Camping with Nikki, Ben, Scot, and Holly!

 

Back in October we went up to Beavers Bend in Oklahoma with Scot, Holly, Nikki, and Ben.  After all of our camping trips, we stopped being mooches and finally bought a tent.  (Its pathetic/it's about time...I know.)   Nikki, Holly, and I were up at the crack of dawn working out (boot camp/craziness) and Holly mentioned that she and Scot wanted to go up to Oklahoma camping, I mentioned that Sean LOVES camping, Nikki said that she and Ben haven't been camping as a family...and that's all it took.  The next night we went over to Nikki's, planned everything out, and left the next day!  It all was kind of spur of the moment, but those are some of my favorite trips!

Holly and Scot left early to get us a good spot, and Sean and I drove up with Nikki, Ben, and company.

Nikki and I braved the back with Logan and Austin.

Sean was Ben's "navigator".

Our sweet camp site area, complete with a place for the kiddos to play.

Holly bought this sweet net to cover all of our food/prep area.  GENIUS.

 Settling in!

Adorable Logan!

Holly and Scot

Nikki and Ben

Story of my life...

That's better :)

 Our sweet new tent!

Logan got a little muddy...he's still adorable though.

Doing what I do best, brushing and flossing.

The kiddos playing around in the dirt.

So pretty...

We all thought it would be fun to canoe down the river.  We "thought"... :)

Sean being his photogenic self.  All of the leaves were just starting to change, it was gorgeous.

Nikki and I love pictures.  Even when we're make-up free and camping.

...and this is where the fun began.  This 98749283 year old van took us up this hill to the start of the canoe trip.  It barely made it up the hill, I think we were all a little nervous at this point.

 My favorite smile of Logan's!  He and Austin did NOT like the canoe ride.  Hence, Nikki and Ben had a terrible time too.  I felt really bad because there was really  nothing any of us could do once we were on the river, because the entire ride was pretty much downstream.  Logan cried the entire canoe ride, poor thing.  Nikki basically was having a panic attack because she thought her kids were going to die.  Next camping trip...probably no canoeing.  On a lighter note Sean, Holly, Scot, Ryan, Nathan, and I all had a good time though.  :)

Scot, Holly, and their kiddos decided to leave after the canoe excursion.  The rest of us thought we would take a train ride around the camp site.  It was meant for kids, but we still had a good time!  

It was all pretty cute.

Bonus: I got a funnel cake and some drinky-drank.  Yummmmm!

It was such a fun trip, we had a blast!  I'm so glad we went, even though it was last minute.  Funny/not so funny story: It's about a 2 1/2-3 hour drive away from home.  Nikki and Ben switched drivers on the way home, and when Nikki got out she dropped her phone on the side of the highway.  Of course she didn't realize it was gone until they got home.  She and Ben used their gps tracking app, saw where it was, and then she and Holly drove 2 hours back to Oklahoma to go and get it!  Shockingly, it was unharmed, just sitting there in the grass on the side of the highway.  Crazy!!!  God bless smart phones.  

All in all it was a blast, and I hope this has filled Sean's "camping canteen" until at least the spring.  Yay for camping. :)

Fall Highlights

I'm still trying desperately to catch up on blogging, I'm basically just doing posts of the events where I took an obscene amount of pictures.  So here's a post of some of the highlights...

My little brother, Christopher came to visit twice.

 Daniel and I took him to our favorite cheese steak restaurant where we have lunch weekly. :)

He originally came to visit for the Bear's game, and I (being the good sister/hygienist that I am) forced him to come and get his teeth cleaned.  I knew it was going to be bad...but it was really bad.  The last time he got his teeth cleaned was by my Dad when he was sick.  My Dad had found a few cavities, but at that point in the appointment was too weak to fill them, so they planned on doing them later.  Well...he just never got a chance to fill them...

Luckily, I work for a great dentist, who remembers what it's like to be a poor college student, and told Chris that he wouldn't charge him what the insurance didn't cover (his portion would have been over $700).  So since he's still in school/single and flies for free, he came back out a few weeks later to get all his cavities filled.  I know I complain about him sometimes (a lot), but I really do have a great boss.  He totally didn't have to do that, he doesn't even have to give Sean free dental care...but he always does.  He's a really good person.  

Other fall happenings...

Jordan and Lexi got their car stuck in the mud just down the street from us, and so we came and got them.  Boys and their big cars...

We had some beautiful fall nights out on the back patio, with hot chocolate of course!

I decorated for my favorite season, and Sean FINALLY got to break in the fireplace.  He was dying to have fires since the day we moved in!

 Lit my hair on fire trying to show Sean I could start a fire all on my own...maybe I should just leave the fire starting to the pyromaniac of the family.  Lesson learned.

Our adopted nephew, Connor turned TWO!  I cannot believe he's so big, it's making me feel so old!  We love this little crazy...

I took Daniel to the emergency room AGAIN.  For another basketball related finger injury, AGAIN.  For the love...

 You know it's bad when the emergency room already has your information on file, and you don't have to even update anything...and they remember you.  Our of control!

We got another sweet niece!  (more pics to come later)

Sean and I didn't kill each other...baha!

 ...and had lots and lots of fires!  Seriously people, I'm married to a pyro.  :)

We had a great fall.  Lots and lots of new memories.  More posts to come, I'm getting there!

General Conference weekend

This is what our house looked like the Sunday morning session, and I loved every minute of it.  Our good friends from college, Will & Jess and Tommy & Megan (and company) live here in Texas, and we never get to see them enough!  So I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have them and their cute kiddos over to watch General Conference.  We had a amazing southern breakfast; grits, bacon, and fried eggs (I did learn something from my Mom).  Jess made her conference tradition cinnamon rolls, and Megan brought some delicious fruit.  It was a lot of fun, we need to get together more!

Tommy playing with his friends.

Will and Jess putting together some activities for the kiddos.

Baby William hanging out with his Daddy by the fire.

This pretty much sums up what Sean was doing the entire session.  These pics make me miss our sweet nephews!  He loves playing with the kids, he's going to be a great Dad one day. 

Tommy and the girls!

Camo, Jess and Will's adorable wild child!

Jess and Gabbie.

Sean likes to play dress up with the girls too.  He's pretty excited, can't you tell?

My girl, Jess.  Freaking love her!

 We also got to see some of my cousins for the evening session. We don't see them very often, but it's always a good time when we do!

I'm so glad we got to see everyone!  Like we always say, we need to do it more often!!!