We have been camping every year except for last year with our childhood friends since Ruby was maybe 2. It has gotten better every year, because we used to have only one kid with us and now we have a whopping TEN kiddos in tow and only ten adults (usually, but this year we only had nine because Eden's Ben couldn't come). It is more fun with more kids...and more work and frusteration...but anyway, we are all (almost, three of the four families) in it together. So it is us with our four, Danny and Kelly with their three boys, Aksel, Maddox and Eli, Sandy and Adam with their two, Addy and Carson and Leisha and Jeff with cutie, Zella.
Getting ready to go, I asked Alice to entertain Leo. She decided maybe he'd be interested in the ipad. Youtube videos, specifically. Not so much. Cute effort though!
Hanging out in the morning, Chris with Leo, Zella and Aksel looking on...
Eli was very sweet to Leo at first, giving him careful, full-body cuddles and kisses and nuzzles. For some reason, he decided to see what happens if you slug a baby...and he found out. In this lucky case, Leo didn't cry a bit, but Eli was sworn off Leo at that point and Kelly kept on top of him as he continually tried to sneak a smack-down on Leo. Boys are so funny!
My cute baby boy. I love him!
Leo was chill, hanging out at the day use area while we all played. Aksel was very interested in Leo and super sweet with him.
He sacked out all on his own!
The day use area.
Sandy and Carson.
Do I have like five dozen of this shot from this summer? My man and Leo.
Zella and Leisha gooing at Leo.
Enter Ruby. The baby was never short of fans all weekend!
For some reason, the river was like twenty feet receeded the second day. This made it so that all the nice gravel that was usually under foot was now not covered with any water, and the gooey, area that was usually pretty deep was now the shallow water. IT was disgusting, but thankfully the water came back up after an hour or so. In the meantime, the Keim boys took full advantage, covering themselves in mud from head to toe. I think it's funny even baby Eli took the opportunity! He's so little, but he's a mini of his big bros.
Kelly is a thrilled mama. She eats these boys up and I adore seeing her in her happy place with her family. She was meant to have these boys...look at that adoration on her face as she looks at her little one COVERED in gooey mud. :) That's how it should be!
Ruby loves to show me how Leo is standing on his own, with almost no help from her. Ummmmm...not really, he's only three months old...but it's cute and he'll probably get around to doing stuff early with all the encouragement he gets from the girls every day.
Bets wanted this pic. She loved borrowing Zella's swimsuit, since I forgot to pack hers. Oopsie! Thanks to Leisha for saving the day!
Something was in the water, because Alice wanted a similar pic...
Okay, so this was pretty impressive. Leo really was sitting like that for a few seconds on his own. It was pretty cute and only fueled Ruby's fire for showing him how to do things that he won't be able to do on his own for months to come.
Alice was pretty excited about her umbrella joke...
Chris lets the kids steer the truck in parking lots on occasion. Betsey had turns too, but I only got pics of Alice. She loves it. They all do.
Our little home away from home. We are pretty cozy in our tent trailer. Better than a tent!
Betsey and Zella were pretty inseperable on this trip. They just loved each other. Zella is a year younger than Betsey and she was sweet to follow Betsey around and play animals and follow her on her bike, etc. We were all gawking at this duo the whole weekend.
Little man slept really well during the trip, staying on his loose schedule. Here, I was finishing dinner and he was ready to go to bed. Look at those chubby legs!!
On the day we left, Zella and Betsey played in the trailer while I packed the bedding away and pulled out dirty laundry, etc.
So cute!!!
They made a little fort, just the two of them with towels and blankets they found. I was impressed! Betsey likes to be the bigger kid, she's not used to it and it is extra fun for her.
I loved this trip! It was my favorite to date. I don't really know why, it just felt relaxing to a degree (probably not really accurate since we had so many kids, but I'm in that groove, I guess). It was fun hanging at night laughing until I almost threw up from so much laughing around the campfire. We started in on white trash stories and it turns out that Kelly has the most impressive white trash story EVER...only it isn't super appropriate to record for future generations to enjoy. Still, it was so funny, I'll need to hear it at least once a year. I love my forever friends and I wish I lived closer to them! An hour is too much!
