"What are the clothes doing on that rope, mom?"

That's what my girls asked when they looked out in the backyard today...they learned what a clothesline is :) So many of you will probably laugh at me, but I had to dry laundry the "old fashioned way" today! Ha ha!! Something is wrong with our dryer, so I had to make a clothesline in the backyard between some trees & actually hang clothes out on the line to dry! Believe it or not, I think this is the first time in the 8 1/2 years that we've been married that I've ever hung clothes out to dry!! I have no intention of continuing to do this once the dryer is fixed, though. The clothes are so stiff when they dry!! Guess I'm spoiled :) But it does make me wonder how many of you that read this blog actually still hang clothes out to dry? I know my mother-in-law does!

The Weekend

The weather here has been HOT with no rain! So we finally got the jet ski out this weekend & went to the lake. The girls loved playing in the sand as usual, and Camden got to get in the water for the first time. He didn't like it at first, but once he got his feet used to it, he was OK with it. Here he is laying on the blanket:




He got so comfortable that he eventually fell asleep:

New Swingset

We've continued to keep busy around here, so it's hard to keep the blog updated! But, for those that hadn't heard, I got a deal on this wooden swingset at a garage sale a couple weeks ago! The girls are thrilled with it, and for some reason it has attracted the neighbor kids over even more often, which is fine cuz it keeps them all busy & occupied b/w this and the trampoline! Below the girls are swinging on their bellies:

Then they both wanted to take Camden down the slide, so here they both are taking a turn:

Mackenzie has been trying to learn how to "flip" as well, so she wanted me to take a video of her. Surprisingly, even when she lands on her face, she gets up & tries again! Enjoy!

The 'ol apple trick worked again!

Mackenzie just lost her 2nd tooth a few minutes ago while eating another apple. That's the same way her 1st tooth came out & it seems to keep her from getting nervous while having someone pull it. She had a dentist appt. yesterday & could have had it pulled then, but she said she'd rather eat an apple & have it come out :)

Tuesday

On Tuesday, the girls and I took another trip to Ohio to visit some college friends, Sam and Sarah. They were in Wapakoneta visiting Sam's mom, so we went over to visit for the day. Sam and Sarah have 4 kids of their own, plus Sam's brother & family were there with their 3 kids, so there were lot of kids to play with! The funny thing is that Sam & Tom used to be roommates, and Sarah & I used to be roommates, so we had lots of fun remembering funny stories from college & post-college before we all got married!

This is a picture of S&S's son David who is just 2 months older than Camden:

Sam's mom has an indoor inground pool, so all the kids got to go swimming:

Sunday

Sunday we spent most of the day in Lima visiting Tom's family. Most of them had never seen Camden yet, and the girls got to spend time with their cousins. They played "Red Rover, Red Rover" for much of the evening. Here's a picture:

The "guys" went to an open house at the Lima Ford engine plant celebrating 50 years. Below from left to right is Tom, nephew Jonathan, Dave, Russ, Dan, and Chance is in front of Dan:

Friday

On Friday, I went with 3 of my friends from church to New Haven for Canal Days. The Christian radio stations were hosting kids day, so we all brought our kids. Below is Kristin, Jen P, Jen F, and me:

We did a little picnic before...

Camden wasn't a very happy camper that I put him down to get a picture taken with just the adult girls, so Liam (Jen's little boy) was trying to tell him it's ok :)

While we waited in line for the kid's activities, "Starry" the mascot greeted the kids. Here's Jenna, Delaney, Trent, and Liam with him:

Right in the middle of the kid's activities, a huge thunderstorm blew through...it was absolutely crazy because it started thundering & lightning and the wind was blowing like crazy, so everyone tried to crowd into this little pavilion. Kids were crying because of the storm, balloons were popping, and it was complete chaos! But once it blew over, the sun came back out & it was a lovely day!

Camden's friend

On Monday we watched my friend Jen's 2 older kids Liam & Kate while she took their youngest Owen down to Indy to meet with some doctors. Owen is just 10 days older than Camden, but has had numerous surgeries for various things. Anyways, when Jen came to pick them up, we sat Owen & Camden down for a little photo op. Owen smiled non-stop while Camden just sat there, but they were cute together. They look like they're holding hands, and I think they're gonna be buds when they get older!

Our Sunday...

I figured I'd start out with Jenna. She was given 2 choices late this afternoon...either get up to the table & finish her dinner, or go to her room. She chose to go to her room, and promptly fell asleep on the top bunk!

While Jenna was busy sleeping, Tom, Mackenzie, & I worked on cleaning up our "new" van. Long story....but anyways, we're selling it, so we needed to clean it up. Once we were done, I decided to just buckle Camden in to see what he thought. Mackenzie wanted to buckle in next to him, so she posed for this picture:

Then she decided just to get close to him:
Now Camden wasn't too sure at first about it...
But then he saw his mommy taking a picture, and decided it was pretty fun to be such big stuff :)
Hope you enjoyed these pictures of nothing exciting really, just everyday "stuff"!

A New "Spray"ground

The YMCA that we go to added a new "spray"ground this year, so I took the kids for a few hours on Friday afternoon. Here are the girls:

And after Camden woke up from sleeping in the stroller, we put his suit on for the first time, and he actually enjoyed the water a bit, too: