Labor Day Weekend 2011

We went camping with a couple of friends for a few nights to enjoy the long weekend.

The first night it rained and was absolutely freeeeeeezing!  We hung out in the back of the car for awhile with the heat on.  Having a big car came in handy.  Instead of grilling, we had cereal and listened to the rain.  It was actually a lot of fun.  I've said this one hundred times before, I'm a dork.  With that being said, probably one of the the most exciting parts of the trip was that I got to use something out of my 72 hour kit.  We have a 72 hour emergency kit for our car (and one for each member of the family in our house).  I'm really big on emergency preparedness.  While no one ever wants to be in a situation that requires the use of their emergency supplies, I was thrilled when I remembered that I had put snow hats in our car kit.  I pulled them out and the kids loved wearing them.  Ahhhhh, the joys of emergency preparedness.  It warms my heart :)

Tag packed as many kids as he could onto the 4-wheeler.

Lily and Harrison learning to shoot a gun for the first time.

Fishing

Harrison has started to become very particular about what he wears.  He dresses himself now.  Tag took one look at Harrison and said, "That looks like something I would've worn when I was a kid."  They are so much alike.

I kept asking Harrison to look up at the camera and smile so I could get a picture of his awesome outfit he put together, but he was too busy shoveling.  His best friend, Caleb, kept trying to help me out by telling him to smile.  Caleb and I finally gave up, but sweet Caleb was more than happy to smile for the picture. He's the cutest little boy.  I'm so glad Harrison has a good friend.

Lucy.  This girl was on the go the whole time.  She loves being outside.  I'm so glad that she was able to have a few days of non stop outdoor fun.  She wanted to climb on everything, get dirty and keep up with the big kids.

She has started talking a lot.  Some things we can understand and some we can't.  Her more common words are: mom, dad, hi, bye-bye, again (gen), up, quack quack, go, grandpa (said in the presence of Jerry), I love you (I ya ya), this (tis), and an occasional amen.

She also uses sign language.  Oh, how I love baby sign.  She can communicate so many things because of it.  Her most commonly used signs are: more, please, milk, water, eat, cat, finished and bird.

For the words yes and no, we get very enthusiastic head shakes.  And if she really means no then you get the look. Eyebrows down and all.
I love this busy little bee.

Lily also loves the great outdoors.  She was definitely in her element running around and breathing in all that fresh air.  

Zipline

Our friends Jared and Liz (not pictured Susan and Pat)