Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of Summer

(No picture. 
I wish I had a picture. 
It certainly would have made a good picture.) 

When we're not camping and it's triple digits outside, we tend to go a little stir crazy around here. 
One day last week, I walked into my bedroom and heard screaming coming from my bathroom.  The door was locked.  Upon breaking in, I found Gary, tied to a chair with green yarn.

What the heck? 

WHAT THE HECK!!! 

WHO DID THIS?!?! 

Father was immediately called in to mete out appropriate decades of room time to the guilty Samuel and Eden because I was way beyond speech.

Quite a hefty chunk of time into their sentence, I noticed that Samuel was pouting unduly. 

What is wrong dear?  You tied up your brother and locked him in the bathroom.  Did you not expect to get into trouble for this?

"Mom, he WANTED us to do it!" 

Hm.  That's a new one. 

"He wanted to see if he could get out."

A tiny bell went off in my head.  I faintly remembered having a casual conversation with Samuel earlier that week about Houdini. 

Maybe there was some truth to this story. 

Maybe we had been hasty in our horror. 

Grounding was rescinded with extracted promises that if Houdini starts screaming, you have to help him.  And you can't just go play once you've tied someone up. 

So the next day, Gary/Houdini is calmly and willingly being tied to a chair again.  He is, surprisingly, actually worming his little wrists out of the green yarn knots. 

Chad comes into the kitchen and sees what's happening.  He thunders over to them, "Samuel!  Good Grief!  If you are going to tie someone up, you can't do it like that!  You have to tie their wrists independently!  Let me show you."

So, if anyone would like to practice their knot-tying skills, or has an old trunk, or a straight-jacket lying around, we are all into summer fun around here. 

I actually think we'd better go camping again before I need that straight-jacket myself.  Ta ta.

Campin' 2011

 You can tell it's the first day, because the boys are still clean!  Chaddy was trying to blow the fire out. 

 If there was a fire, Gary was there. 

 Camp crafts. 

 Ready for a ride.

 Making flower fairies. 

Stories about Eden:  Her eyes swelled up like last year, we have no idea why.  She said, "I look ugly, disgusting and hideous!"  Dad said, "Nice vocabulary."  Tim gave her some sunglasses that she wore every second till the swelling went down.  Then she rode the 4-wheeler with Lex and, going over a bump, hit her cheek on the handle bar.  She got a cut, and her cheek swelled up.  "I look like an alien!!"  I used my first butterfly bandage, and Lex got dubbed the Crazy Driver. 

 Racqual's boys, hanging a swing in the quakies.  They made two nervous parents and one nervous wife...

 ...and one nice ride.  But with a rope that long, you had to be a pretty straight swinger to avoid whopping a tree. 

 Sage, blowing on a "wish."

Cards in the cook tent.(Notice, it's not day one anymore.  Chaddy would wipe at his eye with his black hand and end up looking like KISS.  I don't think I got a picture of it, but I know you know what I mean  :))

Mosquito repeller on mosquito attracter.  I counted 40 bites on his face.  On the way home, the lady at Taco Bell asked if he had the Measles or Chicken Pox.  No.  Just sweet baby blood!?!  I think I used a whole bottle of OFF just on him. 

 Licorice Lips!

 Cousin Cloe, pushing Sage and Daisy.  They were inseparable. 

 After a lighter mishap, and nearly collapsing Grandpa's awning, Chad decided Gary needed some positive interaction.  So he taught him to ride cousin Gabe's motorcycle.  He picked it up just like that.  Chad tried to keep him in the dark about 2nd and 3rd gear, but a couple of days later, he figured it out on his own.  He laps camp, and one lap was suddenly much faster than the others had been.  Chad heard him yell, "I'm flying!"  and ran to intercept him to tell him to stop. 

"Were you scared Gary?" 

 "Only when I saw you running at me." 

 Campfire snuggles

 Samuel and his house

 Lily and Hannah making marshmallow masterpieces.

 Root beer floats. 

 Right in the middle of camp, we had a family of mountain blue birds.  The mother and father would take turn bringing caterpillars and bugs to the hungry babies all day long.  They were never more than two or three minutes without a parent showing up with food.  That tree two pictures up, right behind Lily's head, was their home.  They were so fun to watch, and made my job look easy. 

 My flower fairies!  --and Racqual's :) 

 Cousin Abby and Lily and I went on an outing to the bathrooms.  Then it started pouring.  So we stayed.  And played Big Bootie, The Story Game, The Scream Game, and Bubblegum, Bubblegum, sang Down by the Banks, and took silly pictures.  We also were treated to the sight of a deer grazing across the meadow, and then...

 a rainbow, and we know it was time to leave. 

What a fun 9 days!  And now I have a mountain of laundry it will take oxygen to reach the top of, and a trailer that needs a serious wipe down.  Wow, vacationing is work!  But worth every second.  

Still the Same She

Her vocals are still as intermittantly enthusiastic and charming as ever.  Ever.