Mother’s Day weekend is seldom a holiday. For me, it’s race weekend and Kate’s birthday.

On Saturday, we all piled in the van to go up to Ogden Nature Center. Way too early.

Tori ran a 5K with her dad. She’s our athlete.

It’s a statue. Honestly, I stared at it waiting for it to move. sigh.

There’s a great bird sanctuary at the center.

These lovely ladies were cheering on the runners.

My big boy!

Kate turned 6 years old!

Liz’s attitude has improved tremendously lately. Prayer really works. And we just don’t fall for that whole western tween/teen mentality at all. More on that later.

Tori was hurting and didn’t want to finish the second lap.

Perseverance paid off. She was the youngest female in the 5K and got 3rd place for her age group of 1-12 {after two 10 year olds}!

And she got the coolest raffle prize – this little binocular, magnifier, compass thing. I was in the gift shop looking at these to buy one for her when I heard her name called for the raffle. God cares even about the little things.

In the nature center, they have a new teaching beehive. Super cool. Scroll really quick if you don’t want to see them up close.

Pretty shiny golden darlings. Making yummy honey.

The coolest nature sensory evarrrr! I want it. I want Aaron to make me one. Imbedded with mirrors and magnifiers.

Alex thought the snake skins were cool.

It was a lovely day.

and we grabbed a nature camp brochure. Alex is in from when he went last year. aw

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We went on our first family camping trip with our church this past weekend.

Aaron didn’t grow up doing the camping fishing thing. I did. It’s taken me this long to get him to try it!

Our First Camping Trip was a huge success!

Nice clean and cute kiddos when we first arrived at the campground. Minutes later, they were muddy and wet. Super!

Queen of the rock:

The kids found their own rock.

Alex loved being outside all. the. time.

Our tent we rented from Outdoor Rec. on base

First morning:

Aaron went fishing in a boat with some guys at 0630. Liz disappeared from camp before the kids and I got up. Story: She banged on the neighbor’s camper before 0700 and got their kids up (ages 6 and 9) to go look for berries and/or deer. They walked down to the reservoir and “borrowed” a canoe and paddled out on the lake by themselves. At least they put on the 3 life jackets they found in the canoe (convenient!). It was the story of the week. Great.

First camp breakfast:

Dinosaur Eggs oatmeal and fruit punch!

I think Alex was yelling something at me. whoa, was it cold up in the mountains!

Look at that view!

Dad set the girls up fishing at the reservoir.

Katie’s first fishing trip! We didn’t catch anything. Got to get up too early for all that. And we are not early risers.

Tent meeting in our “Tabernacle.” Pastor and his son led us in worship. We also had communion with bread baked in a Dutch oven.

We brought our own chairs and sang songs and listened to Pastor preach.

Camp pot luck dinner. Obviously, we need to get a Dutch oven. Seriously.

We went hiking and playing in the creek. That water is COLD! We borrowed kayaks and went paddling around on the lake. Tori and Katie could even manage the kayaks on their own! I was so proud. I seriously want a kayak now.

Alex was inseparable from Pastor’s granddaughter. She’s 5. He likes older women. And gingers.

Aaron got to have fun retrieving toys that Alex threw in the creek, before they floated away! Alex kinda wanted to see them float downstream, but I was worried that there would be tears if they disappeared in the current.

I love how our church practically rented out the whole campground. I felt the kids were safe running around and everyone helped watch out for all the kids. It was such a great experience for our family. We made some great friends over the weekend. We had no cell phone coverage. We really were isolated!

The kids are already asking if we can go next year. I guess that means they liked it.

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