My family went camping over 4th of July weekend. Cody didn't come along.. I won't go into details why, cause franky I was furious about it then and I don't need to bring up any bad feelings again. P.S. I love him now and I'm over it. :)

This is before we headed up..



Josh wasn't able to go because he was on call for work, so Shonni and I went together and Kapri and I slept in her tent. I'm not sure why we thought that was the smartest idea.. being that we have two babies that sometimes put up a fight at bedtime. I brought Spanky along, mostly to protect us from bears. I was thinking about it though, he'd probably run up and wag his tail like mad, hoping the big black furry thing would play with him. Everyone insisted I was crazy. I felt better with him sleeping in our tent, even if only to warn us of approaching danger. (More on bears LATER.)

Traci and Jesse were moving the following week, so this was our "farewell" camping trip. So Traci, Jesse, the boys and Sophia (who was in town for a few weeks to visit) were there. Jalynn, Shawn, Taelor and her friend Keyli, Kelby (who entertained Spanky for most of the trip thank goodness), Ashlyn and Cadence all came. Mom and Jay, and Jack of course. Then Shonni and Addison, Me, Kapri and Spanky. It was the making for a party. It always is when I'm there. Cause I'm just that awesome.

Addison was up a lot that night and Shonni couldn't figure out why she was so fussy and uncomfortable. By the next morning Shonni had realized that Addison was constipated.. the poor kid couldn't get out her hard poo poos. Shonni was doing everything she could to help her. Prune Juice.. swabbing vaseline around her bum. (I heard this works somewhere, it did not work here, for us, on this day.) Addison was miserable most of the day. A few of us girls finally ended up going in to town to buy some suppositories to help her out. We ended up going to Robert's to get string to make bracelets. What was supposed to be a quick trip to town turned into a couple of hours.. whoopsie. We also made a stop at the coffee shop.. mmmmm.

So after we stopped at the grocery store and got the suppositories and some more wood we headed back up the mountain. When we pulled into our campground we saw yellow caution tape and signs marking off the neighboring campsite. Of course we had to go investigate. And much to our surprise, there was a BEAR TRAP set up, no further than 20 feet from my sister and her family's tent. No joke, a freaking bear trap. And to make things even more unbelievable, they had donuts and raw chicken in the thing. There are signs everywhere, "do not feed the bears, put away all of your food in cars, don't sleep in the clothes you cooked in". But there, within a VERY close proximity to our quarters, was a delicious snack for a hungry bear. When we pulled into our campsite, everyone started talking at once. "Did you see the bear trap?", "Right by my tent!", "Donuts and raw chicken!!". It was unbelievable!! Did I mention that I have a very LARGE fear of bears coming to get me in my sleep while camping. I don't take this fear lightly. I also have a fear of a moose chasing me, but thats a different subject for a different day.

Shonni and I ended up cutting the trip short, mainly because of Addison's fight with her poop.. but I'll admit the whole bear scare might have had something to do with it.. just a little.








Apparently my camera was having issues, because all of the pictures look crappy. But better than nothin', right?

Yesterday I decided to pull out the trusty plastic swimming pool for Kapri to splash around in. I still hadn't cleaned out Cody's car from our trip to California, (imagine carrots and yogurt sitting in water in a cooler in a hot car), so Cody sat and played with her.. man that kid LOVES her Dad!!

He started splashin' her.. and at first she couldn't get enough..

After a few hits in the face she was still laughin'..


Then she'd had enough..

Please meet..

the blackwidow spider that I killed in my garage yesterday.

Eeegghh.. this gives me the heebie jeebies!! I am going to buy a spider killing bomb thing asap!!

Me and Kapri went to Harmon's yesterday to pick up some things for dinner. The cashiers LOVE her (can you blame them?). When we went to check out the lady said "There you are!! I've missed you and your big flowers!!" So apparently my kid is known as the baby with the gigantic flower headbands at the neighborhood grocery store. They asked if they could give her a sticker, to which I replied "she'll just eat it". So instead they gave her a balloon. Her very first balloon EVER!! I picked purple, cause secretly I'm going to trick her into loving it as much as I do. She was FASCINATED by the dang thing. She stared at it the whole way home (which is only about two minutes, but thats like a million years to an 8 month old), then she stared at it for the first twenty minutes we were home. Of course I took pictures, cause thats what I do. Now I'll share them with you!! (All 3 of you that read this.)

Really?

She's gone. Clear across the country. To the state of tans.. and hurricanes. Thats right, Traci has moved to FLORIDA!! Sure, I'm a little upset. I'll miss her and the boys, and Jesse. Not to mention, we won't even get to see Sophia when she gets to visit them. JERKS. How can they be so selfish!! Okay, so really, all joking aside we're sad they're gone, but they'd be dumb to pass up this opportunity. Jesse got a really great job out there, and its like the land of vacations right?? We'll just have to save up our cash and go visit them, often.

Before they left, in all the chaos of packing, we thought it would be a good idea to do family pictures. It was hectic, and felt rushed, but I am really glad she was able to make time for them. Shonni worked her magic with "positioning" and I looked through the lens and pushed the button on the camera. We make a great team. Don't worry.. I'll post some so you can drool over this FREAKING cute family!!










Teagan

Koston

Sophia


And what family pictures would be complete without the infamous SILLY SHOT!!


WE MISS YOU GUYS!!

Saylor Don

Cody's cousin Kim, (who happens to be my sister, Jalynn's, best friend, and also the person who is responsible for setting up Cody and I on our first date) asked me to watch her baby a couple of days ago. She has five girls!! Can we say CRAZY!! Saylor is only a month old.. and I was super excited to watch her. And just an FYI.. it didn't make me baby hungry. I am perfectly content with my 8 month old. Don't get me wrong.. I LOVED watching her, and will gladly do so in the future. But I am not planning on getting knocked up anytime in the near future.

Now that we've cleared that up.. I'm going to get on to the real reason for this post. PHOTO SHOOT!! Shonni and I decided to take advantage of this moment and take pictures of her. And now I'm going to share them with YOU!! You're so lucky.