The Three Amigos

Since the boys were all invited to their older cousin's baptism on a Saturday afternoon, I decided to snap a picture of how these three are so awesome! I told them to give me their "tough guy" look. These guys are such good friends and really bring out the best in one another. Sometimes we can even tell that their cousin who is an angel is looking down and smiling along with his buddies.

First Lost Tooth

Well, it was bound to happen, my little boy is growing up too fast. While brushing his teeth, I noticed that he had quite a wiggly one on the bottom. After he and his Dad played with it for a couple days, it finally was loose enough and his Dad pulled it out. He was so excited! We took the tooth and put it in the little pocket of his stuffed tooth that has his name embroidered on it and in the morning he got three gold coins! The tooth fairy gave him Susan B. Anthony dollars since they are similar to "gold doubloons" and Trace just loves any and everything pirate. He loved them so much, he chose to just save them instead of spend them. We tried to explain that they were currency, the same as any "paper dollars" but he insisted he save them because they are "so special".

Camping at Palisades State Park

Since buying our trailer late in the fall, we couldn't wait for spring in order to take it out on a "real" camping trip and see how we like it. So, I asked around and heard that Palisades State Park was a nice, close trip that had modern amenities for our camping companions, but still "rustic" enough to feel like we were in the woods. Kevin's sister, Shaunasee and her family agreed to join us on our adventure and it definitely made the trip more fun to have them there with us.

We brought Raven, Scout and Rocky (not pictured) with us since the park is dog friendly.

Rocky

Since we had Nate and his family with us, we decided to try our hand at fishing. Trace had never been before so we were really hoping that they were biting. The first attempt resulted in Fischer (appropriately) getting the first fish, then Emma, then Lexi, then just as we were about to leave, Trace got his fish! Wahoo!

Kevin has this fishing thing figured out!

Yay! First Fish!

Scout and Raven had a great time playing and pretending they were tough with each other. They're both puppies, so they had a great time wrestling and playing together.

We rented a couple of paddleboats for fun to take out on the lake. Turns out, I forgot how much work those things are! Oh well, good exercise for the grown ups, fun for the kids.

We took the paddleboats out to a little pier in the middle of the lake in order to fish from that location. We set up the half umbrella to provide some shade and it basically turned the pier into a spinning platform! Our fishing lines kept getting tangled and I capped off the adventure by throwing a folded camp chair towards the paddleboat, missed, and watched it descend to the bottom of the lake. At least it provided a good laugh for the rest of the trip!

Trace caught another fish!  Reeled it in without much help at all!

 

When the sun went down, after s'mores around the campfire, we broke out the glow in the dark fun and ran all around the campground shrieking and laughing. Well, the kids were shrieking, the adults did more laughing.

The next day we went for a hike around the lake. I brought my camera and we got cute pictures of the kids, but the picture I missed was when we saw a huge hawk swoop down into the side of the mountain and pick up a snake with his talons and fly off! Such a crazy cool example of nature!

One of the mornings we were there we left Trace with Shaunasee and Nate and went golfing. Now, I hadn't been golfing since before Trace was born, so I knew it wouldn't be my best game but I did NOT expect what happened! My little pink ball went from the tee to the branch of this tree about 5 feet off the ground! Kevin said I have to play it where it lies.....

We even made it to the "beach" side of the lake. It was more like little rocks than sand and dreadfully cold, but the kids were happy as clams.

After the beach, the kids all came back and took showers and snuggled up in the trailer to watch a movie. I don't remember camping being this nice when I was a kid.