It's time to go CAMPING!

The last weekend of June, we had a great weekend camping at Lake Fort Smith, just an hour south of here. We went with our good friends, the Robinsons, and we all had a great time. With their cute 2-year old girl, Eva, and our two girls, it was a weekend full of fun. We enjoyed a hike to a (dried up) waterfall, paddle boats out on the lake, smores (with Reese's instead of chocolate...YUM!), dutch oven and tin foil meals, an early morning campground run, and lots of fun with the girls. Here are some pics...Initiating our first tent!

Ashley did a great job hiking the entire hike on her own. She also provided walking sticks for the others and sang songs about hiking as we went. It was so hot, we let the girls hike in their bathing suits. I decided to do the same...JUST KIDDING!
Bethany enjoys a nap under the trees after our hike.

The hand-washing station was a popular spot for the little girls during our stay.
Bethany's hands stayed oh-so-clean. :)

Here are the three little girls playing all together in the tent.

Ashley had a great time being a little mom to the two younger girls.
Ahh, the perks of being the oldest child. We had such a fun time doing the paddle boat together out on the lake. There were little seats on the back where the girls could sit while we did all the paddling. Poor Ashley suffered from sunscreen-in-the-right-eye syndrome, but aside from that we had smiles all around.

Bethany had fun in the sand while waiting for the dutch oven breakfast to finish cooking. YUM! Thanks to Rachel, we had tasty meals and snacks the entire trip. And if you haven't tried smores with a Reese's cup instead of plain chocolate, you are really missing out!

June Highlights...

It's hard to top a peacock, but this latest addition has come close. We saw this furry animal run across the yard, and I asked the girls what they thought it was. Bethany replied, "It's a baby bear!" Well, not quite...but I had to look it up myself to double check. It's a groundhog. Ashley named him(?) Marvin. We have yet to figure out the gender, but Mom almost has us all convinced that it could be pregnant or keeping its babies in the burrow it has under the shed. We haven't had the heart to trap it yet, but Jared claims plans are in the works. Until then, we love seeing him every morning and throughout the day as he runs around the yard, munches, plays by the bunnies, and takes naps on the cinderblocks.

We spent lots of time out in the yard preparing our garden area. The most time consuming part (so far) was digging up all the Bermuda grass. Here's what Jared looked like after we were caught out there in a thunderstorm (and worked through it since this was our big chance to be productive...the girls were at a friend's house). The next step is pouring a concrete footing and then building the cinderblock beds and garden wall. I have a vision in mind...it just takes time...

Another temple trip...this time in one (looooooooooong) day.

Jared and I both celebrated our birthdays in June. Woo-hoo!
Also in June, Jared ran in his first 5K! He finished with a time of 28:29...which was fitting since it was the week Jared made the transition from 28 to 29 years of age.