Porter Family Camping Weekend of Fun: Day 2

We got up the next morning and it was our turn to make the meal.  We chose to make blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and sausage.  The eggs looked a little weird after being cooked in the bacon and sausage grease but they tasted good!

After breakfast we got washed up and cleaned up the best we could with baby wipes.  We look pretty!

Since Jade and Brit weren't there and the mosquitoes were terrible, we decided to take a trip to Bear Lake for a few hours.  My dad stayed behind to take a nap with Roxy since you can't have dogs on North Beach.  As we were on our way down off the mountain, we ran into Jade and Brit.  They came back for the day so Josh and I decided to go to Minnetonka Caves with them instead of Bear Lake.  We got up to the caves at 1:30 and it was so crowded they were selling tickets for the 4:00 tour, not gonna happen.  So Josh and I went for a drive around Bear Lake.

I really wanted a fresh raspberry shake so we stopped for one.  After I ordered it, they pulled raspberries out of the freezer in a Wal Mart bag.  I was disappointed but the shake was good.  The lake is so high this year.  My mom, Chelsie and Brian tried to go to North Beach but they wouldn't let them on the beach because they said it was at capacity, never heard that before!  People were pulled over on the side of the road on the little pull-offs playing in the water.

We went back to camp to meet up with everyone.  My mom, dad and I decided to go for a walk with Branson to take him to the ice cave.

Branson is really into "Up" right now and he always talks about "the mean man" from the movie.  Well on our walk we found a tree that Branson thought would belong to the mean man so we had to stop and look at it.

 Branson thought the cave was so cool.  He thought that is where the dragons live and was trying to find baby dragons everywhere.  It was really neat in there.  It was actually the one place where there were no mosquitoes since it was so cold in there.

We went back to camp to start making dinner.  It was Mom and Dad's turn and they made yummy dutch oven chicken (for me) and ribs (for everyone else) and potatoes.

The boys played and got more dirty and Gavin used Josh as a jungle gym again.

yep, those bumps all over his forehead are mosquito bites, poor kid

 Roxy was on guard all weekend.  When my Mom and Dad got back to their house, they said she slept for hours and hours finally relaxed.

Dinner was delicious.  Jade and Brit packed all that they could fit in their car to go home that night and the rest of us would take what was left home in the morning.  Josh went home with them.  He is not much of a camper, or is just a 1-night camper.  The rest of us all sat around the fire for the rest of the night, scaring ourselves.  When we went to bed, I pointed my flashlight out into the woods to check on things and there was a big buck and a doe circling our camp.  We watched them make their way down the road and then went to bed.  I was scared sleeping by myself in the Jeep.  My mind is really bad at scaring me and I can't shut it off.  My iPod was just about dead so I listened to music until it died and I finally fell asleep.  We got up in the morning and got everything packed up to go home.
It was such a fun weekend to spend with my family, totally disconnected for 3days.  I loved it and can't wait for next year.

Porter Family Camping Weekend of Fun: Day 1

We planned a weekend of camping with all of my family.  Everyone was able to get work off and it would be the first time my nephews went camping.  My dad wanted to take us to Bloomington Lake were we went last year for a day trip.  Since it got warm late this year, there was still snow up there so we had to come up with a plan B.  We decided to go up Paris Canyon.  My parents went up a few days before we were to set out on the camping trip to find us a good spot.  They found a great spot but told us to bring mosquito spray.  We got up there Friday morning and could not believe the amount of mosquitoes up there.  I've never seen anything like it.  We had fogger that we sprayed Friday night and we were constantly spraying ourselves with bug spray for 3 days.

Here's how Josh dealt with the mosquitoes.  The poor guy swells up so big when he gets bit by one.

We got up to camp and got everything set up.  Josh and I slept in the back of our Jeep.  We don't tent camp much anymore since we can fit back there, plus we can turn the heat on during the night when we get cold.

Branson and Gavin loved it!  Branson was excited to sleep in a tent at night with him mom and dad.

My mom and I took Branson for a little hike to see what was around us.  He found a big rock that he fell in love with.  He thought he was the coolest thing standing up on top of it.

Gavin is a crazy baby and into every.thing.  Constantly.  And he loves loves loves to hang on Josh.

He is so cute.

My dad was so cute and found Branson some "dinosaur" bones.  The kid is obsessed with dinosaurs and dragons.  He showed everyone his bone that Papa found him.

My dad got the fire going to try to get the mosquitoes to go away and to get dinner going.  We roasted hot dogs Friday night.  Dad has lots of helpers to get the fire going!

After we ate, the boys got changed into their jammies and we all sat around the fire.  Gavin went out pretty quickly.

Branson thought it was time to make "Bamma" be a monkey.  It was hilarious!  She had to go cross-eyed and make monkey sounds.  We tried to teach him how to make the sounds, too.  We had to do monkey motions with our arms, which apparently I didn't get right according to Branson.

 As it got later, the fire got bigger.  I love sitting around a campfire in the dark, it's hypnotizing.

My dad, brother and Brian decided that it would be a good idea to go walking down to the Ice Caves...in the dark.  We sat around the fire for a little while waiting for them to come back.  Then we started hearing what sounded like wolves howling but we knew it was them, still made me nervous though.  They finally got back and Josh and I went to bed.  We got woken up at about 1:30 in the morning to Jade and Brittiney's car doors opening and closing since they were right by us.  The boys were crying and were cold in their tent so they took them home.

Backyard BBQ

We had a little BBQ at my brother's house, for no reason except to have one.  The boys were playing in the backyard with a few of the neighbor girls having the time of their lives.

We ate then went out back to sit around the fire, talk and eat s'mores.

Josh enjoying some family time before going to work.

When did this baby become a little boy?

And this baby?  He just cracks us up.

These two boys are getting so big, time goes by too quickly.

We loved making s'mores.

I know Josh and I won't always be living here and once he's done with school at the end of this year, we have to go wherever he gets a job.  But I'm thankful to live so close to my family and for my nephews to know us.  They both just LOVE Josh.  Branson had to go for a ride down the street with us before we could leave last night and thought it was so cool to be riding in Josh's "truck" (jeep).  He loved it.  

4th of July: Pt 2

Tara and I wanted to go to the pool Friday afternoon but I didn't get out off work in time so we went Saturday morning.  We both got scorched on our front and oddly nothing on our backs!  We had some good girl time though and the pool was pretty empty.  Josh and I sat around most of the day after that.  The Cruise In was in town and we are always locked in our house during the parade.  Since Main Street is shut down for 3 hours, everyone uses our street and it's like a parking lot.  We finally got out at 9pm and went back over to Cody and Tara's to light our fireworks.

I love taking pictures of them, just to see what I get!  We started out behind their complex.  We had quite the little audience of kids that kept chanting "do more, do more!" but decided we better move so we didn't start one of the houses or the field on fire.

We moved out by the street and lit the rest of them.

There was a group of people down the road from us who were lighting off the big fireworks and we felt pretty pathetic with our popping fountains...until they started themselves a fire in the field that they quickly put out!

We had fun watching our little firework show.

It was a great weekend celebrating our freedom and the birth of our country.  We honor and thank our service men and women who sacrifice their lives to keep us safe and free on this Independence Day.  We are so blessed.

Happy 4th Of July!

I love having three day weekends!  I love the holidays that afford us to do that.  Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays.  I'm proud to be an American and I am so thankful to the men and women who make the sacrifice everyday to keep America what it is today, a free country.
It was my turn to stay late at work on Friday.  I didn't get out until almost 5 and got the biggest surprise when I got out, all I can say is we have great best friends who love us.  Thank you Cody and Tara!!
We headed over to Cody and Tara's house after I got off and had a delicious steak BBQ, and then headed out to go get some fireworks and to go save our spot for the fireworks that night.  Dr. Welter took us 3 girls out to Mo Bettah' Steaks for lunch and we had the BEST authentic Hawaiian shaved ice!  Oh my gosh, those things are a delicious piece of Heaven.  It's not like the shaved ice at those little roadside rainbow booths either.  So after we got some of our fireworks, we took the boys to go get another one, and they were not disappointed either!

We went back to our spot we picked out at the church to watch the fireworks.

Cody and Josh got the poppers out and started throwing them at Atty's back and they popped so they had a competition to see who could pop the most off his back.

Tara brought cards to play Sevens to pass the time waiting for the fireworks.  I had never played before and am not much of a game player but that game was fun.  Then the fireworks started.

 They were beautiful!!  We laughed so much and had such a fun night.