Partial Hamm Family Reunion in McCall...

McCall is basically summarized for me in these first three pictures. This was me 25 years ago...living in my swimsuit, making crazy faces with my cousins, happily graduated from my "life vest on the dock" requirement,, just as carefree as I'd ever be. I so value the summer fun we had in McCall and for the lasting friendships that time created for me and my cousins...namely my girl Trina, who always posed for every camera that got pulled out and who has undoubtedly more pictures of herself cross-eyed than she does looking straight ahead. I can see Ruby starting to get that kind of experience and it makes me so happy! Here she is with Sarah...

Laying out on the dock was kind of a rite of passage. I didn't ever lay on the beach from probably age 8-26...when you lay on the sand, you get sandy...a lot of sandy...from lots of little kids running around you. Ruby has seen some of my younger cousins all hanging out on the dock in their prime and she loves to pretend to be cool like them. Should I tell her she's cool like me? No. That would not be cool. I even remember having to lay out on the dock in a life preserver like Alice is...it's not comfortable. So there's Alice, Jane, Ruby and Sarah...on the dock in the deep end. Soon they'll be sleeping out there...I hope that is far, far in the future still.

I took a lot of pictures of this tasty treat. I love Jane! She's tons of fun and super cute, isn't she?

I have a picture of Ruby with Uncle Braden around this age that I love. This one isn't as cute, but still...it's uncle Braden with my baby!

Nathan was a doll too...look at him with these boats, he was loving them!

Betsey wasn't at a bad age to hang out on the beach. She just sat around and took long naps in the cabin.

It is no easy task getting all the stuff down to the beach...it requires lots of helping hands...and necks and backs...

More of Jane. I really, really took a lot of pics of her!

I did a few silhouette pics of pregnant Amanda. She is beautiful and I can't wait to meet my new nephew!

The girls of course started a business, well a few businesses while we were there. The first was a restaurant that Braden has pics of...It was a "Salid Shop". Then they decided to be veterinarians. I've mentioned before that Ruby is not messing around when she opens for business. We were basically the last vacationers on our street, it was pretty vacant (the beach was all ours most of the days), but they really were bummed out when no one brought their animals to come be checked out by them. One time, we weren't sure why we didn't hear them, so my mom went outside and started calling for them...and they were all the way down at the end of our little street on a BUSY intersection holding up signs and stuffed animals and weird things trying to gather business. Really?

The cabin.

We celebrated Mason's birthday! He's two now!

Trina, my dear cousin, lives in Boise. She came up for a weekend to hang out and catch up. My kids love being with her kids and we STILL know how to have a great time together in McCall! Here is Ruby, Sarah, Jane, Alice and Trina's daughter Jadin. They planned some entertainment for us and it was pretty clever. They just did some silly skits and stuff.

Oma went all out and made the kids some snacks to go along with their big plans. It was a pet party or something...apples and peanut butter, roasted marshmallows and puppy chow. I don't remember why those three things...but there was a reason. I think it was related to the vet clinic and that possibly the animals that our kids were pretending to be may have had some favorite foods which were requested for this special event.

Again, Ru and Mason love each other! He's the little brother we never had. Love his batman jams

I had to post that Bee had her first foods at the cabin. No likey applesauce.

Oh Jane, how I wanted to get the perfect picture of you...but failed. Instead, I have just a lot of okay pictures of you. This pictures doesn't even touch how yummy you are.

Oma and Opa planned a really fun scavenger hunt...

Amanda with Betsey. Soon enough I'll be holding her baby!

The kids needed help reading the clues because Oma forgot to write in normal print. The loopy cursive was not really legible for the children! See Ruby Street? Sweet!

There's my Trina holding sweet Bee. She was really loved on between Oma, Amanda and Trina.

There's the smile I can't resist!

Opa was part of one of the clues.

High fives for Oma...no treasure still?

TREASURE!!!

Sarah, Nathan, Alice, Mason, Jadin, Trey, Ruby and Jane after discovering their treasures!

The weather didn't last the whole trip, so when Chris joined us for the last three days, we got to go ice skating. We rode our bikes to the rink, I took a few pics and they all skated and I rode right back to be with Bee.

Oh, did I take more pics of Jane? Oma was doing a craft with the older kids and Jane wasn't really much help...so I was distracting her outside...

This pic doesn't really do justice to my dad's super tan skin...but it runs in his family...his dad is the same way. Spend ten minutes in the sun, and you look as though you sleep all night in a tanning bed. Sheesh!

The group before we all headed home (it was after church, so some are dressed up still). Amanda and Mason were sleeping and I was happily behind the camera.

Thank goodness for a place where we can all have awesome memories like this! We had a great time this summer and will for many more to come! I'm holding out for all of us to be there next summer...at the same time...whew...that would be a lot of people! By next summer there will be 24 people in the Bob and Jane Hamm family!

Ruby's passion...

Ruby loves horses. She loves brushing them, trotting on them, cantering on them...and other horse terminology that she is learning that I've never heard before. She is really determined and works really hard at all of her lessons. She got to go to a horse camp for a week this summer and she was in heaven! She was voted the "Happiest Camper" and everyone commented to me how fun it was to see a little girl so happy to do anything for a horse...scoop pooh, you name it. She had another nickname, "pooh flinger" because she had a flingy way of tossing the pooh into the pooh pile. She's proud of her nickname. Even though Alice wasn't part of the camp, they call her "Little Pooh Flinger", and any affiliation with Ruby thrills her, so she doesn't object.

The kids progress to larger, more difficult to ride horses as they gain experience. Ruby is on the starter horse, Blackie, in this picture. She is also allowed to ride "Sunny" now, which is the horse in front of her (that's her homeschool friend Paige riding Sunny, they did the camp together).

Here's the whole group. We love Lori Reale, the owner of Freestyle Farm in Graham.

Ruby and Blackie.

Note: On October 14th, Ruby got Blackie to canter and jumped over a pole with her. It was a small little jump, but was really exciting for her.

Summer Camps...

So when Ruby went in for her 7 year old physical, I was told by our doctor that she needed to have a career in drama. Hmmmmmm...you think? Ruby has a flair for the dramatic, and the doctor did seriously suggest some drama classes, so we tried a Musical Theater camp this summer. The camp had a superhero theme, and Ruby was selected to be "Captain Giggles." She wasn't thrilled, she wanted to be "Super Fabulous" because she got to wear a girly costume. Ruby's role could have been a boy or a girl role and for some reason, that didn't excite her.

The music and choreography was super cute.

Here was Ruby's big moment...when Captain Giggles comes onto stage and saves the day by making everyone laugh uncontrollably.

Ruby had to start laughing to unleash her giggling powers.

The giggling was so intense that she fell to the ground laughing...

Alice got to do a camp up north by my folks' house. It was a sweet and short princess camp and she was thrilled to have Oma join her for princess tea on the final day of her camp. See all the sweet things she made during the camp?