Labor Day Weekend (Camping) 2010

For the most part, camping and Labor Day weekend was a lot of fun. My sister Becky and her honey came from the Portland area. They brought along a friend named Andrea that was fun to hang out with. My oldest brother Rob and his wife Tiffany and their two kids Koen and Brooklan came. My younger brother Doug and his dog Bowie made it, and also another one of my younger brothers Ryan and his daughter Layla came.

I took Friday off so we could get a good start on the weekend. We went up a day earlier than the rest of the family. It turned out to be a long drive to our camping area. The road had lots of turns and curves, so I did get a bit sick to my stomach. Nolan thankfully slept most of the way there.

The setting up of the campsite was relatively easy, and Nolan was excited to help us. He was a bit upset that his cousins weren't there yet, but he seemed to get over that okay. Roasting marshmallows was very exciting for Nolan. He didn't really even need the chocolate. I would say the hardest part of the trip was getting Nolan to go to bed. We knew that he most likely wouldn't get a nap the next day with all the cousins, so we wanted him to get a lot sleep the night before. Too much exciting stuff going on for that. Here Nolan is right before bed hanging with Monkey!The next day before everyone showed up, we decided to move the camp site just a bit, and then we had fun throwing rocks in the river. I think this easily could have been Nolan's favorite part. I have never been able to skip rocks before, so Nick was nice enough to give me some lessons. I'm very good at it now! My arm was sore by the end of the weekend.

Soon after everyone showed up one by one. First Rob and Tiff, and then slowly everyone else made it. Once everyone was there, it was time for lunch and to have a bunch of fun with the cousins. It was pretty warm, so some of us put on our swimsuits and waded or even swam in the water.

Becky and Jerry
Ryan and Layla

Rob and Tiff ;)

Here's a better picture of them!
Here are the girls. (Andrea, Brooklan, Tiff, and Becky)
Here's a picture of the sisters!

Next we got dinner ready. Nick and I made tin foil dinners. Rob and Tiff made yummy tacos. We all shared a bit. All the food was wonderful even if there was a little dirt in it! Nolan couldn't hold out of r dinner, so he and daddy snacked on some crackers. Brooklan found a tomato to snack on as well...Nolan was being a bit ornery, so not a happy face here. I think it may have something to do with no nap and little sleep. He didn't quite make it to the marshmallows that night. We decided instead of having him scream while all the others were still up, we would take him for a drive. He was out in less than 5 minutes, but we drove around for another 20 minutes or so to just make sure. Here we are right before our drive. Nolan was crying a bit, so his eyes and eczema are a little bad in the picture! Here's everyone enjoying the s'mores. KoenUncle Dougie and Layla

While we were gone, the others went to the hot springs to relax ad clean up a bit. Nolan would have loved it, but it was all for the best. When they all got back, Rob and Tiff made us some dutch oven chocolate chip cookies. Yum-o!

We went to bed right afterward. We slept okay until Nick heard something outside the tent. He was brave enough to peek out, and what did he see? A skunk. He came back in and told me the skunk had found a dirty diaper to chew on. Yuck! We had forgotten to put our trash away before we went to sleep. Nick was going to let it be, but then it just disgusted him too much! I wanted nothing to do with it, so I stayed safely in the tent. Nick found the nearest something to throw (a few zucchinis we had brought from our garden). He told me he hit the skunk in the bum with one of them.

Nick didn't get sprayed, but the skunk did spray. We could smell it for a while during the night, but in the morning it was pretty much gone. Becky asked me if I had smelled the skunk the night before, so when I told her what happened, we all got a good laugh out of it. We were all very happy not to have gotten sprayed personally.

Breakfast was delicious. We all had eggs and hashbrowns with veggies mixed in. So good! Hard to go wrong there. Here Nolan is all warm in his gear waiting for breakfast.

After breakfast and a few temper tantrums, we decided to head out early. We had had lots of fun, and we were ready to go home and relax. It was fun to see everyone and spend time in the great outdoors though.

August 2010

August was fun, but it sure did fly by fast! Nolan continues to grow and learn new things every day. I can't believe he speaks in full sentences now (usually). He will repeat pretty much anything I say. His memory is very good too! He surprises me with it a lot whether it is repeating the name of a certain type of dinosaur or asking me if he can go see Gramma Leeny and Papa (we don't get to see them really often, so it's funny he just loves going over there to visit).

Nick spent some not so fun time in the hospital at the beginning of the month. He was feeling pretty crummy one day through the day with stomach cramps, etc., and it just got worse over night. He then was having the runs throughout the night and the whole next day. He didn't eat or drink anything except for a couple sips of gatorade, so this made me really nervous that he was becoming really dehydrated.

Finally around 2pm I convinced him he needed to go to the doctor. He said okay, but wanted to wait until Nolan woke from his nap. I called work and let them know I would either be late or not come in at all. Nolan didn't get to finish his nap because all of the sudden, Nick started to throw up. Thankfully, Rob & Tiff were able to watch Nolan last minute, and I just took Nick straight to the ER instead of to the doctor's office.

So, after some labs and a quick CT scan, we found out Nick had a small bowel obstruction most likely caused by the scar tisuue from his appendicits strangulating the bowel. (That was a mouthful.) How do you treat this? Put a tube down the nose into the stomach to suck out anything in the stomach or intestines. Not very fun. Anyhow, they admitted him to the hospital, and took care of the problem post haste.

Nick didn't have the NG tube in long before the problem was resolved. I would say about 12 hours. Nolan was very happy to have to tube out of Daddy's nose. It scared Nolan a little. The next morning when we went to visit him, the tube had been taken out, and Nolan gave Daddy a big hug! Nick said the worst part about the whole thing was the NG tube. He said his throat hurt and he felt he couldn't even turn or bend his neck. Also, Nolan was a little shy around him while it was in.

On a better note, we finally got Nolan's play set up. We had wanted this for his birthday, and thanks to lots of help as his birthday presents, we were able to get it for him. We water proofed it first, and then we took the whole weekend to put it together. Thank you to Nana for playing with Nolan while we put it together. Also, thanks to everyone who gave at Nolan's birthday. As you all can see, he loves it!
I think we will have to put some weed barrier down and then curbing and sand or wood chips. I think it would be a lot easier to mow the lawn then, and it would probably look better too. I'll put it in my list of things to do!

In order to get ready for our camping trip, we got Nolan a sleeping bag. He loves it, and he would play in it all day if we would let him. Here he is enjoying it next to his play tent we sometimes have at home in the living room. Good practice for our upcoming camping trip!

Just recently this month, Nolan started asking to take his sock monkey to bed. His name is Monkey. I thought that would be just fine, and he won't go down without him now. I think it is really cute. I'm just afraid we may lose him, and then what would we do? I guess I better stock up on a couple more! Nick and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary on the 14th. I can't believe how time flies. We celebrated by going out to dinner at a local fondue restraunt and then to a movie afterwards. The fondue was great as usual,and the movie was really good too. We saw "Inception". I really like it. It was definitely a thinker. It reminded me a bit of "The Matrix". I wouldn't be surprised if they made a couple more to follow. They left it wide open.

Anyways, Happy Anniversary Nick! I love you so much. Through all the ups and downs and thick and thin, you have been there for me and loved me no matter what. You are the best. Thank you for your unconditional love. I can't wait for the next 9 plus years to come.

P.S. Here are some pictures with Nolan and tractors! He loves them as long as they aren't on. Once they turn on, he doesn't want to be near them! Here's Nolan watching Papa Robert Mairs on his "baby" tractor before he turned it on!

Later on in the month, we went to the Western Idaho Fair to look at the animals, but all Nolan wanted to do was go to the tractor display. They had tractors of all ages there on display. It was pretty neat to see all of the old ones. Nolan was so excited! Here he is the first time...

Here he is the second time around! He actually ran away from me while we were eating. He wanted to go back to the tractors! Kinda funny, but not a lot. If you look carefully, you can kinda see one of the old tractors behind Nolan here!

Yay for tractors!