Stilson campout

When we got back from the Brady reunion we unpacked and repacked to head out camping the next day with Jay's family.  As soon as we got to our camping spot it started to rain.  The sun was shinning and it was warm.  It only lasted for about five minutes before it was over.

Us and one of Jay's brothers were there the first night and the rest came the next day.  These are the kids we had with us that night for dinner.

My three love tinfoil dinners and getting dirty as fast as they can.

We stayed up way to late visiting the first night so after breakfast Jay as ready for his morning nap.

Pretty much every time the camera came out so did Mason's funny faces.

The kids love this little river that we camped by.  Puddle boots are a must so the kids can have fun while we are here.  They played down here until it started to rain and then we took cover in the trailer.

The kids all grew some weird teeth while we were waiting out the rain.

It rained for about three hours and then turned out to be a pretty nice day.

Cheese!

During the baseball game these weird flying bugs started coming up out of a whole in the dirt.  So they covered it up, but pretty soon they were coming out again so they took a shovel at it so see what was down there.  The kids all had to run over and see what it was.

Elly Autumn and I went followed Jay along the river while we was fly fishing, when nothing was happening we took some pictures.

Autumn did our hair for us and I did hers.  don't think you can see the reeds coming out of our hair very good, but Elly's looked antenna's.

Jay with a couple of the fish he caught.

This was the biggest fish he caught in this little river.  It was about twelve inches.

I loved this picture of Jay and Elly.

She thinks it is funny to lick her dad.  She doesn't really like it when he hasn't shaved for a couple of days though.

Of course we had more baseball games the next day too.

Here comes Mason rounding first...               and waiting to run on second...

       

ready to run on third...                       finally making it home safe!

      

By the third day Mason's hair was pretty scary.

Tyler getting ready to hit one out of here.  I wish I had more pictures of Tyler but he was off with his cousins most of the time.

We all had a great time.

Brady Reunion

On July 5th the kids and I went to the Brady Family reunion, my dad's mom's family.  On the way there I had stopped to pick up something and while we were in the store I ran into so friends from school that we haven't seen in three years.  It was so good to see them.  They didn't have their kids with them but it was fun to visit with them for the few minutes that we did.  Hopefully we get to see them more often when they live closer.

When we were almost there I called some friends from Ohio to see if they were out here visiting, the wife has family a few minutes from where we were camping.  They were all out here and where leaving the next day so the kids and I got to see them again.  I wish that I would have taken a picture so Jay could have seen how much the kids have grown.  It was so fun to see them and visit with them for the little amount of time we had.  We haven't seen them in three years.  It mad me miss them and the rest of our friends we made while we were living out there.  Someday I hope to get back out there.

It seems like as soon as we got there Tyler and Mason were off playing with their cousins and one of my sisters was playing with Elly.  The second day they had games for the kids to play so the kids liked that.  They also had a baseball game for the little kids, but I wasn't there until the end and was being to lazy and didn't want to go all the way back down the hill to get my camera.  So I only have pictures from them watching the big kids game.  Tyler really wanted to play with them.  He sat right by the back stop the whole game.

Mason had a ball and a mit so he didn't care as much as Tyler.  He just played his own game.

Elly played in the sand box for awhile until she found the football and then she was happy to sit by me and watch the baseball game.

I loved these pictures of her even though she isn't looking at me.

That night they had a program.  Grandma and her brothers where telling memories so I got a picture of the ones that are living still.

And since the camera was out Mason had to pull faces at me and have me take some more pictures.  He likes to mess his hair up so it is crazy too.  This kid is funny. 

We had a great time but there is just never enough time to visit with everyone that you want to.  Mason was a little sad after his cousin left to go home.  He came up to me and said, "So now who am I going to play with"?  His cousin that left is his partner in crime and in fun.  They play great together so he missed her when she left, atleast he had baseball to get him threw it.  I hardly saw Tyler while we were there because he was off with cousins the whole time.

Sparklers

One of the best parts about the 4th of July is the fireworks and the sparklers, but if you have been to a good fireworks show before sometimes it doesn't seem worth watching the little ones, unless you have kids and love fireworks like I do.  My boys have been excited about the sparklers since they started seeing them in the store a couple of weeks ago.  It was fun to see how they get so excited and actually hurried to do what I asked so we could do them.  The boys love to find the ants on the sidewalk and burn them, I know how nice. 

Mason only started one thing on fire and that was some wrappers that were sitting on the ground.  It sure made Tyler nervous.

Elly was not very interested in them, she was actually more scared of them then anything.  When Jay set of some firecrackers she really didn't like that.  She hates loud noises.

While the kids were doing sparklers I was messing with the camera trying to see what I could do with it.  The kids loved having me take a picture and then come back to look and see how cool it was.  Tyler was trying to write is name but he wasn't fast enough, he only got the T.

This one of Mason kind of looks like he has horns.

I don't know how to make it so the kids look good too.

I even talked Jay into doing some for me so I could practice more.

This was funny to watch them all try and do it at the same time before one of their sparklers died.  The boys, including Jay had fun doing this.

This one is of Jay writting his name. 

Since I am always the one taking the pictures I had Jay take one of me that night with the kids. 

I love doing sparklers, it always reminds me of when I was a kid.  I remember trying to see if we could run all the way around the house before it died on us.  I remember wearing fussy bears, that was what we called the pj's with feet in them that zipped up for those that don't know what those are, while doing sparklers and how much fun it was because we always did that as a family for almost as many years as I can remember.  I remeber one year having a family visiting us while we were doing them and we were worried that one of the kids was going to start one of the cars how fire.  I laugh everytime I think about that night.  So sparklers have always been something that I love to do with my kids because of the good memories I had because of them as a kid.

Fourth of July BBQ

For the 4th of July we had a BBQ at Jay's Grandparents house.  It was really fun to do it at Grandma's house so they could be a part of it.  We had good food and good desserts.  Plus the kids had fun playing with their cousins. 

This is Elly with one of her favorite little cousins, Portor.  They were eating their brownie fine until Jay took it from them because he thought they were eating someone elses brownie.  Neither one of them was happy about that.

Some of the little kids that we had there.

When ever we get together we have to have a baseball game.  Mostly someone pitches while all the kids hit over and over again, but they love it and had a great time.

Tyler

Mason

Even Elly had a turn.

Wade (a cousin)

and Beau (another cousin).  I thought that I had a picture of Luke but I didn't get one that was good at all, but he was there playing with the kids too.

The fight Tyler and Mason had on third base.

Elly had a great time if you can't tell from her dirty face and her dirty dress.

Here is a picture of all the great grandkids that were there with Great Grandpa and Grandma Stilson.  We were missing three more that didn't make it.