Roomies Reunited!

I had two fun opportunities to hang out with my college roommate and her family this summer!  At the end of June, they came down to stay with us for the weekend.  We had lots of fun, but I didn't even get my camera out until Sunday afternoon, shortly before they were leaving.

The kids had a lot of fun with the slip-n-slide and the small pool.

Someone needs to tell these kids that it is not okay to drink from the slip n slide!

I LOVE this family and we were so glad they could come stay with us.  Part of the reason we picked this particular weekend was that the Dads were going to take their 6 year olds to the Cardinals game on Sunday.  It was a 1:15 game, which would be perfect.  Well, ESPN picked up the game, which resulted in the start time changing to 7:15.  Then, just before the start of the game a huge storm rolled in.  After about two hours at the stadium, the dads decided to leave (it was late and the game hadn't even started yet).  Bummer!  Good thing the rest of the weekend was a success!

Less than 2 weeks later, I decided to take the boys to see Amy and her family for the 4th of July holiday.  We stopped at the zoo on our way out of town for a quick playdate with my high school friend, who was in from out of town, and her son.  You can tell that Charlie loved it!

We stayed with Amy's parents.  They have lots of room to accommodate us!  On the morning of the 4th, the boys entertained us with some patriotic songs on the piano.  Well, maybe they just banged on the keys, but I like to pretend they were playing some patriotic music.

We went to a nearby town for their parade.

This parade was a little different from most we've seen.  First, only one float gave candy to the kids.  I thought this was great!  Secondly, some of the floats "attacked" the crowd, as you can see here by the Boy Scouts shooting the crowd with water guns.  It was a pretty hot day and the water was much appreciated.

One of Bo's (Amy's 6 year old) favorite things is to make bow and arrows.  Jack thought this was fantastic!  They spent a lot of time making bows out of sticks and string and shooting arrows (sticks) in their backyard.

Patrick (and Charlie) enjoyed playing in the water and bounce house.

These two are about a month apart in age and get along so well!  Once again, I didn't take many pictures, but we had a fabulous time!

Camping

Almost immediately after getting back from Bonnaroo, we took the kids camping.  They love to camp (I think they mostly love the s'mores) and have been asking to go for months.  We set aside 2 nights in June for a family camping trip.  Due to weather predictions, we cut the trip short to one night.  In hindsight, that was plenty.

The boys helped Daddy set up the tent.

Charlie was in charge of choosing the best pieces of firewood.

This piece is perfect!  Now, where did I put the matches?

The Kelly Five:

One day we will need a bigger tent.  There is no way we'll fit in this tent when the boys are much bigger!

We took a short hike to check out the state park.  There were not many other people since the lake was closed to swimmers and boaters.

It didn't stop us from having a good time throwing sticks and rocks into the water.

I am not sure what is going on here, but I like it!

The next morning, we went on a long(ish) hike.  We saw lots of deer along the way and had some nice views of the lake.

Unfortunately, many areas were like this:

The tall grass was surely partly to blame for the dozen of ticks we pulled off of ourselves when we got home.  I was so glad we didn't spend a second night there because I am sure we wouldn't have found all the ticks the first night.  Yuck!  In all, it was a fun trip, but I think we all prefer camping in the cooler, fall weather.