Labor day & camping...

Hi everyone!
It feels like it's been a while since I have written anything about Kaylee or what's going on with us. So here are lots of pictures and info about what we are up to.

Labor Day weekend Josh and I went camping and had Mom and Dad K watch Kaylee. As much as we hate leaving Kaylee we thought it would be nice to have some time outdoors together since we both really enjoy nature (well, as I found out I only really fully enjoy nature during the daylight hours) haha! Our pictures are kind of all goofed up... I still haven't been able to remember when I am uploading pictures on here that I must be sure that I upload them backward... anyway...
Above is a picture of Kaylee when we got back from camping. I made up a plate of all kinds of different foods for Kaylee to try and I ended up realizing that I prepared waaaay too much food for Kaylee... We all had a good laugh when we/I actually realized how much I had put on her plate. She did eat a lot of it but I think I may have over fed her a little.

Kaylee is doing great with table foods now. She actually gets a little jealous if I am eating something that she can't have. She always tries to grab whatever it is I am eating.

Below Kaylee is trying out some corn on the cob. She had fun picking at the cob and trying to eat little pieces.



















Mommy giving some assistance with the slippery corn cob.







Here is Kaylee with her favorite person of our household. She loves calling "dad. dad. daaad." whenever Josh leaves a room or when she sees her daddy and wants his attention. He can always put a smile on her face.





Kaylee loves to put her head against other peoples heads. It's funny because this is something that kittens or cats also do as a sign of affection. Maybe we should be calling her a different nickname like "Kitty" or something. I always have liked that nickname.








Kaylee is a total pool girl. She looooves the water and spent quite a long time in there. When it was finally time to get out I had said, "Okay Kaylee time to get out" and she fussed a little as if she knew what I had just said. When Kaylee gets older I hope to sign her up for swim lessons. That is something my brother did and now he is a great swimmer and confident in the water at just 12 years old.









On the raft with daddy and Grammy getting her to smile. Kaylee looooved her time with Grammy. She just has this way with kids and Kaylee absolutely loved her! We hope to have many more fun sleepovers and visits with Grammy!











The bathing beauty in her raft.














Random picture of Josh. I wanted to take a picture of him right then. I just thought he looked cute sitting there!








We cooked on the fire both nights. The first night we had seasoned chicken, stuffing, spicy diced potatoes, carrots and peas. Then the last night we had ground beef with tomatoes, green peppers and rice with mashed potatots. Yes mashed potatoes. It was so random since I didn't have milk I just used some of the water from boiling them. Since I didn't have a masher or a mixer or anything I just used a spoon with holes in it and mashed it in the pan. I think we were both shocked at how delicious the food actually was. And it cooked so fast too! Josh said that I cooked better camping than I do at home. Haha, punk!










Josh decided to take a picture of me while out in the wild too. This was actually our second night and you can see behind me that there is like nobody at all in the campsites to the left of us.















Here is Josh getting the fire going. I was so impressed by Josh's ability to start a good fire. If he were a boyscout he'd get a badge!








The second day we decided to go back to the other park that was just a few minutes away. We head to go there the first day to sign-in. Let me tell you about that fun adventure.
So we both go in to sign-in and while Josh did all the paperwork I was looking around and noticed this entire bulletin board dedicated to Black Bears. I was curious since one of my greatest fears camping is that a either a bear will get me or a tick will get me. For those of you that know me well know that I have a horrible fear/phobia of ticks. So anyway as I am reading what not to do if you encounter a black bear and all the other papers on the board I scan down to the bottom right of the board and see this picture of a boy that looks about my brother's age, 12/13. His back is showing with these claw marks all down it. I realize what it is and ask the girl behind the counter, "Did this happen here?" She said it did and then told us what happened. She said that the boy was on a trail and saw a bear. So he took off his backpack, got some food out, threw it to the bear and then put his backpack back on and went on his way. Well, the bear realized where this food came from so he ran after the boy and snatched his backpack off, clawing his back. I'd say that boy was pretty lucky!!! I then asked if there were any bears in the park right now and she said that a mother and two cubs have been spotted. Then like seconds after she told us that another girl there got a call that the bears were spotted down my one of the docks.

And So my phobia began right then and there. The entire time were were camping I was afraid a bear would come get us. In the evenings we would play card games on our picnic table. The first night my back was facing into the woods and there was this trail that didn't exactly look man-made that was right behind me so I was so afraid a bear would pop out and get us. So then the second night Josh sat on that side with his head lamp on backward with the light on so I could see the trail. I think it made us both feel better to be able to see if anything was coming.

The first night we were there there were all Indian people. There must have been some huge reunion or something. Then the second night there was like nobody. I really missed those guys the second night. Luckily there were some young people there playing loud music so I think that might have scared away those bears.

So anyway... back to the pictures... These next few are from out time at the other state park. At this one there was a beach where people could swim (although it was closed this weekend) and the whole park was a peninsula. We decided to walk all around the peninsula but since the day before they had spotted the bears at some dock I was afraid we would run into the bears.






Me trying to find some good rocks to skip. Josh made fun of me so much because I guess I look really dumb when I throw the rocks. I don't know. I guess I do something funny with my body when I throw. I should have taken some video to see what he means.












Looking normal throwing right???? Isn't this normal?













Josh shot putting this large rock into the water.
















Josh getting a good grip on this nice flat skipping rock.
















I thought this dock was cool. It was like this old dried to shore dock.


















Here I am doing a Prices Right showing of our tent. This was actually right after we had set up the first day.












Josh and I had some fun on bikes we borrowed from mom and dad K. I am totally popping a wheely here. Haha!
We took our bikes down this rough trail and then back up. It was quite a workout!

Josh was really excited about the Observatory they had there so we took a ride up there to see when it opened. When there we saw that there was a trail that had a little sign with each planet on it and facts about each. The signs were spaced out, on a smaller scale, like they are in space. This was cool to see. Before we knew it we were at the bottom of the mountain at Pluto. The distance between each was neat to experience and kind of understand. Something I found interesting was what each planets day/year is like compared to ours.

Later that first night we went up to the Observatory and got to look out at a star that was dying so you could see all the gasses in the telescope. That was cool. One of the guys there that was helping was telling us all kinds of stuff about space. So that was pretty interesting. Then we went outside and on these other telescopes we looked out and saw Jupiter. We got to see the smoke rings or dust rings (I forget which it was) around Jupiter and we saw all it's moons. That as also pretty cool! I'm not much of a space nut but I know Josh enjoys it and when I really get to check it out hands on it's pretty amazing. It makes you feel so small. The second night instead of going up to the Observatory we decided to do some observing with the naked eye. We just laid out in this open field and watched the stars. We both saw a couple falling stars.





This was the first night. I was waiting for Josh to come back with some firewood from the other park so I decided to make him the best marshmellow toasting stick ever. It even had a duct tape arm band for easy holding. I also whittled some designs into it as well.















Here I am with two flashlights. I was making a sad scaredy face because of the bears.














Here is Josh our first night making some mountain apple pies.














Here are our pies roasting. Yum!







So the summary of our time at the park was we had fun, we missed Kaylee and we were not attacked by bears or ticks. A pretty good time I'd say!

A lot more has happened since our last post but I've used up all my blogging-energy for now! Hopefully I can post more soon!!