Family Camp 2011

We had a blast at Family Camp this year. It was a fun-filled, memory-making, high adventure week. Enjoy a photo narration of our good times.

Catching Creatures




Kayaking



Fishing

Trevor caught about 6 fish! His biggest was as 12 inch Rainbow Trout. He learned how to clean it, prep it, and cook it in the fire. He was so excited to eat his catch, "It tastes like chicken!" he said.


Skit Nite



Lounging on the beach



Hanging out with the teeny-boppers



Playing games in camp



We had 2 boats this year! The Sanger and the Malibu Skier



Talent Nite
Zachary kicked things off with the Star Spangled Banner and Jackson favored us with his sword fighting talent.





Celebrating the 4th





Eating!



Rafting



Water balloon fight!



Rock Jumping






Trying to go home

There is always a challenge when trying to pack up and leave camp. This year was no exception. Pulling the boat out of the water posed a challenge for our oversize trucks. Getting stuck in the mud is never fun. How many guys does it take to push a 2 ton truck out of the lake?

We are proud to announce that there wasn't one single trip to the ER this year. Woo hoo! That was a first. We were so spoiled to hang out with good friends and family for a whole week. The Minnicks came all the way from Montana to be with us! It was a fantastic week of good times, dirty fingernails, blue hands, HOT and/or COLD showers, card games, ghost town exploration, scary stories, staying up late, adult conversation at the late night campfire, and excellent dinners. We are already looking forward to Family Camp 2012!

Take you to Rio, Rio

It's STAR testing at our school this week. That means that our kids do NOT have any homework for a solid week! Yippeee! What do we do to celebrate these extra few hours of freedom? We go to the movies of course!

The only family friendly movie that fit into our Tuesday schedule was the vibrantly colorful Rio.

This movie was made by the creators of the Ice Age movies. There is an Ice Age short just before the feature film begins. It was quite funny. That Scat (squirrely prehistoric creature) is a comedic character that we all muchly enjoyed.

Here's what we liked about Rio:
1. It had GREAT music! We'll be downloading several songs from the soundtrack for sure.
2. The colors were so vibrant
3. The setting was gorgeous - never been to Rio, but would like to see for myself if it is as fantastic as it was portrayed to be.
4. It was fun to hear a star studded cast of animated characters: will.i.am, Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network guy), George Lopez, Tracy Morgan, Jaime Foxx, Jayne Lynch.

Here's what we disliked about Rio:
1. The story was only ok. Not super engaging.
2. There were some skanky costumes towards the end (they go to Carnival in Rio) It seemed sort of inappropriate to watch a character in a children's movie walking around in a bikini.

We give this movie 2 1/2 drooling bulldogs out of 5.

Go see this movie if you're up for a family friendly experience. But take care to go to the $3 theater.

Don't go see this movie if you dislike talking animals, great music, or if you plan to just rent it at Red Box for free.

Or, just watch the Ice Age short and download the soundtrack from iTunes.

Mentos + Diet Pepsi FHE Activity

Jeremy received a fun little birthday gift from my mom. It's called a Soda Shooter. We decided to try it out for our Family Home Evening activity this week. Enjoy a 1 minute video of our soda-spraying-ultimate-soda-fountain-non-sticky-because-it-was-diet-soda adventure.

(The geyser is tough to see, but it was an AWESOME 20 foot spray.)

Winter Beach Trip 2010

The week after Christmas 2010 we headed over to the Central Coast for a short beach trip. Jeremy's parents had been there for the first part of the week staying in an RV resort. They went further south for the 2nd half of the week and they offered their tent trailer to us for those days. What a treat for our family!

My mom has a theory...

"Our city and Pismo Beach have opposite weather experiences at all times.
Every time it is cold and foggy where we live - it will be warm and sunny at the beach.
When it is cold and foggy at Pismo - it will be warm and sunny back home. "

Most of the time she is right. Truly! This week was the exception. It was cold, windy, and rainy at home and guess what we got while we were at the beach? Yep. Cold, wind, and rain! So, we changed our plan from the "usuals" and instead of playing in the water, boogie boarding, and building sand castles we:


Cliff Jumped

Took a leisurely walk along the beach as we watched the clouds roll in.

Went for a family bike ride (yes, every one of those bikes was part of our group!)...

...to see the butterflies in the eucalyptus grove at Pismo Beach!

The kids went swimming in the resort heated pool - they were dying to get in the water, but didn't stay in for too long. It was super chilly when they got out! We met up with Kelly & Julio and went to Woodstock's for a pizza dinner.


We did some pier fishing

Look! I missed one more family picture!

We had a fun time hanging out with Matt & Aimee and Kelly & Julio and their kids. The night time sleeping-in-the-tent-trailer was also an adventure as it stormed and poured rain all night long!