More Camping

We had so much fun camping in Sherwood that we soon went back for another night; this time with some of our good friends from town, another pastor and his family. Joshua cooked pancakes over the fire for breakfast.

Their daughter likes to fold paper and made many fun things for Hannah and Mary.

We hiked out to George's Falls and played in the water.

 We finished things off with smash burgers for dinner before heading home.

Math with Grandma

 

Dad has been coming up lately to help work on building the Westview bathhouse, and Mom has been hanging out with me and the kids. We enjoy having both of them around and Mom has helped us with a number of things, including doing math lessons with Mary.

Quilting Retreat

Calvin Crest hosted its first ever quilting retreat, and we got to be part of it. Gayle was a participant, but stayed with us, which was fun. As we walked home from dinner, we saw a beautiful double rainbow.

It was impressive to see Lakeview filled with so many quilters.

Hannah enjoyed arranging pieces of fabric from the kit Gayle gave me.

David had fun using the scissors to snip threads, and got a scissor cookie.

 Gayle also gave a kit to Mary, who loved getting to sew with everyone. The retreat was a big success, and we are looking forward to the next one.

Blackberry Picking

The blackberries are ripe and plentiful, and the Trevinos, Dad, and Mom came up for a day trip to pick berries.

 We were quite successful in our picking and eating and enjoyed the time together.

Visiting Friends

For our final vacation adventure, we took the kids to a state they had never been to before - Nevada. We stayed with some good friends for a few days and had a lovely time. The second day we went to an interesting museum. They had all kinds of thing, including a bunch of animals and an old camera.

There was also a recreation of an old mine shaft that we got to walk through.

Hannah loved playing with their collection of calico critters. The big kids we were visiting did a great job sharing their toys and playing with our little ones.

Saturday morning we took a short hike to a nearby waterfall.

 We left Sunday after attending their church and stopped for ice cream on the drive home.

Camping in Sherwood

After a day at home to do laundry and repack, we hit the road again for a very short drive down to Sherwood Forest. We set up our trailer in Purpledale and loved camping right here at Calvin Crest.

The kids enjoyed the hammock we set up.

We had some relaxing time by the fire.

The kids and I went hiking the next day and discovered a tree had fallen across the trail.

Mary was on the lookout for ripe gooseberries and ate as many as she could find.

We planned to stay for two nights, but the second day the weather changed and things got stormy. We decided to pack up the trailer and go home a little early. It started to rain as we were finishing packing, but then stopped again so we stayed long enough to have breakfast burritos cooked over the fire and roast marshmallows.

The next morning it was quite rainy, and we were glad we were home where we could enjoy it.

Camping at the Coast

Our next adventure during vacation was a camping trip at the coast. We arrived in the afternoon and walked to the beach after setting up camp.

The kids were excited to roast hot dogs over the fire.

We returned to the beach the next day.

Joshua and the kids had fun running away from the waves.

Joshua taught us how to skip rocks.

Mary made a list before we went to the coast of things she wanted to do at the beach, including build a sandcastle.

Roasted marshmallows are always a hit.

One last climb in the tree at our campsite before we hit the road to return home.

Modesto

 

We started our fall vacation with a trip to see Dave and Gayle. It's always fun to see what they have growing in their yard and enjoy the bounty of the harvest.

A deer ran into our car a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, we were all fine, but the car was totaled. Joshua and I took advantage of free baby sitting and an abundance car lots to look for another vehicle while we were in town. We were surprised and pleased to find a used minivan for a good price and bought it while we were there. The kids approved of our choice.

Mary punched out a bunch of butterflies and carefully colored them all for Dave and Gayle, then she arranged them on the table with some flowers from the yard.