Amy's Spoonful of Sugar

Our camping trip to the beach was mostly successful.

It was the first time since moving back to Washington that my children were able to wear bathing suits to the beach. It's usually too cold.

It was beautiful Saturday, and then it rained Sunday. Weird. Ok not really. Just super typical of the Northwest. Jerk.

It was a major adventure to go camping with 8 of us. Always is. And I realized that I don't like dirt. Or rain, or mosquitoes.

But I like my family, and I like sitting around the fire, stuffing myself with s'mores and talking to my kids.

We didn't leave until Friday evening, so the sun was setting before we even reached our campsite.

We're smart.

Despite how it looks, we did get the tent up in time to actually sleep in it.

Nora and Anne Marie's first order of business was to pick me flowers.

Love those girls.

I've heard that smoke follows beauty. But if smoke's definition of beauty is wearing the same clothes two days in a row and having bed head hair that won't lay down, then yes, it followed me around.

Oh wait, it's trying to get to Kate. That makes more sense.

This kid is just happy to be alive.

I tried to get Charlie to do a "stare off into the distance" pose. Meh, it sort of worked.

She's sooo dang cute. And yes, she's my baby. How could you tell?

It's a funny thing, how 6 dollar kites provide hours of entertainment.

So, I had to fight for this picture of Kate. Seems that the girl is camera shy these days.

Why? Oh yeah, she's a teenager. In my experience the like NONE of the pictures they see of themselves.

I'm not sure what she was saying to me. But you're welcome for taking a picture of you with your mouth open. :)

So the highlight for me was the races. Anne Marie is 7 and Charlie is 9, but he barely beat her everytime. She's fast, and he is motivated by NOT letting his little sister beat him in a foot race.

Then of course, the whole family got into it. No one could beat Jeff. Darn Marathon runner. Plggggg! Show off.

I even raced him, but you won't see photos of that. Cuz well, deep inside I'm still a teenage girl as well.

I love being married to someone that is still really just a kid.

I don't love building sand castles, but he does. Boy did my kids win the dad jackpot!

And my dreams continue to be fulfilled with this little bug. She falls asleep in my arms still. At 3 years old! None of the other kids did that. Maybe cuz there was a newborn in my arms already. Hmm. I hadn't thought of that.

Poor babies!!! Now I just feel bad. You can all fall asleep on me whenever you want!

And the ever constant tug of the swim trunks. Boy doesn't want anyone sneaking a peak of his derriere. Good boy.

Henry looks like he just rolled around in the sand for the most part.

And danced a la Glee, by the looks of it. (Disclaimer:I have not even seen Glee, nor let my children watch it. So I'm only going off of my own perceptions of the show)

Boy has got some moves though.

I laughed and laughed when I saw this picture.

My friend/brother's wife painted this awesome picture when she was in high school of a girl dipping her toe in the water. This picture reminded me of that.

Things I love about this photo: How you can tell from Jeff's body language how content he is just standing there staring at the ocean, juxtaposed with Anne Marie's tiny little body and Julia's on the cusp of young womanhood figure, long legs and all.

And then my man, emerging from the water. Hi. Hubba hubba.

Luckily for my monkey children, there were trees to climb in our campsite.

It helps for them to be entertained as I slave away over hot dogs. Oh wait, Julia made the hotdogs. I mostly just sat by the fire.

Did you know that there are cranberry growers on the coast? Fields and fields of cranberries. Little shacks that say, "Jim Parker, Grower", and houses with the Ocean Spray sign on their front door, signifying that they grow cranberries for Ocean Spray. I love, love, love cranberry juice. And not just for urinary tract health. Did I just say that? No. I just love the juice. Especially CranGrape. Yummers.

And then the photo tied with Henry's Glee pose:

This my friends, is what camping is all about.

And then finally, we got to walk around the base of Washington's tallest lighthouse. It was closed when we were there. Which was probably a good thing. Because they wanted 5 bucks a person to walk to the top. That's 40 bones, just to walk up steep stairs and worry that someone would fall the whole time.

So it worked out pretty good. Of course the kids were a little confused as to why we were even there if we couldn't go inside.

And we got to be the good parents and say, "Ahh, too bad, it's closed, we can't go up". While secretly I was doing a little "I saved 40 dollars" dance inside.

All in all, it was short, it was sweet, and I had immense satisfaction taking a really long hot shower when we got home. Like I said, I don't like being dirty. Actually, I don't mind being dirty, but I hate going to sleep dirty. And waking up dirty, and smelling like dirt and campfire and finding all sorts of sticky things on my clothes.

But yay for camping! Seriously, I do this for my husband and children. I would much rather "camp" in a hotel. But because we have a gajillion children, it would cost a gajillion dollars. So I just suck it up and pretend to love it.

which, I don't , in case you couldn't tell.

Anyway......I do love my family. And I love spending time with them and my hot husband. Who still finds me attractive after all these years.

He is a gooood man. Of course, this is after sleeping in a tent with all our kids and not showering or even changing clothes. But still.

See ya later!