The General Conference tent tradition re-emerged when my studly tech husband figured out how to hook conference up from the laptop to the TV in the living room. The girls loved it (Even Kylie. She's just sad because they made her sit down for the picture.) It was awesome - just like how I remember watching conference growing up - eating breakfast and lounging in your pj's on Sunday while having church on tv. Plus there were the ever popular Conference Packets and Candy Corn Conference Bingo. I hope that as my children grow older they will remember conference fondly, absorb some of what is being said to develop their own testimonies of the gospel, and maybe even pass along some of our traditions on to their own families.
Another tradition we brought with us were decorating the house for fall and the super easy, super yummy pumpkin cookies (1 box spice cake mix, 1 can pumpkin, as many chocolate chips/raisins as you want to add. Place rounded spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes). That, along with hosting a "Halloween sugar cookie decorating party" at my house for playgroup, really helped to get me in the mood for Autumn - even though it's still 80 degrees outside.
Something new we decided to try was a Niceville football game one Friday night - super fun, and the kids did much better than expected (we just kept the food comin', and they were great - go figure!) They loved watching the cheerleaders/mascot/band, and yelling and cheering when the crowd did, even though they had no idea what was going on. Also, we sat by some of Chris' friends and he caught a toy football and gave it to our girls, which they totally loved. We also discovered at this game that Kylie knows how to give a high five. So cute!
Also, the sharing of the snowcone kept the two younger girls entertained for quite some time. . .
Also, something we've never done in October before is go to the beach and swim! We headed to the Bay one day with some friends who, coincidentally, have five girls of their own.
The girls had a blast. Here is a picture of the longest boogie board train I've ever seen . . .
. . . Lise and Kylie had fun wading in the inner tubes . . .
. . . there were some pretty impressive sand castles . . .
. . . and a massive aquarium, which included a half dozen hermit crabs, a half drowned dragon fly, and an "eel", which I think was actually a needle nose seahorse. Pretty neat-o.
Now that the weather has cooled off a little (like I said, mid 80's instead of 90's, but 60's at night - woohoo!), we decided to go camping in the Blackwater River Forest. These were the nicest campsites I had ever seen. It was like camping in a park - grass, a playground, showers (with HOT water). We were still close to nature though, and the stars were absolutely beautiful.
Also, I need to say that, for many reasons, I love camping with my hubby. He just makes it enjoyable for me. One of the main things I love is that he likes to cook while camping, making us all these nice pancake and egg breakfasts, smores, etc. It is WONDERFUL!
The hard part about camping for me is that I can't sleep well in the same vicinity as my children. The older ones are starting to do better, but Kate had to sleep next to me, needing reassurance and more blankets intermittently, and Kylie ended up "sleeping" with Chris and I for more than 1/2 the night (I don't think she ever stopped moving). Hats off to Chris for handling all the potty breaks in the middle of the night while I was holding Kylie. Man, that guy's a stud. Did I mention that?
The girls had a blast. Here is a picture of the longest boogie board train I've ever seen . . .
. . . Lise and Kylie had fun wading in the inner tubes . . .
. . . there were some pretty impressive sand castles . . .
. . . and a massive aquarium, which included a half dozen hermit crabs, a half drowned dragon fly, and an "eel", which I think was actually a needle nose seahorse. Pretty neat-o.
Now that the weather has cooled off a little (like I said, mid 80's instead of 90's, but 60's at night - woohoo!), we decided to go camping in the Blackwater River Forest. These were the nicest campsites I had ever seen. It was like camping in a park - grass, a playground, showers (with HOT water). We were still close to nature though, and the stars were absolutely beautiful.
Also, I need to say that, for many reasons, I love camping with my hubby. He just makes it enjoyable for me. One of the main things I love is that he likes to cook while camping, making us all these nice pancake and egg breakfasts, smores, etc. It is WONDERFUL!
The hard part about camping for me is that I can't sleep well in the same vicinity as my children. The older ones are starting to do better, but Kate had to sleep next to me, needing reassurance and more blankets intermittently, and Kylie ended up "sleeping" with Chris and I for more than 1/2 the night (I don't think she ever stopped moving). Hats off to Chris for handling all the potty breaks in the middle of the night while I was holding Kylie. Man, that guy's a stud. Did I mention that?
So anyway, despite the lack of sleep, Chris and I decided that we are building memories for our family and it is totally worth it. I mean, look at those happy smiling faces. What more needs to be said?
The next day we went for a nature walk. I wouldn't exactly call it a hike, it was pretty short, but we all had a great time and Kylie even walked for a good chunk of it, when she wasn't sleeping. We saw lots of exciting thins on our walk - turtles, spiders, lizards, frogs. We were hoping to see an alligator (no such luck), but the girls ended up having a water moccasin cross the trail in front of them. Luckily Chris was there to talk the girls through it and help us all maintain a safe distance.
Eventually our nature walk led us to . . . Blackwater River. The water was cold, but we had a fun time splashing around and floating down the lazy river. And the final thing we did was a little geocaching on the way home. Super fun mini escape. I wish we could have stayed a week!
The next day we went for a nature walk. I wouldn't exactly call it a hike, it was pretty short, but we all had a great time and Kylie even walked for a good chunk of it, when she wasn't sleeping. We saw lots of exciting thins on our walk - turtles, spiders, lizards, frogs. We were hoping to see an alligator (no such luck), but the girls ended up having a water moccasin cross the trail in front of them. Luckily Chris was there to talk the girls through it and help us all maintain a safe distance.
Eventually our nature walk led us to . . . Blackwater River. The water was cold, but we had a fun time splashing around and floating down the lazy river. And the final thing we did was a little geocaching on the way home. Super fun mini escape. I wish we could have stayed a week!
Oh, and the final highlight for me on this camping excursion was when I was rolling up all the sleeping bags/deflating the air mattresses and I turned around to find a naked Kate brushing all the sand off her bum with the tent whisk broom. Like I said, building family memories, right? Thanks Kate, for doing your part.
