Back Home in Johnsonville

Well, they weren't kidding when they said residency would make make me feel like a single parent. It's a good thing we were able to move so close to the Johnsons. We've already spent most of the summer in Utah with Kolby's family. It's been so long since we were able to have some good quality family time. We're just trying to fill our canteen before June starts school this fall.

We spent the fourth of July weekend in Genola. The girls got in some good cousin time and Grandma Sara got lots of good baby Klive time. Aunt Jodi made ribs and a delicious salad the size of a small country, so we didn't mind too terribly when the fireworks got washed out by the rain.

And good ol' Uncle Kory even taught Klive to crawl! We've only been working on the skill for the past 6 months with no success. One day with Uncle Kory is all it took. Maybe next he'll teach him to ride motorcycles.

And this year we finally made it on the annual Johnson/Bott/Washburn family camping trip to Fish Lake. Although it rained for two of the camping days, we still managed to have fun, even if we did spend hours in the trailers playing head and foot and rummie-cube and neglecting our soggy children covered in stinky, wet cow poo.
This group loves their ATV's, so I shoved my parental paranoia to the bottom of my gut and let the girls do some riding. Turns out, Winnie was a speed demon on this baby. Uncle Kaleb was nice enough to teach her how to ride it, so to repay the favor, she dragged him through a giant, wet cow turd.

It must have been a rainy summer so far, because the wild flowers were unbelievable. I'm not sure if it's legal to pick them, but these girls couldn't get enough. Don't rat on us if we broke the law, okay?

Aunt Jodi had so many fun activities for the kids to do. They got to tie-dye t-shirts . . .

And they also loaded all the kids in the rangers for a fantastic treasure hunt. Winnie and I rode with Uncle Mark and she couldn't get to the clues fast enough. She kept yelling at him, "Go, Go, Go!!!! Drive!!! Faster!!!" If she would have had a whip, I think she would have used it.

I had to throw in a picture of this little dude. I think this is about the cleanest his face was for the camping trip. I've never seen a boy with such a consistently black face. I think dirt is his comfort blanket.

And the girls finally got to do some real fishing with the master, Grandpa Kyle. I was shocked at how determined they were to make a catch. The mud along the stream was so deep and squishy, they had to take off their socks and shoes, roll up their pants and then hike upstream over rocks, bushes, and waist-high weeds and thorny plants for over an hour to keep up with Grandpa. They were tough cookies.

In the end, June caught 4 fish, and Winnie caught 1.

I thought this was a really nice picture of Grandpa. He's such an awesome Grandpa.

We got in some good-quality camp fire time after the rain quit. If Grandpa Babe looks a little worse for the wear in this picture, its because he took a nasty spill. Not off of a motorcycle or river bank or cliff, but off of a rogue plastic patio chair. I guess he learned the hard way not to overload his dinner plate, because one of the legs gave out and sent him and his entire dinner over backwards. Everyone had a good laugh at his expense, while he flailed on the ground and yelled, "Call my lawyer!"

Needless to day, the kids had a ball. I have to admit, I was less than thrilled to head out on a week-long camping trip with three kids and no husband, but I am so glad I did. As I tucked June into her sleeping bag on our last night, she gave me a big hug and said, "Thanks Mom."
Me: "For what?"
June: "You know what . . . taking us camping."
Awww, now that was sweet.