Hope Valley Camping/Birthday Trip (Happy Birthday Danny)

Last weekend we went camping to one of Danny's (and my) favorite places for his birthday weekend. We took Colette along to experience the crazyness of camping with the Houseful of Blessings. The kids fished, played in and on the lake, we ate lots of good food, and we celebrated Danny's birthday. It was a really nice, relaxing weekend, and I'm so glad we got to go. It was the only chance Danny got to go with us this summer, as he has been so busy with summer school and working. Rebecca was the only one to catch 2 fish. She was dedicated and got out there at 6:30 in the morning. When she caught her fish, she came back and work us up (around 7 am) with "I caught it, now what do I do?" and it was dangling from her pole. We were too lazy to get up yet so had her put the fish on the pole in a bucket. (She said it was too wiggly to get it off herself). Funny girl.

I'm just gonna post the pictures in random order, cause I'm lazy like that.

To the Beach

Summer is flying by soooo fast and we have been so busy. We had swimming lessons for Jackson, VBS, Nick and Cara and even Samantha have been working lots, and I have been painting the inside of the house, plus lots more that I can't even think of right now.

We went to Bodega Bay a couple of weeks ago and had a wonderful relaxing time.
We played on the beach.

We flew kites.

We explored Fort Ross.

We went tide pooling.

We hiked through some redwoods.

Some of us climbed trees.
It was a great time to recharge our batteries and spend some time as a family.

And that is about all the time I can spare right now for blogging. Summer is almost over and there is still so much to do......
:-)