What a Catch (up)!

Ok folks, I know it has been a while. I hope I haven't forgotten too much about what we have been up to lately. If you decide to read this, settle in and get comfortable, because I have a lot to say : )

I think the last time I posted an update was in May. Carson was 7 months, and now he is just shy of 10 months. Well, you know how it goes... We just get busy with life.

In June, Camden participated in Family Bible Week. He had a blast with his friends, learning more about God, playing games and making crafts. He even memorized the theme Bible verse and said it on the stage in front of all the kids! (I guess I will have to continue this post later, the baby just woke up! : ) ) Okay, I am back (9 hours later), now where was I? Oh yeah. So at Family Bible Week or FBW, I prepared and passed out snacks. And since that job did not take all of the FBW time, I walked around and enjoyed seeing the kids participate. I could tell that they had a great time!

The day after FBW, we (Camden, Carson and I) left town for my parent's new home-town: Lubbock, TX! Yep, my parents are a little closer to one of their kids. Hopefully this means we will see them a little more often. We stayed one night in their little (temporary) one bedroom apartment and then went to our family reunion. The reunion was a lot of fun - swimming in the lake, Camden's first ever boat ride and a lot of catching up with family. After the reunion, we stayed about  a week in Lubbock hanging out with my parents and the Kites. [Side note: I got very little sleep. I have since discovered something about my littlest guy: He likes his familiar, own room for sleep. When he sleeps with me, he nurses ALL NIGHT LONG. He won't go to sleep on his own in a different environment and won't sleep in his own bed. When we are at home, Carson goes to sleep on his own, in his own bed and sleeps 10+ hours and two 2.5 hour naps a day.] When we finally headed back home to Colorado, I was beyond tired and starting to get sick. It was the worst day of travelling I've ever experienced even though the kids were good and the traffic/roads were fine.

After being home a couple of weeks, we got ready for our next trip. We had it planned to leave Thursday, June 28th to head east to Philip and Heather's farm in Illinois. I was starting to plan mentally for the trip when we decided to have a family day in Manitou Springs, Saturday before. As we were driving towards Manitou, Kevin pointed out smoke over in the mountains. We both were like, "Oh no! Hope they can get it put out soon." We continued our excursion and fun in Manitou Springs and then finished the afternoon off with a LATE lunch there. We took our time and enjoyed eating out, but soon overheard some conversation among some of the waiters. They were evacuating some of the neighborhoods and the fire was spreading and getting closer to homes. We left Manitou, but opted for an alternative route to avoid traffic. We passed many emergency vehicles as we left the mountain area and headed safely home. We watched the news and stayed up to date on the fire's growth over the next couple of days. Monday, during the night, we woke up to the smell of smoke moving strongly into our house. [Another side note: We do not have air-conditioning in our house and we leave the windows open all night in order for it to be cool.] We had to close the windows. The next day the smoke was still strong even on the east side of town. (We are about 20 miles from the burn area). Kevin and I decided I would spend all day packing and getting ready for our trip and we would leave a couple of days early. I spent the day packing, watching the news and sweating. We had record high heat, the windows were closed. I was miserable. The fire was still spreading and moved over the ridge and into the neighborhoods. Around 360 houses were burned. Thousands of people had been evacuated and the fire burned over 18,000 acres. When Kevin got home from work, we packed up the car as quickly as we could and drove out of town. I smelled the smoke over an hour away from our house. Kevin was awesome and drove through the night. We made it the next morning to St. Louis. Unfortunately, we got there a little early and couldn't check-in until after two, so we walked around a mall and ate lunch for a little bit.

The next day we got up and went to this cool play museum that Camden loved. It was three stories of climbing, sliding, crawling, tunnels and FUN. Definitely a must if you are ever in the St. Louis area. We spent most of the day there and then went back to our motel for some R&R and pool time. We left Friday morning for Philip and Heather's.

Cousin Camp 2012 began Friday afternoon with our arrival at the Booker farm. I have the best family in the world!! My wonderful brother and sister-IL were wonderful hosts. (Heather gets most, if not all of the credit for their hosting skills!) She cooked wonderful food, had daily activities and crafts planned, and all our outings planned for the week. The kids had the best time playing with each other and visiting the zoo, backyard camping, children's museum and pool. The adults had fun chasing the kids and hanging out with each other. And we siblings, Kevin and Dad had some friendly (injury-free) badminton and croquet. It was a wonderful week. Once again, I returned home exhausted (little sleep at night for me). I think I sat on the couch for a week. Not really, that is just what I felt like doing.

When we got back, I actually had to get all our laundry in order and house cleaned up for company. Kevin's older brother, David and his family came to visit. Callum is only three months younger than Camden, so they loved playing together. They didn't stay with us, but they did want to do a lot of sight-seeing and hanging out. They stayed a week and here is what we packed into that week: Fox Run Park, Helen Hunt Falls, Old Colorado City, The Cog Railway and Pikes Peak, Cave of the Winds, Jellystone Park, Swimming and the Renaissance Festival.

After they left, our friends, the Millers came into town for a visit. Brian and Crystal and their three boys moved to San Antonio, Texas a little over a year ago. We have missed them and Camden has especially missed his buddy, Ezra. We had several play dates with them: playground for the kids, tennis for the girls; swimming and Chic-fil-a!

The last weekend of July, we went camping with the Leonards and the Albrights. The first afternoon of camping started out great! We cooked hot dogs on the fire, made s'mores and took a flash-light hike! But it didn't last. : (   The next morning, Camden and Hayden woke up with pink eye!! We got drops for both of them, but I spent the rest of the day vigilantly watching Camden to make sure he didn't touch his eyes or any one else. We ended up leaving the camp a little early because of that and pouring down rain.

Last week, we laid low. Camden passed on his pink eye to his brother. And then he got sick again with some kind of virus. Finally, this week things have been back to normal. Camden is not sick, we are not travelling, no one has been visiting and we have just done normal summer activities. Swimming, playing and relaxing in the sun! Next week, Camden starts pre-school! He is so excited and I am so excited for him. I am praying that he has a fun year and develops a love for learning. I am excited about the phase of life we are entering in with him. He is going to play soccer soon too. YAY!

My next adventure: plan a 4 year old Batman party and a 1 year old Dr. Seuss party.