Camping 2009

We went camping last weekend (Thursday-Saturday). It was pretty cool. We went to Paradise Lake Campground. Here, I'll post some pictures.


Dad in the cabin we rented.

Little sister.

Brother.

Who in the world is THAT??? O.o

THE WATER....no seriously!

The pond. =)

My foot over the water. I thought it was pretty cool with the reflection of the sky.

The brother, Will, and Dad's fishing box thingy. =)

The sister, Jaime, and her rod.

Fishing. (Jaime's totally hooked on fishing now. She loves it! I say it's kind of BORING. Takes too long....even if you DO catch something.)

What's that in the water?? NOTHING!! It's the reflection of the sky!! =P

BREAD. We used this for bait.

Look out!! Jaime's casting!! O.O

Jaime and her first fish which she called "Sonny". She was the first one to catch a fish here. =)

My bwuhduh...

My sista...



The cabin we stayed in...except for me really....I slept in the car 'cause everyone else...well...they snore and I didn't bring ear plugs. =P

Around the campfire.

Mmmm...marshmallows!!! =P

Smores... =P

Pigging out in the cabin.

Me and my bro listening to my Mp3 player which is cool to do at night especially if you don't have a good book to read.

Unlike Will and I, they actually had some good books to read.

In the morning... *YAWN*

Breakfast for them was...(rotten) eggs.

Yumm...(BLEH!!)

As you can see, I was really tired....

MORE fishing...

Eating Cracker Jacks because that was more fun than fishing. =P

Sitting in the sand....dumping sand on himself...for some reason.

Motoring Jaime around...that water was FREEZING!!!

Will and one of his four fish. (Jaime caught 3 and I caught 1).

Unhooking the fish.

My lovely sister and her lovely marshmallow. =9

Fishing...

The lake (or pond or whatever it was).

I remember the first morning when Will woke me up, and I was extremely tired. I had walked over to the bathroom, and I was just coming back. I was still tired so I kind of had my eyes closed, and there was this swing set by the bathroom a little ways...I walked right into it. Yeah, umm...that woke me up pretty good. =P ...Ouch...

I also remember when Will, Jaime, and I were making up this song... It sounded really cool. Will kind of began it, and I followed suit... Then we decided to change the songs words...and the whole song ended up changing. It went something like this:


I woke up one day
It was Jaime's birthday

(Guitar Solo done by ME)
Deh neh neh neh
Neh neh neh
Deh neh neh neh

I tried to make a cake
But I didn't hit 'bake'

Deh neh neh neh
Neh neh neh
Deh neh neh neh

(At this point, the song kind of changes gear)
So......whoa whoa...whoa whoa....
I CUT THE VEGGIES WITH A STEAK KNIFE!!
Whoa!! Whoa!! Whoa!!
I cut the veggies with a steak knife!!
Whoa!! Whoa!! Whoa....!!

(I don't remember the rest...I can't even believe I remembered that much.)


I also remember, the first night I believe it was, their were so many stars.... I had asked Dad if we Jaime and I could go over to the swings to talk and look at the stars. Pretty soon, Will joined us, and we were all just laying in the grass staring up at the starlit sky and talking. It was nice... Staring up into a sky like that, you have got to know that there IS a God. It's evident. No doubt about it.

Well, I guess that's it...unless you want to hear about fishing... In that case hears the story in hieroglyphics: ♪♫☺♪♫ ~~><>~↓~~

In other words, while everybody else was fishing and once in a blue moon catching something...I was either listening to my Mp3 player or singing to the fish trying to get them to go after my "lonely piece of bread". Yeah...I only caught one fish. =P

Will managed to catch 4 fish, Jaime got 3, I got a pitiful 1... Actually mine wasn't so bad; it was pretty big at least. No pictures though, as I seemed to be about the only one snapping pics out there. Dad did manage a video, but it was pretty bad because he was trying to help me unhook it at the same time. Ah well...

I should put up some of the vids... The Cracker Jack in the cabin had to be the best‼ Jaime was TOTALLY not expecting that‼ =D

-Courtney-

Skating

We went skating the other day (Thursday) and took Mikey with us. It was pretty sweet. Jaime and I took turns pushing Mikey around the skating rink in his stroller. That sounds a little weird. "The skating rink in his stroller"? Ah well, you know what I mean.

He had alot of fun with that. We decided not to rent skates for him since he's only 1. I'll probably try to teach him how to skate when he's 3 if he's still with us.

Besides pushing him around the skating rink, Jaime and I (mostly Jaime) took him walking around. We let him check out the arcade games. He got to turn the steering wheel on one. We also set him on the new motorcycle arcade game and rocked him a bit.

All in all, I think he had fun. Too bad I forgot my camera. Next time I'll probably take it. Mom says we can probably go this next Thursday too, since it's the last one before school starts.

HOPEFULLY, the Wassenburgs go, and Jaime can see Alexis.

-Courtney-

Family Reunion

We went to the family reunion yesterday. It was pretty cool. Got to see the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We went for a picnic in the park.

After we'd finished eating, we went over to the merry-go-round for a bit. Jaime, Will, and I spun all the kids around. Went a little too fast for Trevor (he's our 6 year old cousin); he kept falling off. Silly kid thought he could hang over the edge and not start to fall off. Luckily he only really fell off when we slowed down. I had to pull him up one time.

After that, we all headed down by the water. There was this little wall that you had to climb down (it was slanted). Aunt Becky was freaking out about Rodney (he's about 12 now). Even when he was just on the rocks below, she was freaking out, telling him he was "going to fall". Lol. Funny thing was, she didn't seem to pay too much attention to Taylor (6), and I hear she's the clumbsiest of them all!

Pretty soon, we headed back to the house and went swimming in there pool. Taylor (6) wouldn't go in the water though because she didn't "want to be splashed". Will thought it was actually because she didn't want to wear her floaties. He might be right about that one.

Still, we wore our floaties when we were that little. That reminds me of the time we were there many years ago when I put on like four (heavy duty) tubies (I was like 6 or 7), and then leapt into the pool expecting to go under a bit and then shoot up. What happened was the bottom tubie went under about and inch, and I just sort of floated there, deflated by my failed experiment. Haha. =)

Trevor (5) was so funny at the pool. He walked up to the water and looked into it like he was scared, then, all of a sudden, just jumped on in. Then he burst out of the water waving his arms around yelling, "I'm swimming!! I'm SWIMMING!!". Haha. He's a little drama king if you can catch my meaning.

After drying off, we kids decided to go over to the neighbors' house to jump on their trampoline. Our grandfather said it was alright, so we went. It was pretty fun. No net though, so we had to be careful.

Pretty soon it was time to leave. The drive there and the drive back, I can tell you, were horribly loooooong. And the traffic! Well, it's over now. Tired....

-Courtney-

Family Picnic

We went to the family picnic yesterday. It was really fun. Let me just start from the beginning.....

First, on Friday, we had to prepare everything for the picnic. Me and Mom went to the store to get some things for the picnic and just as we were about to check out the groceries, we remembered munchies for the ride. We had to get out of line, find some good snacks, and find another line. Later that day, we kids had to clean out the truck. That evening, after eating dinner and doing the dishes, me and Mom cleaned a little bit around the house. Then a little while later we went to bed...

On Saturday, we had to get up at six-thirty!!! Ughhh...early. We ate a five minute breakfast of lucky charms, then we had to pack things and get things ready to go. When we started driving, I was really excited. But after about an hour and forty-five minutes, I was ready to stop driving. I ate some whales (a snack like gold fish only cheaper) but those made me really thirsty. I drank a caprisun and soon had to use the bathroom. After a while, we found a gas station and used the bathroom and bought a few gummy worms and a little pack of oreos.

I won't tell you everything else about the trip. There was traffic, we kids got bored, and finally we arrived at our grandparents house. We grabbed the food and headed over to the park right across the street, after, of course, some greetings and hugs. The food was delicious. I ate only a roast beef sandwich, though, because after eating in the car practically all the way there I wasn't overly hungry.

After eating, I went with my cousins Taylor (8 yrs old) and Rebekah (11 yrs old) over to the playground nearby. We decided to play on the swings for a little while, then went over to the merry-go-round. We were soon joined by Courtney who was racing James (7 I think) to where we were. Afterward Will and Rodney (12 I think) and Trevor (6 yrs old) came on over. (We also have one more close cousin named Tyler but he didn't come.) After a while of that, we all got tired and hot and headed back to the adults. After a little while (which seemed like forever to me because I really wanted to go swimming), we went down to the river to look at the water. After walking around a little, we decided to pack up and go back to the house. Us kids all got a ride in the back of the pickup truck. Me and Court got the best seat on a cooler at the very back. It was cool.

When we got to the house, we all got our swim suits on and swam in the pool. It was really fun. It wasn't deep enough to dive, but, even if it had been, I don't think I would have anyway. But we jumped in and made a whirlpool and stuff. Taylor didn't want to swim and Rebekah got out after a little while. We made the whirlpool after Rebekah had gotten out and Rodney, Courtney, Will, and I kept pulling Trevor off the ladder. It was hard for him to hold on with the whirlpool so it was fun dragging him back into the water.

After we all were out of the pool, we got chocolate and vanilla icecream cones. YUMMY!!! We ate dinner there so we wouldn't be too hungry on the ride home, and after that we left. The ride home was practically unbearable for me. I was really tired. I was kind of grumpy too. I said something a little bit mean when Courtney said something that annoyed me. But after a long time of driving through traffic, we stopped at a gas station. Dad pumped the gas while me, Mom, Court, and Will went over to the Mcdonald's next door to get some hot fudge sundays. Yum!! Icecream twice in one day!

And after a couple more hours, we arrived home. We were happy to see Annie and that she hadn't used the bathroom in the house. YAY! We unpacked some of the stuff and soon went to bed. And after waking up at 6:45 in the morning and coming home at almost eleven I slept like a log!

Family Reunion

We're going to go to a family reunion in New Jersey tomorrow... We're going to have a picnic in the park, and HOPEFULLY it won't rain. It's not supposed to, but you never know.

There's only going to be close relatives: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. So that's good.

Our neighbor is going to look after Annie while we're gone. It's only going to be tomorrow until night, then we're heading home.

I'll write more on it later...

-Courtney-

The Slip

Jaime and I went for a bike ride over to the tennis court. Well, we decided to toss some water on the (what do you call it?) shuffleboard, so that we could slide across it. Once we poured the water on, Jaime and I began sliding; it was so fun!....until....

Jaime ran in to slide across the shuffleboard, and she must not have been ready for it because she slipped backwards and went sliding across the shuffleboard on her back a few feet. The sight was, to tell you the truth, hysterical, and I couldn't help but laugh.

Jaime wasn't too happy about it all. For one thing, her entire back was soaked. Also, there were kids walking down the road, and she didn't really want to be seen like that.

We decided to race home. I went behind her so nobody could see her soaking wet back.

-Courtney-

Seeds Family Worship Coupon Code!!!!!!

Hey, guys! Guess what? I got a coupon code for Seeds Family Worship's store. (Seeds Family Worship is a Christian music group that makes all of their songs based on the Word of God. Their music is awesome, and if you would like to listen to their songs online, you can go here: http://www.seedsfamilyworship.net/media_listen.php)


Back to the coupon code. I got a coupon code that will allow you to purchase anything from their store (cds, t-shirts, etc) for 20% off. The code is "Eivarlost09". That would be a zero & a nine, by the way (so you don't go thinking the zero is an 'o').

If you'd like to check out their store, go here: http://www.seedsmusicstore.com/

This code (Eivarlost09) will expire on December 9, 2009, so if you're interested in buying, you'd better do it now.

-Courtney-

Seeds Family Worship

Seeds Family Worship is a Christian worship group that uses scripture for all of their songs. They're pretty cool, and they have 5 different albums free to listen to online. Check it out here: http://www.seedsfamilyworship.net/media_listen.php

-Courtney-

Let's Keep It Simple: Today

We (the family and I) did ALOT today. I'm so worn out....not sleepy...just worn out.

First, we went to Three Lakes Park with the Grims and Madisons. We went to the playground, played tag and all. Then later on we decided to take a walk on the trails. We saw a tree frog, a blue heron, and LOTS of turtles in the water. We kids also did a bit of exploring through the woods. We also took a look around the - what do you call it? - nature....building...thingy. Sorry, I completely forgot what in the world it's called! It'll come back to me...eventually.

Later on, at around 6:00 I believe, we left for the Wassenberg's house. They had invited us over for dinner, and Dad was going to fix their - Dad was going to fix something having to do with heating or air conditioning or something. I don't really know; I didn't pay attention.

I know I had fun. We had a delicious dinner of potato chips and dip. Lol just kidding! We had hamburgers and hotdogs, chips and dip, pasta salad and regular salad, etc. It was good! ....especially the chips and dip...Oh, and the carrot cake was delicious too!

We also did a quite a bit of jumping on the trampoline. I love trampolines! Pretty soon, it was time to go, and everyone went inside. Right before we left, we listened to Alexis play a song on the violin. She did really well! Then as Hannah (I believe it was) began to play the piano, we had to leave. =-(

It's been a loooooong day. Tomorrow is probably going to be a lazy day for me....hopefully...unless somebody wants me to do something (like cut the grass). I'm just going to have to lay low. ;)

(This is probably extremely rambly. Sorry about that.)

-Courtney-

Trimming Annie's Mile Long Nails

Annie, much to her dismay, had to get her nails trimmed today. She absolutely hates it. Of course, I'm sure she likes it better than getting a bath. She shivered and kept trying to squirm away. Will had to hold her to keep her still. Here are some pictures below.

Can you tell she's nervous?

Oh...PLEASE DON'T!

Attempting to squirm away.

Uh-oh here it comes!

Not my back feet!

Ahhh! Torture! Lemme GO!

How embarrassing... No pictures!

NOOOOO!

Annie managed to knock Will over and escape to....

The couch! I'm on base; you can't get me now!

...Or maybe you can....

I'm done. To the kitchen for my treat!

Excited! (she gets like this after a bath too)

This isn't a squat; I'm running!

Treat please!

-Courtney-