Camping With Friends. Rain or Shine.

 And Rain it did.

And then it snowed.  In June.  But this is Alberta.  And we were prepared.  What I wasn't prepared for was how much fun we still managed to have even with this nasty weather!

We definitely had our fair share of some indoor movie fun.

And what was awesome is at the group site, there was an indoor pavilion for us to meet at and visit and play games in.

I also made sure to print out some chords and bring the ukulele.  And it got used!

Hudson Bateman was my boyfriend all weekend and was pulling out all the stops.  Every time he would see me, he would show me his muscles.  What a cutie!  I love this boy.

Joe and Doug had some fun.

And then Christie showed up.

And then a creepy clown....  It got weird.

And then a drunk!

Lots of indoor boardgames and snacks for the win.

But oh, in those sunny moments, you can bet we spent them outside!

 Hudson to me was like Jane to Barry.  She called him, "my Barry" and chatted with him all weekend.  When she saw him at church the following Sunday in his suit, she was like, "who is this guy?"  Haha!

On one of the days, Brett Hill prepared a hike for those intense enough as him to go.  I didn't realize we would have a pioneer-crossing-river moment.  This was THEE coldest river I have ever set foot in.  It was also NOT a balmy day.  

Joe stayed home with Zoe and Jane, so it was either I cross it like a man, or be carried like a child.  So, I manned up and did it.  And then shivered the entire way up and down.  Haha!  Still worth it just for the journey.  I loved it.  Just would have loved it more if I had a change of shoes.

This camping-trip was pre-cast, so Ellie was my walking buddy the whole way.  We chatted up a storm.  It was a great!

I touched the butt!

At the top with my crew!  We did it!

This part was a little frightening.

Not Ellie!  Ack!

Fine.  I'll do it.

Alaina and I traded kids during the hike.  I took Maryn and she took Zoe.  

Lydia Doney and Ellie had a great time together being awkward little souls together.

My homeless child.

Party-central in our trailer!

Matt Christensen told some ghost stories on the last night and frightened all the boys who were tenting to the extent that half of them wanted to sleep in the trailer after.  Haha!  

Our last lunch together before packing up!  Love these kids!

 We had such a fun time with this group!  Love camping.  Love our friends!  Until next year!

Zoe and School!

 Zoe doesn't complain a lot.  She also doesn't ask for a lot.  She is usually just really happy with whatever and can go with the flow.  I haven't been on one field trip this year with her, so when I heard the grade one kids were going to Heritage Park in June, I signed myself up, and boy was Zoe ever excited!  Made me feel like a millions bucks.

We had a super fun time.  Not gonna lie, it was still a lot of work because we had one or two wanderers in our group which made things a little stressful in such a busy place, but still fun nonetheless!

On the train.

With Mrs Mueller.  Zoe loves her teacher!

What a fun time!  I was happy to be apart of it.  And happy I only volunteered once this year!  Haha!

Zoe also has a new smile!  She finally lost her first two teeth a couple months ago!  She was so jealous that all of her other friends were losing their teeth and not her.  Don't worry Zoe, you're time for awkward smiles is on its way!

And here we are on the last day of school.  These are Zoe's closest friends that followed from Kindergarten!  But things will change next year.  There is a new school and new boundaries, so one of her best friends, Paisley, will be going to that school along with Mrs Mueller.  Sad!

L-R:  Cru Taylor, Zoe, Paisley Johnson, Miriam Steed, Talia Adams.

I have to say that I am really proud of Zoe this year.  She got a Mastery in reading and boy does she deserve it!  She reads every night to me and bless her teacher's heart, she gets prizes at school for every 50 books she reads, ...so the incentive was certainly helpful!  Great job Zoe!  

Summer is here!

Soccer

 So maybe I signed up to coach Zoe's soccer team!  It was the only way to secure her spot, so why not?!  It was only a two-month commitment (May-June) AND I got to co-coach with my friend, Marci Leavitt.  Best of all, I got to coach Zoe in her FIRST year of soccer.  It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and I found I looked forward to coaching these little kids.  We had a couple nasty/cold evenings that I didn't particularly look forward to, but that's just soccer.  Here we are on our last day which means, we are missing more than half our team, including Coach Marci.  Sad!  But my favourite was there, Brooke, with the pink ball.  She loved me and I loved her right back.  There was also another little boy I loved named Carter (not here) who had a major crush on me.... it was so cute.  Oh 6/7-year olds.  What cute kids!

 I was really proud of Zoe.  She went from being so nervous on her first day to looking forward to soccer by her last.  Go Zoe!  Here she is pictured actually involved in the game.  Not pictured is her finding opportunities to do cartwheels on the field while the game is in play.  Haha!

Jane was also in soccer.  I use the word "in" loosely.  I thought it would be cute.  It was only $20 bucks, so honestly who knew what a bunch of three-year-olds were going to accomplish.  Mostly she just showed up, ran around, and ended up at the park half the time.  Oh well.  She got a shirt and a freezie.  And I had a whole hour of not tending to her each week!  Thank you Jackson and Noah, my Daddy #2's!

Best part about post-soccer were the slurpees.  Twist my rubber arm.