after our camping trip we headed up to Oroville! We stopped at my parents place in Sacramento to shower and then we hurried to Chico to go to Hula’s. On Saturday we played ALL DAY. We ate breakfast on the back patio and swam and played darts and board games and hot tubbed. Kevin and Liz have a great pool and set up and we were all entertained.

That evening we drove to Olive Hurst to see Ryan and Mary’s new house! We ate pizza and played games and visited with the McOmbers. We stayed the night there with Shannon, Sean and Kelsey. And then we slept almost the whole drive home!! poor Ben had to drive and the rest of us just crashed. We only stopped 2 times! the second one was in Salt Lake to drop Shannon off and eat dinner.

We camped at the Henry Cowell Redwoods Campground from July 18th-22nd – Monday through Friday. I love camping with my family. They seem to have it down to an art form. My parents plan all of the meals and bring the food. We make one big kitchen area. Mom makes a cooking and cleaning schedule so everyone knows when it’s their turn to help. And then we just relax and game and chat and build fires and enjoy the trees and beauty.

Tracie brought a play area for the babies! Genious.

Dinner on the first night and then fun around the campfire:

Cali and Rose slept with Maddy, Lilly, Ella and Brinlee in the girl tent. Benji and Packer slept in with Gavin, Porter and Jaydn:

Tiago and Millie woke me up at 6 or 7 every morning. We played in the dirt and put up the Slackoline for a few hours before we got told to take it down.

We spent Tuesday at SEACLIFF BEACH. We had a blast:

Benji stayed in the water for MOST of the day. He and the boys his age were having a blast just playing in the waves.

Everything is FUN with cousins: and when Uncles help build drift wood forts:

Back at camp: swinging and playing Assets and getting really dirty:

On Wednesday we went and spent the day at the Sand Dunes and Beach:

Tiago stayed close to the snack box and was very happy. The lifeguard came to warn us about the under toe. We made some mermaids and found Ray hiding in the Can Jam.

We had a big SPIKEBALL tournament: Ben and Joel won!

It was a windy day but by the afternoon it was perfect to get in and swim and search for shells:

Wednesday Night was a family TALENT SHOW! Some of teh kids did a few skits. Benji and Jaydn did card tricks, Ray played Twinkle Twinkle on his mouth horn, the girls danced adn drew pictures and Cali and I did a skit with Liz and Ella.

Thursday was our chill day. We stayed in camp all morning:

Then we went to the Redwood Hike and saw some amazing Trees:

Then we hurried to Downtown Santa Cruz and ate at Pizza My Heart:

And we got to the Beach Boardwalk at 5pm to get our unlimited ride passes! We went non stop from 5-11pm. Starting with the Carousel that we loved as kids because you can throw rings at the clown!

Log Ride before it got cold: Yes, Millie went on it with Sean! and Ray went with me and hid his head the whole time!

We spent a lot of time on kid rides cause we have a lot of kids:

Mom took Millie on a LOT of rides:

We did sneak in a couple of the bigger rides and of course the Roller Coaster with Pops!

Ben found his dream arcade:

At the end of the night Raymond and some of the kids rode on these cars about 20 times in a row!

And then we all went home exhausted:

Friday was pack up camp day: And CHRiSTY’s Birthday! And DRIVE all day to get up to Oroville DAY!

Next up we drove to California to say goodbye to our nephew Braden and to camp with the family! Braden gave a great talk and we all crashed at their place for Saturday night and Sunday and said Goodbye Monday morning. He is in the Missionary Training Center in Sao Paulo Brazil (CTM). Ben and I are excited for him to learn our language and our people 🙂

We went to CFF 2016 in Tooele this year! My cousins help run Country Fan Fest so they got us all weekend wristbands and we loaded up the kids and headed to Tooele with Josh and all of our kids and Trailers…

We borrowed Than and Ericas RV!! It was a great/Easy way to camp. Bathroom! Kitchen Sink! Beds! electricity, no set up. We really did like it.

The kids and I chilling on the bed while Ben drives us to the party. And Millie did fall from the top level before we got there. that girl!

We “camped” in the middle of nowhere Tooele. Josh and Mal and Shannon and Kelsey joined us. Joel and Sean and Jana joined us for a few hours.

Thursday night they had a campground concert so it was right in camp. We listened to a band and then put the kids to bed and came back for Royal Bliss. I went to bed before the midnight show though 🙂

Day 2. Friday morning we got up and walked over for a pancake breakfast. Then we got swim suits on and headed over to the pool for the day.

after many hours at the pool we took the shuttle back to camp, got dressed, and shuttled back over for the concert and food trucks:

We left the party that night a little early because we were driving to Hollister CA the next morning but it was a FUN 2 days.

We had a fun time. Wish Clay Walker and Chris Young would have been the first night so I could enjoy them but all in all it was a fun experience!

Josh and some cousins and some artist :), and my cousins running the show.