Fun with Rosalee and Zeke: The past month

SO much has happened in the last month! We survived working at scout camp, celebrated the 4th of July, Jesse's sister got engaged, Zeke got a few more teeth, I learned to swim, and a few other odds and randomnesses. Our camera battery is being stupid and only holds a charge for a few hours at a time. This makes taking pictures VERY difficult! I'd take some pictures at noon and then when I'd try to take a few more at 6 pm the camera would be dead. So a lot of my summer camp pictures are on other peoples' cameras. Which means when they upload them to a blog, Facebook, etc. I will steal them and post them on here.
We'll start with the right before camp pictures. We started out super excited about getting to spend 6 weeks in Island Park and sharing the experience with our kids. We knew it would be hard and exhausting but we were still excited.

Right before heading up to camp Rosalee had a fit and did a back flip off the couch. Her face smacked into the coffee table and the end result was a nasty black eye.

Rosalee loved coming home on the weekends to have her cousins be at her house. It was a giant slumber party from sun up to sun down.

Jesse's mom bought some yo-yo balloons for the kids to play with and they LOVED it!

Beth bought Lindy and Rosalee some swimsuits and they a blast playing in the bathtub together.

Dennis was VERY excited to get some new lights for his car.
For the 4th of July we went to Rexburg and watched the parade. Dennis's old car (see the above picture) got to be in the parade. For the first part of the parade the three oldest grandkids got to ride in the car. When they got to where we were sitting they jumped out and Rosalee insisted on getting in. At first I was told she giggled and smiled but then after a few minutes she just stared out the window with big eyes at all the people. When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house we found out that Trouble was missing! After having I had a heart attack and a good cry, we found her at a house, playing with some children. Then we went on to enjoy the day with food and duct tape swords. Oh yes, I did just type that.

This is my first, but not my last, injury from the COPE course at scout camp. We were doing the "human cookie maker" and the boy had a knife attached to his pocket. As he was passed down the line the clip on his knife sliced up my hand.

Hayden, Jenny's boyfriend (now fiance) made duct tape swords for all of the kids. I thought the older kids would enjoy them for a bit, but everyone (even the adults) played with them for HOURS!

Each kid wanted to pose with their sword for me

Death to Uncle Jesse!

There goes Grandpa's nap...

This is the crazy sword Hayden made for Jenny. It's insane to think that it's made from duct tape, camping foam, and a PVC pipe.

Hayden in his full battle outfit

Jenny joining in on the fun

We're bad!! Grrrrr!!

Beth ready to go for a ride on Kelly's motorcycle

For fireworks we went to an elementary school in Idaho Falls and watched the big show that is shot off from next to the temple, on the waterfront. It was a very pretty show and it was nice to be able to share it with most of Jesse's family. The best part was this was the first year that Trouble was able to relax and be around fireworks. Thank goodness for medicine!

My niece Allie's birthday is on the 4th of July so the next day her mom made her this beautiful cheesecake to celebrate.
After the 4th we were back to scout camp. This time we actually had boys come. (The first two weeks consisted of training and girls.) It was busy, crazy, great, and definitely worth it!

We survived the first day of scouts, huzzah!!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com
Our humble home for the summer

Jesse loved fishing at night at the lake

Rosalee loved playing in the dirt along the shore

Zeke and I enjoyed being outside... expect for the mosquitoes, those things are EVIL!

Phebe enjoyed being crazy and keeping me entertained.

How Zekey kept himself busy while Jesse and I were working
There were a few days that we were able to break away from the scouts and have a nice afternoon of fun. On this particular day we went down to the swimming area and had fun in the water. I continued to learn how to swim, Jesse had fun out on a sailboat, Rosalee enjoyed splashing around, and Zeke had a nice nap in someone's camper.

Every Monday and Friday we would hold camp wide fires and Rosalee LOVED singing along with all the crazy, silly songs. There is one song that she randomly sings all the time. One day she woke up and said part of the song as she popped out of bed.
One specific campfire (pictured above) involved a pioneer/mountain man, a native chief, and a group of pirates. Weird, yes. Enjoyed by scouts, YES.
One weekend we came home from church to see Hayden sitting on the chair. I was very confused at why he was at the house, especially without Jenny. Then I walked into the kitchen and saw chocolate milk and cinnamon rolls and understand EXACTLY why he was there! The best part is while he was there I received a text message from Jenny telling that she has gone to look at rings and she hopes to marry Hayden but she wasn't sure when he was going to propose. I almost died with laughter, but I kept quiet about it.

Jenny and Hayden were up in Island Park with his family for a few days and I convinced them to stop by and visit before returning to Utah. When they came I took them to the COPE course and had them try it out. Hayden beat himself up on the giant's ladder but he seemed to have fun. Jenny didn't get to do much because a nasty storm came in.

One of my new passions is shooting skeet with a shotgun. I went up to the firing range and was scared to death about it. I used a normal shotgun and about fell on my butt! I had a nasty bruise for 5+ days on my upper arm and it hurt like crazy. Then I convinced the camp director that more scouts could work on the shotgun merit badge if we had a youth size shotgun and he went for it.
I LOVE THAT GUN!
They named it "Little Rosie" after Rosalee because they say, "It looks tiny and cute but then out of nowhere it'll kick you like a mule!" I'm still not very good but at least now I have a gun to use that actually fits my freakish childlike arms.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

How we do things at camp! PS- My husband is great. I truly do love and appreciate his wonderful enthusiasm.

We have an interesting tradition at camp called Gravity Check. Someone yells it at campfire and then a group of staff jumps off the stage into the lake to make sure gravity still works. It's insane, but so is most of boyscout camp! I'm deathly afraid of water (Seriously, it's insane how much I hate the water!) and for whatever reason I thought it would be a good way to get over my fears if I jumped in the freezing cold lake. I was scared to death, despite having a PFD, but I went through with it. While running down I was convinced I was going to pee my pants and when I jumped I just about vomited. But I lived. I probably wouldn't do it again, but at least I can say I did do it. My friend Phebe (above) was kind enough to dress up silly and do it with me.

The guy in the bright vest is Mike. He's one of the lifeguards and I told him to stay RIGHT NEXT TO ME so I wouldn't die. He's such a good kid for putting up with my psychosis. The last picture needs some explanation- At this point I was feeling okay in the water but once I was able to put my feet down I felt the nasty slimy sticks near the shore and I about lost it. Hence my lovely face...

To show me how proud he was of me, Jesse made me a cute bouquet. What a man!

This is John Jeffs, but everyone calls him Spaz. If you saw the kid on Mt Dew, you'd understand why. One day we decided to have a bedhead competition and I won! I'm not sure whether to be proud or not... But I like that we're nappy hair twins.

Here is Phebe repelling on COPE. When I did it my eyes were closed and I was whimpering like a dying dog. The whole time I kept saying, "Closer to the ground, just get closer to the ground." Oh yeah, I hate heights AND water!
One day we went up to the COPE course for our lunch break and Jesse had A LOT of fun! I swear he was like a little monkey up there. The rope course is 30 feet above ground and you are your own belay. I was told 1,934,345 times that the harness could hold a car but I was still convinced that I was going to die.

I was VERY impressed at how quickly he moved around up there! At the end he jumped off the zip line and went upside down... that was until they yelled at him and told him to stop. Apparently those harnesses aren't made for that and he could have fallen to his death. Oops!

This is my crazy friend Shawn. He stole my socks (Okay he asked to borrow them and I foolishly agreed.) and then wore them with his daisy duke scout shorts while working up on COPE. He told me if he wore them that I had to come up on the course. I was hoping if I just laughed at him and took some goofy pictures I'd be off the hook... no such luck.

This is my friend Hailey. We look alike and act alike so people called us twins. I'm pretty sure that half of the staff STILL thinks she's my younger sister. She isn't a fan of heights but she decided to go up and try out the course. She went once before and screamed like crazy. This time she was hesitant, but she still did it. So I thought the same would happen for me... HA!
During Girls' Week I decided to try COPE. I was nervous as all get out, I asked permission to pee myself and to vomit, as well as screamed and yelled like a crazy person. I made it across the bridge- I was slow and scared, but I did it by myself. Then I wrapped myself around the pole and buried my face in Shawn's backpack until it was my turn to get down. When it came time to zip line I had to have Shawn push me off because I couldn't do it. I curled up in the fetal position and bit my lip, but at least I didn't pass out or puke on someone. So when I saw Hailey being brave, my husband the monkey, and Shawn in the crazy socks I thought I'd give it a second go. WRONG choice!

Here I am going up the ladder. Nothing too crazy here. I was thinking I was stupid for doing it, but I kept climbing. Then I got to the top and froze. I had to have Shawn help me up onto the platform at the top.

Here I am sitting on the platform feeling like I just might vomit. Shawn is there trying to convince that I'm not going to die, but I was pretty sure he was lying to me.

Now I'm thinking that I can do it. I did it before so OF COURSE I could do it a second time.

So I took two steps by myself and I froze. I could see the third step (Look at the first picture though. The third step is A LOT further than the second one! They trick you and try to make you crazy!!!) and for whatever reason I couldn't make my leg extend out to it. I'm pretty sure I even told Shawn that my legs were too short and that I had no sense of balance as excuses for why I couldn't move. But being the good guy that he is, he came across, held my hands, and helped me across. I felt super stupid (I did better the first time for Pete's sake!) but at least I didn't die. Plus every time I'd go to look down Shawn would tell me to look up. Then I'd see him in those ridiculous socks and I'd laugh and for one second forget that I was 30 in the air.

When it came time to zip line down I thought I could jump but I made Shawn push me again. Oh well, I didn't overcome my fears but at least I tried!

We kept a stash of treats in our cabin for the kids and one night I came in to see Rosalee in my bed with a fist full of Cheetos. I had just ran out to the bathroom but I guess that was long enough. (SIDE STORY- We only had 2 flushing toilets in the entire camp and I refused to use the latrines so I got a key to the real bathrooms. Thankfully they were just across the road from our cabin.)

This is the face of someone happy to be able to NOT wear scout pants EVERY day, NOT smell like mud, blood, and sweat, and NOT have to fill out another purchase order.

In case you didn't know, I bruise SUPER easy. These bruises came from climbing up the caving ladder on the COPE course. I was shaking so bad that the ladder kept banging up against my legs.
While at camp Zeke turned 11 months old! In one week from today he'll be 1 and I can't believe it! He just keeps growing like a weed!
*He know has 5 teeth*
*He LOVES milk and is almost completely weened from me to his sippy cup*
*He waves "hi", plays peek-a-boo, and gives high 5s on command*
*He says Mama and more and knows what they mean!*
*He crawls and wiggles ALL OVER. He still crawls upside down, but he's starting to normal crawl more and more.*
*He pulls himself to a stand if you hold his hands and will stand up if propped on something sturdy.*
*He eats and eats and eats!!! If this is a foreshadowing of the teen years we are in SERIOUS trouble!!!!!!!*
*He loves to feed himself and becomes annoyed if you try to feed him*
*He still takes 2 naps a day, but has a hard time going to bed at night*
*He loves to be held and will cuddle up to anyone willing to hold him. He got the nickname of Cuddles at camp because of this*

This was taken at 11pm on the 12th. It wasn't me being clever and taking a 11 month old picture at 11, I almost forgot to take one and had to hurry up and snap one. I know, Mother of the Year here I come!!
During the summer Dennis (my father in law) built a play fort in the tree in the yard. It was a lot of fun to come home on the weekends and see how much he'd done on it. Plus it gave us something fun to work on during our time off on the weekends. Here it is from start to finish. He started it back in June, but I wanted to wait until I had all the pictures to post together.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3- My nephews were able to help build it while they were here from Ohio. Oh and it became a pirate fort, hence the flag.

Decorated for the 4th of July

Rosalee would get SO excited every weekend to come home and see more work done on the pirate house. She has spent most of the time, since being home, but there playing around. I think sometime before the end of summer we'll have a sleep over in it.

Rosalee ringing the ship's bell

Not all pirates are mean

The toy canon
My father-in-law would like to make it eventually shoot water

The front of the house

Our crow's nest

The inside decorations

Peek-a-boo!

There goes the neighborhood...

How can someone so cute be so dangerous!?
Before we left we got Zeke a birthday present. I've wanted to get the kids a pool but being at scout camp all summer slowed that down. I saw the COOLEST kid pool EVER and just HAD to get it! So for Zeke's first birthday he got a 'gator pool. He wasn't too sure about it, but Rosalee LOVES it! We even brought it with us to Grandma Terry's house in Washington as requested by Rosalee.