The Reynolds Go Camping Once Again

We have returned from our last camping trip of the season.

School starts again in two weeks and the assembly line of schedules, routines, and habitual normality will be turned back on.

 

I swore I wouldn't pack or unpack another suitcase leading to more marathon laundry days this summer, but when the invitation came from friends in our ward to join along on their annual campout I decided one last hurrah of the summer was needed and one more load of laundry wouldn't kill me.

Olen and I are always up for a road trip, especially if it means cooler weather when we get there. Olen checked the weather report the night before we left and it said rain and lots of it. I was ready to go pioneer in a tent, but when Olen started thinking about all the equipment we would need to pack for rainy weather he suggested we get a hotel room in the town 20 minutes away. I have never been so in love! 

So we played the camping-snob card and stayed till bedtime with our friends at the campsite then left for the hotel and returned the next morning. We slept, showered, slept, used the microwave to heat up Daisy's bottles, slept, watched a couple cartoons, and did I mention we slept? My kids slept in till nine o'clock the next day, and that meant so did Olen and I.

The weatherman said it would rain, and rain it did. In buckets. Luckily the storms stopped as soon as they started so it was never a problem. Especially since the kids were just fine splashing and splashing in all the puddles and getting soaking wet and muddy. Once the storm blew on, the sun came out and we all dried pretty quickly.

Porter brought his slingshot and informed Olen and me as we drove that he planned to only "slightly wound" a baby chipmunk then nurse it back to health and train it as his pet. From the front seats, Olen and I did that side-ways glance we always give each other when Porter says something that neither of us has an immediate response to. In the next five minutes we reminded him that we eat anything we hunt/kill and we never "slightly wound" anything but, yes, if he did humanely catch a baby chipmunk he could keep it and train it as his pet. Instead of a chipmunk, he found a little snake. Maybe a gopher or rat snake? A snake is a snake in my book and no snakes are invited in my house. Porter returned the little thing back to the woods from whence it came.

Daisy was happy as could be just to be outside and with so many kids. London went to work clearing all areas of wildflowers. It took a little while for her to warm up to the other little girls, but soon she was playing pretend and sharing her princess dollies and calling them all her "cousins". There were a couple boys who were two or three years older than Porter that he "hunted" and explored with. But my favorite was watching Porter with the other four eight-year-old girls. It's a good thing Porter's best friend is a girl and he's used to playing with girls around the house. You should have seen how puffed his chest was when he came walking into camp holding that little snake and pretending to ignore the shrieks coming from the four girls following him. Priceless.

Olen and I had so much fun getting to know our friends better and enjoying the outdoors with them. We already are planning on being back for next year's campout. 

And all the laundry is done.

Reasons to Celebrate

For the weekend of the 4th of July, we are usually found in Heber, Arizona celebrating in fabulous weather watching fireworks booming off the canyon walls with the wild Reynolds family. This year we got a surprise addition.

This year our whole family participated in the 2nd annual Carrissa's Run. Olen was fantastic and offered (yes, his idea!) to carry Daisy in the Moby and walk with London so that I could run the 2-mile fun run with Porter. Walking into the first 50 yards London said her legs "ran out of gas" and sat down on the side of the road. Daddy has a soft heart and carried her on his shoulders the rest of the way.

The bar is set pretty high ladies; I hope your husbands have as good a reach as this guy. I sure do love him.

Daisy was not so happy I woke her up to go walking. It never takes London very long to recover any lost fuel, does it?

Another foot to go and Porter will be as tall as me!

The Heber/Overgaard parade is always a good time. We all wished they would have let the fire trucks spray the crowds like they always have done. One rouge water squirt on a highway patrolman last year and the parade goes dry. Maybe next year we'll skip the parade and have our own water party at Haskel and Val's? I think I might market this idea.

Olen decided not to enter his General Lee in the parade like last year. In fact, Olen and Daisy opted out of parade viewing and were back home taking naps. He earned it.

To London everything was exciting. Even another tractor.

I don't call this kid "Son-shine" for nothin'. He is such a light in my life.

After the parade, we were fed like kings at Grandma Wendy's house by the boss steak chef himself, Haskel. Just before dusk, we headed down to the high school field to get comfy before the fireworks show.

As we were parking I get a text from Christopher with a picture that I recognize as the baseball field where we usually sit. It read, "Where are you?"

I screamed in the front seat, "No way!" and made Olen worried.

Chris called and said "Surprise!" No duh, it was a surprise. I had just put on my brave face and left them in Colorado the weekend before and didn't think we would see them till the fall or later.

Chris got a wild hair at work on Friday and talked Katie into a road trip, and down they came.

We met up on the field in our new spot and I pretended that Chris and Katie had only just come up from Mesa and really weren't going back to Colorado again in a day.

We cut our stay in Heber short by a day so that we could meet up with the Richards side back in Mesa and enjoy the reunion with Chris and Katie while we had them.

I made matching shirts for me and my girls this year and I think I also created a new tradition.

Daisy is so squeezable!

We give thanks and celebrate our freedoms and the everlasting pursuit of happiness. Near or far.

Good Word Wednesday

My last house in the pipeline closed today.

I got my real estate license almost seven years ago as a way to ignore 

the depression knocking on my door after my first miscarriage. It's been a huge blessing in my life ever since.

I've been telling myself that as soon as I get this last file closed I would take a break and do something that doesn't require me to beg banks, chase emails, and leave countless voice mails. Now that I have no other reason to turn on the computer except for my own personal projects, I'm having second thoughts.

I'm a person who likes to get things done. I like starting a project, especially one that looks hopeless and bringing it to a close with a successful outcome. I enjoy a challenge and I like to win. Real estate keeps my brain active and I hope has allowed me to help people along the way.

In the past six years, the real estate market has changed moods so many times and I feel like I've finally got a pretty good grip on who it is now and I don't want to leave the party just yet. I think I won't be hanging up the towel after all.

If you ever need me, you've got my card.

So...where were we? Ah yes. Days Four and Five!

June 26th, 2010

My birthday.

Chris and Katie sure know how to make a girl feel special. Chris and the kids picked these fresh flowers straight off the bushes and trees growing on their property. There are even sprigs off their apple tree with baby green apples attached. Since I'm a lover of flowers, this was such a happy surprise.

Another happy surprise was my birthday banner. Here's the story: One year for Christopher's birthday Chelsea made a "Happy Birthday" sign using 5x7 index cards all on her own as her birthday gift to her big brother. She couldn't have been older than six. I bet Chelsea remembers exactly how old she was though. That girl has a memory like an elephant and helps us keep all the facts straight. Well, my birthday followed four days later (like always) and Chelsea made me my own birthday sign using more 5x7 index cards. I kept that sign and still have it tucked away. So the tradition was born. With every birthday that followed my family would all pitch in to make the birthday sign to hang the morning of the celebration and surprise the birthday kid.

This sign is another Chelsea original that she made back at her house in Virginia and packed it to hang on the morning of my birthday. Look at the "i" in Birthday. She used the June wings from my thoughtful girl! I haven't been surprised by a birthday sign on my birthday morning for ten years, so this one is very special to me. Now, this sign is folded neatly and tucked away too.

Katie planned a Girls' Day Out and researched yummy places to eat in downtown Ft. Collins and awesome places to shop. We wanted to get going first thing so the night before my birthday I told Katie Mae that I would braid her hair if she would braid mine so that in the morning we could just take the braids out and avoid blow-drying and all that. It took us till one in the morning to get all the hundreds of tiny braids in but saving time in the morning was the idea, not so much at night.

Chris said it best when Katie Mae and I came upstairs after undoing all the strands.

He said, "Well, we know who the better braider is." Meaning not me.

He said that because Katie's hair turned out like this:

"RAWR!" Work it! The camera loves you!

Katie Mae's mane made her break out into a full tribal dance. 

I know she's loving me so much right now. But we were laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. You have to document those moments.

Yes, I did redeem myself and made everything alright. Her hair looked really great pulled back into a crimpy messy bun. In the end, the braiding actually slowed us down and our breakfast turned into a brunch making the pregnant ones near fainting with hunger.

Brunch at the Bluebird Cafe was splendid! We avoided the early crowds and had a whole corner to ourselves. Daisy and Finn were the only minors allowed to come. Chris took one for the team and stayed home with the other little ones.

Daisy liked getting to know Auntie Chelsea.

Photo op at brunch:

See? I fixed Katie Mae's hair well, didn't I. 

And here are Katie Mae's braiding skills. I felt very ethnic and tried to channel my inner Jamaican, but it just wasn't happening.

After a day of shopping and sightseeing I was serenaded and treated with strawberry shortcake.

Daisy had her eye on the candles.

Olen and Porter and London called before we left for the day and sang Happy Birthday to me. Mamasita and Daddio sent a package that arrived with birthday gifts for Chris and me to open together. I was dreading turning 29 because it means that next year I'll be 30, but if my next birthday could be half as wonderful as this one then my thirties would be off to a great start.

Daisy's birthday gift to me was showing me how she's learned to climb up on things.

This was her first reach. She pulled herself on the steps and almost made it to the top.

Check out that look on her face. She knows she just did something big.

Day Five

June 27th, 2010

This was our last day in Colorado but we didn't need to be at the airport till that evening so Chris and Katie packed the morning with a road trip to Cheyenne, Wyoming to see the Celtic Festival. We all love road trips and in honor of our Irish-loving Pa we were really excited to go. The festival was in the last of its three-day run and so things were kind of winding down when we got there but we still got to meet some Celtic clans and hear some fun music. Daisy was kicking her legs and clapping along, it was awesome.

The town was so beautiful and the weather was perfect so we stayed and had a picnic before the hour drive back to Fort Collins to pack up our bags.

Big cousin Jocelyn was such a huge helper with Daisy. She was always making Daisy little forts to crawl in and letting Daisy play house with her and Cecily.

This always happened. I finally get Asher to look at me (or kind of look my way) when I'm taking a picture and Chris is making a face. Here's my favorite one.

We said our "good-byes" and "see ya soons" and packed it all up.

I knew I would see Chelsea when she came down in a couple weeks to visit and take Olivia and Aubrey back to Virginia to stay with her and I secretly started to form a scheme on how my family could come visit Chris and Katie for Thanksgiving, so my brain was too busy and excited thinking about the next visits to let my eyes think about tears.

I love all my brothers and sisters so much. I know I'm a huge drippy sappy girl, and I don't care.

They're my best friends.

Thank you Christopher and Katie for hosting us sisters and spoiling us rotten.

What do you think about making this an annual event?

The house was still standing when I returned and everyone was well fed and happy. Only Olen and London were home since we let Porter (who begged us and called me twice while I was in Colorado asking to go) stay the week in Heber with cousins till we were to meet up there for the 4th of July. My home sick little man didn't make it past Tuesday and we had to go pick him up and bring him home. I was happy to go get him, though. It's good to get away and then it's great to come back home.

The Sun Shines On

Sunflowers:

Humble. Hearty. Grows were planted. Sturdy. Sweet. Follows the sun. Feeds the bees. Simple. Beautiful.

    I didn't plant that many this year and I'm wishing I grew the same variety that I planted at our Acre House in Queen Creek. Those were purple and red! If I can find some more room, maybe it's not too late. I got up early and watched the bees gather breakfast this morning.

What's good news for my sunflowers is bad news for my roses.

The sun. It's so wickedly hot right now that my roses look like this:

    These usually are purple and have the most amazing fragrance. Right now they look like something the Adams family might have growing in their garden.

    All my reds seem to have shut down flower production completely and the pinks look like this:

    Mamasita said yesterday that she thinks of these hot days that confine us to our air-conditioned spaces as opposite snow days. It helps if I tell myself the reason I don't want to walk across my driveway to check my mail till the sun goes down is that it's covered in two feet of snow, instead of really being 110 degrees and capable of giving my bare feet a second-degree burn. I'll take whatever can get me through till September.

    Aubrey and Olivia left yesterday for their eight-day stay with Chelsea and Mitch in Virginia. What will Porter do for eight days without his best friends and partners in crime? Seriously. He thinks he's going to die. I think he is actually starting to wish school would start sooner.

    Daisy is 9 months old today. She crawls (kind of) and plays peek-a-boo. I wish time would stop moving so fast.

Mr. Fox, The Badge & Theo

Olen finally agreed it was time to say goodbye to his dead pets (my name, not his).

We're looking for a few good homes; know of any?

They're house-trained, hardly ever make a peep, and never shed.

 You won't find any of these at PetSmart.

Don't be sad for my sweetie.

He already has plans (aka license and tags) to gather more "pets", plus his beloved whitetail deer and bobcat will always stay to keep him company.

    My computer is still mad at my camera. I've been trying to smooth things over all week. The trust is gone.

    Meanwhile, it's like a million and ten degrees here and we run errands early and then stay inside all day. My kids are plotting a break out but I am so perfectly happy to finally be home without a trip to pack for (until October).

    School starts in a month for Porter and London will start preschool a couple weeks after. We'll spend the rest of this season soaking up each other until it's time to go back to the real life.

Touching base...

    My PC must have discovered my Mac affair because it won't accept the rest of my pictures from Colorado to download. I will keep working on it because I still have two days to talk about and you have to see what Katie Mae's hair looks like when you braid it. One word: Rawr!

    

    I've been trying to catch up on my sleep these last few days of being back home and back to being the mommy. My sunflowers started to bloom without me and they look amazing. I would share a picture of them with you, but, you know. Mr. PC...get with the game. You are replaceable you know!

    I've restocked the pantry and caught up on the laundry. Now I'm getting everything together for our annual trip to Heber, AZ on the 4th of July. We'll be gone through Sunday and I wonder if my ward is beginning to think we've gone inactive. Hope not. But with me gone so much these past months, they might understand why we postponed Cub Scouts for the summer. I hope I can get my pictures up before we leave tomorrow so I don't get too behind. I haven't even posted Daisy's 8-month birthday pictures yet. She's got two teeth and army crawls everywhere now, ya know.