Cows, Bears, and Snakes, oh my!

We went camping to one of our favorite places this weekend. We go every year and it's only a half an hour away.  We swim, we shoot guns, we watch the stars at night, we play UNO with our best buds, we shoo cows out of the road...
Some of the highlights are as follows.
Corbin perfected his belly roll this weekend.  He can do the wave with it.  It's extremely entertaining. He has now moved on to placing bits of food on his stomach and making it look like his stomach is eating the stuff from the outside.  Videos are in order.
 Brody has been working on his robot dance moves.  Sadly, he likes to do them before dressing or after removing clothing.  Timing is everything, Brody.
 Isaac starts all the camp fires for us, and then yells at kids who come too close, so that is adoring parents don't have to. He's getting so good at the rip stick ( a wobbly skate board contraption) that he can actually perform useful tasks such as delivering a glass of water, while using it.
 Jackson got his cast off and has a super hairy arm.  He also lost yet another tooth and started a sand/mud fight in the creek at little boulder creek on Friday night. The tooth and cast aren't the only thing this boy lost.  We made him pay for mud slinging.  Poor hairy, toothless, muddy boy.

 We went with the Gomez family again this time.  We love them.  Truly.  Especially Jackson, who confessed to me that when we are camping, he feels much safer with Sheryl than me.  Well, duh.  The woman can shoot a gun, scare away cows, catch a frog, crawdad, giant spider, you name it, without so much as a whimper.  She's an amazing cook, makes sand castles and dams at the river, builds huge fires and even chops wood.  I feel safer with her too! Her three kids are hilarious ( two teen girls and a four year old boy).  They treat my children better than they probably deserve and their Dad, Frank is the best.  Frank is a wiz with constellations, so he points them out or sometimes even gets out his ginormous telescope.  He can build or fix anything and he's really funny.  He and David could crack jokes from sun up to sun down.  He knows all the best spots to fish, hike and camp.  It's no wonder we drag them with us whenever we leave town. 

We wanted to find this swimming hole with a waterfall that the Gomez's had been too many years before, but ended up climbing through thick forest for at least an hour.  It was actually quite fun.  We caught a snake and Corbin decided he needs one for a pet.  The frog wasn't so popular.
We all learned a vocaulary lesson from Isaac when we ran into some bear droppings.  Apparently it's not droppings, but "scat".  C'mon, people.  Jackson learned to appreciate his mother's warnings when she informed him he was, in no way, allowed to wear flip flops on this particular hike.  Thank the heavens.

The next day we were wading at the creek when a bunch of cows decided they would like a drink and trampled several of the kids' toys as they came piling into the creek.  Needless to say, the sudden "warming" of the water ( thanks, mother nature) sent us packing.  I was so frightened by those stinking cows.  Sheryl saved the day and shooed them away, proving Jackson's theory of safety in Sheryl's presence correct. My mother ( the rancher's daughter) would be ashamed of my antics. 
Oh, and we bought a camper.
 ( the picture is really fuzzy-but that small red shirted boy squating gives you a good idea of it's mass)

 
 It's a beast.  I would like to touch on all the good and rational reasons for us to buy a camper, like saving on hotel money when we travel for sports ( especially hockey), or choosing a camper over a small vacation place in McCall, or a timeshare, or the fact that we camp A LOT, or the savings and healthier options we will see when we use the rv kitchen instead of restaurants, or the ease of visiting friends with a large family, but none of that can really justify our new purchase. It probably won't save us money in the long run or make our lives easier. We certainly won't eat any healthier.  That isn't why we got it. If I'm honest we got it simply because we wanted it. There's no shame in it. At least not on this end.