but I'm glad we were able to work it out this year :)

WI: finished.

It was really fun having the Allsop cousins together again. They mostly played and in my girls case, fought over toys and spent most of the time going up and down the stairs (one story home here remember? Stairs are just an imobile toy). We celebrated several birthday's while together (one of which was mine). So, the house was decorated with hand-drawn pictures to celebrate. cute. There was a few quiet moments when the older kids were all snuggled on the couch watching a movie. Too sweet to not capture.

2012 was a big year for for the family. In one year the grandchilren doubled from 4 to 8! Like I said, this was the first time they were all together. It was really fun to line them all up and take photos, something they'd best get used to (I have 6 cousins that were all born the same year and they've been lining up for photos for 35 years. . . )
the oldest and youngest are close to a year apart but they both snuck in to the make the cut :)

The older kids then wanted to get in on the line up and joined the party.

And my dear sil even marked the ages on the photo.

And of course these photos were taken minutes before we pulled out of the drive way to go home. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to document the occation :)
Cousins are the best!

The drive home was wonderfully uneventful and that wraps up our vacation. whew!

WI: Services

So, I'm kindof 'over' blogging about our lovely trip. . . .but this is important (One of the reasons I try to stay more current than I have been - alas)
Grandma was very adamant about having a good ole Luthern service. So the family of course obliged. I thought the church was pretty. Its funny how you get used to so many cultural aspects of these things.

It was a lovely little graveside service in the morning.

The Grandsons were the paul bearers. I felt the spirit so strongly when Michael's Father said the dedicatory prayer, by the Priesthood. It strengthened my testimony on authority.

I actually think cemetaries are really beautiful. We spent a little bit of time looking at headstones, hearing stories from relatives we don't get to see very often (and I just met). Michael has been showing a bit more interest in family history work and took many photos of family headstones. I'll spare the blog of those.
Anyway, that's one of the reasons I like funerals (people often think that's odd). But, the whole family comes together and shares stories and memories. It makes me want to be a better person. Leave a legacy of sorts.

Poc and Nana with all 8 of their Grandchildren for the first time!! Exciting!

I'd like to call this photo "Ode to Grandma B"

Michael's family (minus one brother-in-law who couldn't make it and was certainly missed :( )

Cousins:

Grandma is already missed. She was a beautiful sassy woman who worked hard her entire life (most of which was after loosing her husband) and wasn't afraid to speak her mind. (She hated when Michael started shaving his head) She loved her family, traditions, was often asked to share the recipes for things she baked and was an avid card player. We played honerary games of shang-hi and blitz (31) as soon as we got home. Michael loved 'growing up' with his Grandmother close.

We love you Grandam B.

WI: again.

We were literally on our way to OK to pick up our car and we got a series of phone calls informing us of Grandmas status, and it wasn't well. Most of the family was coming in to say their good-byes and she wasn't expected to make it through the week.
We debated what to do and it was a shame we were already 7 hours closer, but we had only packed for one night, and none of what we had would be suitable for a funeral. On top of that, Michael had meetings planned that he prefered not to re-schedule. Did I mention Michael's brother {and family} recently moved to the Dallas area? {Yay!} At any rate, this is what we decided: Get our car from the shop, and go home to sleep. Wake up early and send Michael to a half day of meetings while I packed our bags and the car for another road trip. And meet Michael at a church building so we can go rent a van for the trip, pick up the Dallas A's and all drive up together. And yes, we filled all 7 seats belts. 4 adults and 3 babies.
It was nice to double the number of drivers and have someone to talk to even while others were sleeping. We drove through the night again. It works for us.

The younger two were buddies in the back. Kelsey's next youngest cousin is 9 months younger than her.

They were caught holding hands a couple times. cute. cute.

At this point Kelsey started to put up a fight getting into her carseat. But, once wrestled in she'd calm down and just go with it. The ironic part about it, is she has the most comfortable seat out of all of us.

Bike Ride

While in Wisconsin we were given a couple bikes. I was super excited as I've been wanting a bike for a while. . . .like my whole life. ;) I've never had my OWN bike. I know how to ride one, but always borrowed a siblings. One more thing to add to the drama of our car breaking down . . . bicycles hanging off the trunk.
Anyway, we got home, promptly purchased a bike trailer and headed ona family ride. We decided to hit up a trail a little bit further from our house (the bike rack fit better on the rental car than our own car) so we took advantage of that. Michael pulled the girls and we had a fun little ride. It was several weeks later that I wanted to run an errand close to home and decided to take the bikes (sans Dad). I vastly underestimated the strength I would need to pull both girls and the trailer. . . wow!! They add about 70lbs and I'd never noticed how "hilly" our streets are. We're going out a bit more regularly to build up some strength.

WI: loose ends

One of the times we headed to the boat for an evening ride Rylee missed a step on the dock and fell in the water. fully clothed. She was so bummed about it, initially scared and wanted to immediately change her clothes (as if THAT were out of the ordinary - I know I was warned but we have a minimum of 3 clothing changes every day. 2 of which before 10am.) Well, since we were already to the dock she was not allowed to make said clothing change. Autie M gave her her coat to wear and she stood stoic and alone the entire ride. Poor girl.

On a drive "to town" Michael spotted a bear on the side of the road. We pulled over to get a closer look as he was heading toward the bushes. Michael grabbed the camera and started yelling "Hey!! over here!! I'm talking to you, Bear!" In an attempt to get the bear to look his way, or be on the front page of the local newspaper. Either way, the bear kindof looked our way then mosied on into the woods. It was still kinda cool.

After a wonderful week and half it was time for us to head home. We stopped by the old house in Eau Claire for Michael to say "good-bye" of sorts to the home he grew up in. The girls played a little while we (mostly he) reminisced.

Here's the front:

and back:

And just for fun, here's the house/family before they moved in. Michael was 9 years old.

We were also able to see Grandma Botsford a couple times while we were there. Before we left for the cabin we took the girls to see her and for her to meet Kelsey. She was recovering from a 'bout of pnemonia but looked really good. We had a great visit with her and the girls.

On our way home we stopped to see her again. She did not look as good. We all gave her hugs and told her how much we loved her and we were so glad we got to see her. We wanted to let her get back to resting and were anxious to get on the road. As we walked out of the center fighting back tears as we knew this would be the last time we would see her. We both assumed the next time we'd be back to Wisconsin would likely be for her funeral. . . . little did we know how quickly that would actually be. We were officially 'on the road' much later than we anticipated but we had a beautiful view to bid us farewell.

We saw a lot of lightning bugs on the side of the road, which is always fun. We tried pointing them out to Rylee. "look at the grass line and you'll see blinking lights" "oh, I see them! Cool!" It was a couple days later when I realized what she was seeing was the reflectors on the metal posts. haha. maybe next time. I wish I could say that the trip home went off without a hitch, but nope. We drove through the night and thankfully that part did. We got back on the road after a late breakfast and Michael asked if we could switch drivers, so we pulled over, grabbed a beverage and went to get back on the freeway. As I accelerated on the on ramp we heard a loud pop and the engine reved. Michael (and a helpful stranger) were able to push the car back to the gas station so we could figure out what to do next. We were lucky enough to find a repair shop that offered tow and shuttle services. Again, thankfully they were able to shuttle us into Texas (the car broke down in Oklahoma, about 20ish miles from the border) so we could rent a car. The girls fell asleep in the back of the shuttle truck. We got the rental car squared away, then headed back up to the repair shop to get the details on the car and the rest of our stuff. It was the transmission and would take several days to fix so we decided to go home and then come back and get it once it was finished. Our girls were seriously ROCKSTARS!! 5 hours later we were back on the freeway in the right direction and they never complained. I won the award for handling the situation most poorly. I suppose somebody has to do it. ;)

WI: work. cousins. fireworks

Our trip wasn't ALL play. A few years back a big storm came through and took down a big tree. Well, the stump was needing to be removed so one afternoon the siblings spent some time digging it out. It was a big stump and they made a lot of progress, but unfotunately weren't able to finish the job.

 

 

These girls were in charge of quality control. That and the water police - its important to stay hydrated you know. (while we're on topic, I carry a water bottle nearly everywhere I go - we're to the point now where Kelsey won't leave the house without me grabbing my water bottle :) And a while back Rylee asked "Is it hot? So, I need to drink lots of water?" yup. )

In smore heaven:

We spent a few nights on the beach lighting and watching fireworks.

My favorite (though clearly not the safest) was the one pegged to a tree. You read that correctly, it spun around the nail afer it was lit, but we all wondered if an open flame and wood were a good combination . . . . all was well.

Then, of course the roman candles. . . . and bottle caps in the sand. Good times.

 

Here's all the grandkids up at the cabin (we were missing 2). Nevermind the grouchyness of our girls. little stinkers. On another side note, I love dressing the girls in matching outfits, that being said I really don't have THAT many (ie I hold back more than I'd like :) ) But these matching outfits are the best because I bought the skirt Kelsey is wearing at a garage sale when Rylee was that size and the one Rylee is wearing was a hand-me-down from a cousin. Couldn't have worked out more perfectly if I'd tried ;) )

Kelsey had had it.

Rylee had too, but cared even less to put up a fight. . . . there literally were 10 pictures in a row where she didn't change her expression. even a little.

Have it your way, got to bed so we can play games :) And that we did.