Libby's first camping trip!

We took Libby on her first camping trip this weekend! She loved it. Wednesday night, Bill, the girls and I loaded up the car and the little utility trailer (ok, I packed and set by the door, Bill loaded) and headed for the coast. We stayed Wednesday night with my mom and dad and then headed for Tugman Park near Lakeside on Thursday afternoon. Soon, Kat, Eric and Kiera Logue and Jen, Pat, Breanna, and Elisa Gonzales joined us. Bill cooked a great dinner of ribs, corn-on-the-cob and potato salad for everyone. Thursday was also my birthday, so my parents and my sister came out to the campsite, bringing with them a birthday cake, baked by Mom. How lucky can a girl get?! This is Bill and Libby by the campfire Friday morning.


Jen making breakfast.


Libby smiling for Mommy.


Libby was up at 6am on Friday morning, making sure that everyone else in the campsite was up soon after that. So, by 9am, she was ready for a much needed nap.

Breanna and Kat by the fire.


There was a great play structure in the park, along with a cute little beach for swimming in the lake. Friday, we took advantage of both of them. Libby got to swing and swim for the first time and loved both of them.

Jen taking great pictures of the girls. I plan on having another posting with her pictures.

Abby with her "journal" that she wrote in almost daily.

Kiera swinging.

My big girl in the tube.
Abby
Elisa mugging for the camera.

Everyone around the campfire Friday night. Kat and Eric were in charge of dinner, which was great, but the best part was definitely the s'mores brownies that Kat made using her dutch oven and charcoal heated in the fire. She's amazing with that thing!

My tired and dirty girl. She had sooo much fun.

Kat and Eric.
More campfire shots.

Kiera in her dinosaur chair.

On Saturday, we all loaded up and went to the beach. Bill and I took most of the kids in the landcruiser and drove onto the beach at Horsfall. Libby loves sand...especially if she can eat it by the handful!
Jen's girls.

Kiera playing in the sand. She loved the water and wanted to go swimming, but her mean parents wouldn't let her. Hee hee hee.

Abby always loves the beach. She had a great time, but she was a little tough on her clean clothes supply. This is outfit #1.
Bill and Abby digging a hole. Outfit #2.


Our little picnic on the beach. The weather was overcast, but warm and almost everyone got a little sunburned.
My parents brought the samurai and their dog Heidi and came out to the beach. My dad had total knee replacement at the end of May and is doing great, even walking in the sand.

Gramps and Breanna flying a kite.

Grandma playing with Libby.

Kat and Kiera.

Abby in outfit #3.

Pat and Elisa.

Bill made wooden boats for everyone to float in the lake at Tugman, which we did on Friday. Then on our trip to the beach on Saturday, they tossed a couple of the boats in the surf and watched them come in with the waves. You can barely see it in this picture, but there's a little red boat out there in the surf.
Eric and Kiera.
The girls having a snack. I had to take the Doritos away from Libby that Abby tried to share with her.

Kiera the explorer.

Jen and Abby headed for the car. Saturday evening, we went to my parents' house, where Dad had made us all clam chowder and Jen and Pat made a yummy dinner of stroganoff, potatoes, and corn to go with it. Then, we headed to my sister's house in Lakeside to watch the fireworks and set off some that Eric brought with him. Unfortunately, it was too foggy to see the big ones, but we had a good time anyway.

Sunday, we packed up to head for home. Tired and dirty, but relaxed and happy. Making sure we took everything with us when we headed for home, I checked the baby box. Baby food, check. Baby wipes, check. Baby, check.
Happy Libby!

Deck Surface Pictures!

The deck surface pictures that Bill's last entry promised. He and his dad did a big push last weekend and he was getting so close.

For someone who had been so sick, he worked really hard.
Almost there!

Yay! He did it!

Notice Abby's tools scattered all over the deck, along with her Daddy's tools.

Finished the deck surface today

I stayed home sick Friday. Actually, we all did! I had some nasty stomach bug and/or food poisoning that laid me out. I spent Saturday recovering and had to miss Jeff Z's pork barbecue cookout. That was a bummer.

Today though, after making pancakes for Abby and I, (allowing Kricket to sleep in,) I got back to work on the deck, finishing up the deck surface. I know Kricket took some pictures which she hopefully she'll post up later.

-Bill

New Kiddie Kandids Pictures!

Naked Baby Pictures! We have pictures of Abby at 6 months in these first two poses. I wanted identical ones of Libby because they were just too cute! I've been trying to get these done for what seems like forever, but it felt like the girls were working against me! It took so long that, Libby's actually 7 months old, but we were close.
Too Cute!

Libby liked this chair, but she kept trying to jump out of it.


The very first picture taken of Abby. She's a total princess.


My beautiful girls.

Happy Baby!


Pretty girl!

Summer Cuties! Libby 7 months & Abby 3 years 10 months.

Libby's first night in her big girl crib!

Libby has begun "talking" at odd hours of the night and it's started making it hard for Mommy to get her much needed sleep. So, Monday morning at about 4:30 am, I pushed the bassinet, chatty baby and all out into the hall and closed the bedroom door. It was great! I got about 45 more minutes of sleep and she got to "talk" without disturbing anybody. However, that little episode just demonstrated what Bill's been saying for a couple of months now...it's probably time to move Libby to her own room (well, Abby's room). So, last night, Bill finally put the finishing touches on the crib (it had been recalled between kids and needed a few pieces that we ordered from the manufacturer months ago to be put on). Then, Libby went to bed in her new big girl crib. Abby, being the best big sister in the world, decided to make a bed on the floor (her real bed is less than 3 feet from the crib), so she could be close to the baby last night.
Libby, sound asleep in the crib.

She looks much smaller in this than she does in the bassinet.

Backyard Camping with the big girl!

I've been trying to have a campout in the back yard with Abby for a few weeks now, but we just haven't been able to make it work out until last night. After Dad headed home, I put away all of the tools and then set up a little dome tent in the back yard.



We brought out sleeping pads, pillows, books, and blankets and had a great time. We read many books, (heavy on the Sesame Street,) and told stories. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep before she did, (you can see the top of her head there,) though I got up much earlier!


After a while, I could hear Libby upstairs, and soon Kricket brought her down!


It was relatively cold this morning, and my flip-flop clad feet were getting cold while I was outside reading a book. So, since we were camping, and because the unnecessarily complex solution appeals to me, I made fire pit out of spare cinder-blocks and then build a small fire in it. I must confess that I never could have guessed that I'd be able to use the phrase "spare cinder blocks."


This was the best Father's Day ever!

Laying the Deck.

Dad came up Thursday, (and stayed until Saturday afternoon!) and after breakfast at Tom's Pancake House, we headed to Home Depot to pick up some fasteners and other stuff. We kept Abby with us, which is always an adventure!


I thought that putting the Trex down would go faster than it has, but with making sure we have uniform spacing, and pilot drilling/countersinking every hole is taking some time. However, it is looking really good, and I only have another 11 rows to go. Then railings, stairs, fascia board, etc.

We did some testing on scrap Trex to determine if we'd need to countersink them or not and determined that it looked a hell of a lot better when we countersunk the screws.



Abby has been out helping with her tape measure and cordless drill!

A Big Sunday!

Sunday was a big day for deck construction. I called Brian first thing in the morning, then headed over to pick up the last of the Trex 20-footers. We started off the day by finishing up the rim joist.




Once the perimeter was in place, we hung a couple key joist and then racked the whole thing into square. As soon as we noticed Abby had returned from Elisa's birthday party, she was sent upstairs for play clothes.


Abby was really good at keeping us supplied with nails!


After a while, it was all high-steppin'!



Abby making a "special delivery."



We finished the last joist and called it a day.

Bringing home the wood. (Most of it.)

After bringing home the gravel on Friday, and spending Saturday digging holes and filling them with the gravel, we were ready for the building materials!

All in all, it took three trips: one for the lumber, one for pier pads, and then one more a week later, (yesterday,) for the special order 20' Trex boards.


I'm getting pretty good at backing into the side yard!


Three 16' 2x8s, 31 12-footers, 17 16' Trex boards and more 12' Trex boards than I care to count!


I used a hand truck to move the pier pads into place.



Dad came up to visit his granddaughters!



Brian and I managed to get the ledger board up and just started on the rim joist before calling it a day.

Setting the footings...or something like that.

Bill had a busy day getting started on the deck on Saturday. First, he, his cousin Brian, and Abby went to Home Depot to order a million dollars worth of Trex and lumber to build the deck out of. Then, he and Brian dug the holes and tamped in gravel for the base of the deck.





Here's Bill tamping down the gravel.

Brian digging holes. He's so brave...after a trip to Home Depot with Abby, he was still willing to help out more.


More gravel and holes....
And more...
Keep watching. I'll try to get Sunday's progress on tonight.

Bringing home the gravel.

Making use of a furloughed Friday, Abby and I went and picked up two yards of gravel from Valley Landscape Center, for the footings on our new deck.

I borrowed Doug's car trailer since it has a full deck. Our rally car trailer only has decking where the wheels go. Thanks Doug!


Abby was my co-pilot for backing up.



Made it in the gate on the first shot!



It doesn't look like nearly so much laying on the ground there, but when I first put my shovel into it, the pile seemed huge!


Tomorrow: setting the footings.