Camping in the Rain 2012

The Norris Family is not necessarily a die hard camping family, but we do have fun when we make it out. We pretty much go once a year and have a great time doing it. We go with my sisters and their families over Labor Day weekend. Dan sometimes (especially the last couple of years) has messed up this "tradition" because of an Alaskan fishing trip that ends up being on the same weekend. This year I told him we were going with or without him. We ended up spending Friday on our own and he came up half way through Saturday. To keep a long story short, after a rainy night on Friday, we packed up and spent the night at Dan's mom's house on Saturday (much to the dismay of a few of us). We went back up on Sunday and set our camp up again (don't ask). After that it was beautiful and the rest of the trip was really enjoyable. 

 We were so happy that Kamie came and spent the first day and a half with us. Too bad that was the part with the most rain! I'm thinking she should have come up for the second half of the camp out instead!

Kamie and Kyle

Sadie, Kallie and Ellie braving the rain!

Andrea and Lacey, it must have been dry right at this moment because Lacey's hair looks pretty dry and curly.

Some of us spent our fair share of time sitting in cars drinking hot cocoa and trying to stay warm.

We did break out the camping bingo for a game or two.

We found Syd's name carved into a tree right in our camp site.  (I promise she didn't carve this...but maybe I should print and frame a copy for her room)

I had been planning for quite some time to tell the kids about baby Norris #4 on this camping trip.  I planned a treasure hunt and each clue led to a treasure that had a candy bar, a picture and a questionnaire that I had called each cousin about previously.  The first stop was James (the oldest), then Caden (the next) and on down the line.  Mysteriously there was an extra "treasure" at the end and James read the "clue" that Kallie, Syd and Avery were going to be big sisters to a baby brother!!

My girls had NO CLUE!  We got it all on video and it is pretty hilarious.  Syd kept saying, "You're pregnant?  Seriously??"  It worked out just how I had planned! Amazing!

The whole gang with the pictures that were hidden at each of their spots.  For the baby's candy we gave everyone a ring pop so they could pretend they were binkies.

Look at that sun shining...finally!!  Avery enjoying some pickles and cheetos.

Kyle and Avery hung out in the porta-crib a bit.  They both had fun just being outside.

We took several walks down to the lake.  It is a very beautiful spot and hopefully we'll make it back there again soon.

Coombs girls in all our camping glory :) I love my sisters a lot and we had a great time being together!

Cute Magen...love this picture.

Payson Lakes is having a swimmer's itch problem right now, so we chose not to let the kids in the water at all.  They didn't really seem to mind and had great fun throwing millions of rocks in instead.  I'm just glad they didn't hit any innocent canoe riders as they floated by.

Avery fell asleep on our walk to the lake (thank goodness).  She doesn't understand why she can't get straight in and swim away :) It was much more relaxing for me to have her enjoy the lake this way.  I love that she only has one sock on, it is just a symbol of her busy little independent personality right now.

Avery loves her sisters so much.  She prefers them to me most of the time.

Love my girls!!

Kallie playing with Avery.  I love Avery's strong grip on Kallie's ear :)

Thank goodness we managed to squeeze in the required hot dog and marshmallow roast.  That's a must for every camping trip isn't it?!

This picture makes me laugh.  Kyle loved his first taste of roasted marshmallows!  No big surprise really.

The sign of a successful camping trip is a baby who is sound asleep before we even made it down the mountain.  Maybe it's because she has 14 extra layers on!  We had such a great time (despite the take camp down and put it back up part).  I'm not sure what will happen next year with 2 babies and a husband fishing in Alaska.  I guess we'll find out?!

Summer at a glance...

I can't believe I haven't done a blog post for 2 months- holy cow!

When summer began I actually wondered what I would do with 3 kids in a little tiny town without school and sports and piano lessons.

Now I'm wondering where summer went and how it passed so fast?!

Each of these events helped make our summer great and really deserve their very own blog post.

But since I've gotten so far behind, I'm doing the shortened version with about half of the pictures that I probably would have included otherwise.

Some is better than none I guess...

 We enjoyed our all-to-quick Coombs family  trip to St. George.  

We love going and we all decided we are for sure staying a few extra  days next year.

Date night at Tuacahn.

We snapped a few family pictures in St. George.

 

All the Coombs grandkids (for now).

Kallie Ann

Swimming at the hotel.

4th of July- Eureka Style

The parade went down Main Street, got to the end, turned around, and came back.

Twice the parade equals twice the candy!!

My girls with their friends Jamie and Ally Protani.

As you can tell by the look on her face, Avery wasn't too fond of the fire engine sirens.

Right after the parade we jumped into the car and drove to G'ma Patti's house for a Smith family bbq.  It was fun to see some family that we don't get to see very often.

Pool noodle war...

Who wants to play by the fountains when you can play IN them!

Next we enjoyed our annual "Kamie Day" celebration/holiday.

I had to take a picture of the delicious homemade pot pies.

So yummy!

Bingo

Crafts

Caden going down the water slide.

Avery loving the pool!

Me, my sisters, my dad and my aunt Kamie.

A couple weeks later, the girls and I hit the road again and headed to Flagstaff, AZ to visit Diane and family.

Next time we go we will definitely stay longer!
Let's just say there were tears by all when it was time to leave.

We spent a great, relaxing afternoon at West Fork in Oak Creek Canyon.

I love Avery's oreo face in this picture :)

The twins...so funny!

No summer would be complete without a few trips to a water park!

We were also lucky enough to have KayLynn and kids come visit Eureka for her birthday.

KayLynn really wanted to go see the meteor shower, so late one night we packed up everyone except the babies and Dan.  We laid a blanket on the road and watched the stars for a while.  KayLynn and I probably could have stayed a lot longer, but the natives were scared and cold so we headed home before too long.

On KayLynn's b-day we walked down to the Eureka museum and then headed to the local diner for fries and ice cream cones.

Eureka at its best...

Sadie and Kyle

Joslynn and Ellie.

Kallie and Sydney.

Then, it was time for school to start. The girls only went for a day and a half then we headed back out of town to go to Joslynn's baptism and camping for Labor Day. (Post coming soon :)

 

 Kallie started 7th grade at the middle school.

 

Crazy Sydney started 4th grade.

All of this, combined with a living room remodel and being newly pregnant make up all the reasons (excuses) of why I haven't blogged for 2 months.  I've said it before, somehow we still manage to keep ourselves busy in this little town!