Our one and only Camping trip of the year

On September 3-7 we went camping with some of the Stevenson fam up to Lake Lyman. We weren't really planning on doing much camping this year, and hadn't, but when Rob found out they were going to Lake Lyman he couldn't refuse. It's our favorite place to camp. I was fine not going camping this year since last year was so not fun for me, but the girls are a little older this year so I figured it would be bettter. And they were...for the most part.
The only major difficulty we had is that Aivree started teething; bottom back molars on both sides. She had diarrhea the night before we left and unfortunately it continued throughout our camping trip (and after). In fact the first night she had a major blowout and I had to change her clothes and diaper at 1 am in the chilly air. She was very ornery and clingy the whole time. Her and Ani both slept surprisingly well though. Some nights were better than others, but they both did pretty good going to sleep and staying asleep. Aivree woke up early one morning and Ani had to sleep in bed with me one night, but besides that they were great. Aivree took really good naps too. That's usually one of my biggest worries going camping is the nights, but it was good.

On our way up Rob almost ran over this huge herd of sheep in the middle of the road. Luckily he realized what it was in time and was able to stop. It was crazy seeing all those sheep so close.

The Sheepherder

As usual we were able to find lots of things to do up camping. My dad brought the swings and the girls just couldn't get enough of them, especially Aivree. She would recruit anyone who would look at her to take her on the swing and you could usually count on pushing her for a couple hours. haha

Ani in the swing

Brandon, Cody and Sara came up for the first couple of days and my girls loved having them there. They always have so much fun with their cousins.

Cody shared his breakfast with Aivree and she pretty much finished it off for him

Here is my dad fixing just one of the delicious meals we had while camping. We always eat so well when we go camping.

There was of course lots of fishing...

Anisten was a bit nervous about the fish this year, much to Rob's dismay. He took her the first night to see him bring in some fish and she was so worried about them. While Rob was taking the hook out of one of them, she was saying to the fish "You're fine, You're fine." We bought her a Dora fishing pole and Rob took her fishing the first morning we were there. She didn't want to touch the fish much, but I think she liked pulling them in. She was done after the first couple of fish although Rob would've gladly kept fishing for hours of course. He was surprised at how well her Dora pole worked.

Doesn't Rob look manly fishing with a Dora fishing pole?

He of course made time to go fishing "for real" with Bryce in the canoe on the big lake. They both had fish for lunch that day
Here's Rob with his catch

Fishing wasn't the only fun thing to do with the lake...
Anisten, Aivree and Sara had lots of fun throwing rocks in the lake and later Rob showed them how to skip rocks

Even Abbie had fun in the water and got her daily swim while entertaining us all. Anisten was really nervous and scared of her most of the time, but she really loosened up towards the end. She always seemed to know where Abbie was though. Aivree on the other hand wasn't afraid of Abbie at all unless she got really close to her, but even then she was fine. Abbie's such a good dog. Like Sara said, she's part of the family.
We also got to take the family out in the canoe. Rob is an expert rower we found out because I couldn't ever help row since I was holding onto our children for dear life. So he did all the rowing and steering on his own.
Here we are with Aivree
and then Anisten
The last day there we all took a canoe out so we were all on the lake at the same time. It was fun, but Aivree was too interested in getting in the water than riding on top of it. She would wiggle and move out of control until I held her over the side so she could touch the water. Then she loved it. It made me really nervous obviously so our canoe ride was shorter than everyone else's. Such a silly girl.
Rob, our good rower

I finally just laid Aivree down in the bottom of the canoe so I wouldn't drop her in the water. She was actually okay with that

The girls also loved going on rides on the ATV's. Here is Rob taking them on a ride.

Anisten is turning into our little ham everytime a camera comes out. Here she is posing on some rocks. She loved to climb them too.

The girls were pretty good at finding things to keep them busy
Ani did lots of coloring. Here she is in the "house" which was our E-Z Up lowered to block some of the wind. It was pretty windy up there most of the time and it got very cold too.

Ani and Aivree in the "house" (that's what Aivree called it")

Playing in the dirt, finding rocks, sticks and whatever else

dirty face Aivree

Anisten was such a good camper dirty Aivree, you can tell she's not feeling very well in this picture
Playing with the washer toss game

And of course, the best part of camping, is spending time with family around the fire

Nice pose again

A happy Aivree (yay!)

Grandma Stevenson with Anisten
Grandpa playing peekaboo with Aivree

Anisten and Grandma and Grandpa Maxfield

They are always so fun to have camping with us and they were so good to my girls, even when my girls were so hard to deal with. We sure love you guys.

Our little camping family

This year turned out better than last year. I think the girls enjoyed it. I think we all (and I mean ALL of us) would have enjoyed it more if Aivree wasn't teething. She even had a blowout on the way home and has developed a serious diaper rash. I don't why, but teething has been soo difficult for her and it breaks my heart. Hopefully they come in soon. Thanks family for a fun camping trip and for putting up with my girls and their antics. We sure missed those of you who weren't able to make it this year. Love you all!