Camp Bourndale

A couple of weeks ago the fifth graders at Savannah's school got to go to the greatest over night camp in Plymouth. I was a chaperon and we had such a great time! Savannah and some of her friends waiting to go have dinner.

This was our cabin, right on the lake. Or maybe it was a pond, not really sure. But it was beautiful. We got the "Taj Mahal" since we had 16 girls.

Savannah with some friends on their bunks in the Taj Mahal. Can you use "bunks" and "Taj Mahal" together? Probably not.

I'm not sure why I look like I just had plastic surgery. It may have something to do with the 3 hours of sleep I got the night before. I was just lucky my eyes were open at all.

Savannah actually held a lobster. I was so proud of her. I know she was freaked out but she did it anyway.

They got to go out on a lobster boat, do a fun team ropes course, do some searching along the beach for treasures, go to a magic show, and of course stay up all night. Thanks for letting me go, sweetie!

First Day of School (now over a month ago)

Savannah and Riley's first day:

Gray started a week later. Here they are again:

I love them!

Continued Summer Fun

So, here is what happened for the rest of our summer, once we returned to Massachusetts. I know you have been waiting at the edge of your seat.

First of all, we went to Quincy to see John Adams' houses. That would be John Adams, plural and possessive. Not sure how to do the punctuation on that one, feels like I should add a couple of more 'S's there. Anyway, John Adams (2nd president) and John Quincy Adams (6th president) had a couple of houses there. Make sense? Okay..moving on.

It was a not a very picture-taking-friendly kind of place. Gotta preserve all that old stuff, ya know? Which worked out well because I forgot my camera. I did take this with my cell phone though. Doesn't do it justice but I'm sure if you're deeply interested you could google it and get some great interior pics.

The kids and I went berry picking. We picked blueberries (and by "we" I mean Savannah and I while the boys ran around wildly) with the Adams' (not related to the aforementioned Johns) and Jacksons.

Savannah and Taylor

Crazy boys

The Monday before school started we canoed down the Concord river. We went to the North Bridge. It was beautiful and tons of fun. We even sang "Row, row, row your boat". In rounds. Awesome. And not as much work as you might expect. My suggestion: take someone bigger and stronger than you and place them in the rear of the boat and appoint yourself as photographer. Perfect!

Working hard

Happy End of Summer!

Next to come: First day of school and Camp Bournedale

Now that the bawling has tapered off a bit...

I think I'm ready to give an update and post a few pictures from the summer. That is, for those you (Jennie and Linda) that have not completely given up on my blog due to my super long hiatus'(Is that a word? Well, it is now.).

So right after the kids got out of school in mid-June our Davis cousins came to visit from the state of Wyoming. We had a blast! We went to the beach, movies, Six Flags, Palmyra (in the 12 passenger van. And there were only 11 of us! Of course 7 of those were tiny little bodies so there was tons of room.), did all the major Boston sites, and were able to spend lots of time together. Here are some pics:

The Good Guys with the Green Lantern and Wonder Woman at Six Flags.

Red Sox game

Not long after that we went to Utah, for what was supposed to be 7-10 days. That's not how it turned out. Things started out really great and fun. We had time with family and went to the carnival and parade and fireworks for Steele Days.

The parade with the Tholl cousins

And then "it" happened. The event that would turn our "visit" into what my parents had to of been guessing would be a permanent situation. Riley broke his arm. Fortunately we do not have the "before" pictures just "after" when the cast was put on. He was in a soft cast and sling from Wednesday until Monday and then got to pick out this beauty of a color: We found out the hard way that yellow doesn't do the best job hiding all of the little things that an 8 year old boy might get on a cast in the middle of summer. But that's okay. Three weeks later he got the pin removed and chose blue instead. I'm very grateful for that decision.

Over the weekend we got to spend time with the Davis side of the family. We had a fun time playing water balloon volleyball.

Good thing my daughter has some height to compensate for being extremely outnumbered when it comes to boy/girl ratios among the cousins. I think the only thing that saves her is that she towers over most of the boys.

Summer was also full of:

A brand new four-wheeler

Fishing

Fun at the cabin

Lagoon

Celebrating Savannah's 10th Birthday

We did eventually make it home again and I do have more to post. But for now I think we could all use a break.

Let me introduce myself...

My name is Stephanie. I've been gone for awhile. And back for awhile actually.

Our 7 to 10 day trip to Utah turned into a month. Riley broke his arm. Bad. He had to have surgery and everything. A giant pin was inserted. And then removed three weeks later. That's when we returned to Mass. And tried to enjoy what was left of summer.

The older kids started school on Wednesday. I'm enjoying my last days alone with my baby before he starts Kindergarten on Tuesday. I'll try to post pictures if I can stop bawling long enough to do so next week. I don't want him to go. :(