Saturday we awoke, ready for a full day of outdoor fun! The big kids had all slept awesomely in their tent all night, and even managed to sleep in until almost 8:00 a.m. - a rare occurrence. Waverly did pretty well, up a couple of times to be fed, which is on par with how she does at home. Jim was an excellent camp chef, making up a hot breakfast while I got the kids dressed. As soon as they'd eaten a little bit they were off and running for the next two hours until it was time for our group hike. We did a trail that we'd trekked previously, a relatively short but hearty climb and the kids all loved it... even Victoria who had a nasty fall, but was able to recover with just a little bit of time alone with mommy back at the camp site.
After a bit of lunch and in-tent rest time, the kids played until it was time to head to the beach at the little lake there at the campgrounds. It was surprisingly hot at this point (mid-80's, full sunshine with no shade at the beach), and after a while I walked Waverly back to our tent for a little rest while I got dinner prepared. Later that evening, we had all of the families (7 families, 25 kids total!) join for s'mores and fellowship - what fun!
Jim and Waverly, enjoying the warm fire while we ate breakfast.
Oh, I love this picture! Olivia was hanging out at our campsite, talking with Waverly and it really seemed like the baby was chatting back to her - hand gestures and everything :-) The entire weekend, Waverly received so much attention from all the kids and she was loving life - I can tell she is going to want to do everything the big kids do as soon as humanly possible.
Jim snapped this picture of Victoria, as she was hanging out waiting for some friends.
Julia, Olivia, Victoria and Judd taking Waverly on a little stroll - the kids did this several times during our stay and always returned with her having fallen fast asleep :-)
Lincoln and Judd, riding along~
See? Totally snoozing in her stroller after being leisurely walked about by her two attentive baby-sitters ;-)
Dressed and ready for the hike~
Hiking gear loaded, backpacks on, and these three intrepid explorers were ready to set off!
Swords are important when hiking, because you never know when you might encounter a bear.
Victoria spent a lot of time playing with Sophie, who is three years old. She mommy'd her, taking her here and there, getting her snacks, and generally just being really sweet :-)
Scarlett, Julia, Olivia, and Victoria - ready for the hike.
One of the nice things about the trail we hiked was that we could walk to the starting point directly from our campsites.
Lincoln fell in with the boys right away.
Victoria let Ezra use her sword, so naturally Lincoln and Ezra spent the entire time walking to the trail locked in sword battle ;-)
Waverly was so content in her hiking carrier - she loved looking all around.
The red bridge~
A blurry picture, but I don't mind - I love it anyway! Jim and his passel of kids, trekking up the mountain.
A good chunk of the kids stopped to have their picture taken at this outcrop.
Hiking is hard work! Even if you are just looking around and taking it all in from a cozy perch ;-) Waverly dozed for a quite a while, snuggled up on Jim's shoulder.
We finally made it to the little falls area - the trail at this point is all rocks.
Fortunately, Lincoln is part mountain goat, haha :-)
The girls made it to the top easily, but then saw some of the kids on the other side of the falls taking a much more dangerous and difficult course up. Of course they wanted to go back down and try going up that way :-p On their way down, Victoria stumbled over a root and fell - it could have been serious, but she caught herself and only banged up her knees... but it scared her really badly! It took her quite a while to get over it, even once she was patched up. Scarlett checked in on Victoria, but then commenced scrambling over a log, leaping across little pools of water and making it up to the top.
A pretty little section of the falls.
The kids found this one area where they could get right up next to the water and stick their hands in it - it was freezing mountain water!
The rest of the group hiked to the end of the trail, while Lincoln and I waited for Jim (with Waverly) and Victoria to catch up with us. Jim had taken some time to get Victoria calmed down and was moving along at her injured pace. I assured him that they would be fine, we could move along, but Lincoln was adamant that we wait. "What if there's a bear?" he gravely asked me. Good point, buddy.
Ready to go to battle against any wayward bears that might come after his family :-)
Aha! They finally made it. What a good daddy to be so patient with his shaken-up girl.
A couple of hours later, our family and the Phillips family headed to the beach. It wasn't long before I decided it was too hot for Waverly (and me!), so we walked back to our campsite to spend a little bit of time together and get dinner going. She was being so talkative with me while I got fresh clothes laid out for the kids to put on upon their return. My sweet babycakes!
Jim was able to get a few pictures at the beach. I love this shot - so artistic.
Lincoln was busy shoveling sand.
The kids all got soaked (in their clothes) and then spent loads of time playing in the sand. They were *coated* by the time they made it back to the tent and had to be showered down! Such beautiful weather~
Lincoln, whacking the sign with his shovel, because...boys. He is such a muscular little three year old! For all that he eats, I don't think that kid has an ounce of fat on him.
Once the kids had been cleaned up and dressed, the Phillips joined us for dinner at our campsite. We enjoyed nachos, and the cool evening air, while Waverly took a long, luxurious nap (I was only a little jealous!).
Amanda and I worked after dinner to get all of the s'mores fixings set up in a more organized fashion than the previous night. Everyone arrived and the kids played while the adults chatted, and when darkness fell, it was a marshmallow roasting, s'mores eating free for all! The kids had the best time, and again finished up the night by playing flashlight games in the dark.
While I was being swarmed at the s'mores assembling station, Jim was holding down the fort with Waverly as Olivia stopped to check in on her.
Roasting marshmallows is serious business! ;-) It's hard to see in this shot, but Lincoln had two super-sized marshmallows (one on each skewer prong) and then two each of the regular-sized ones on each prong as well for an epic SIX marshmallow roasting stick! :-)
