Summer Posts Begin Now: Tamarack Days 1 &2

As Peg + Cat would say "We have a BIG problem".  I have a LOT of pictures on my camera and so many events I want to blog about.  But treading water has left me exhausted and actually swimming might just do me in--if ya know what I'm saying.  Here is my attempt to get through blogging some of our summer activity.  Now, I know, I know, I don't have to blog.  However, I really haven't kept up at all on any sort of first year calendar or baby book for Henry (or any of the other kids) and I have a feeling that someday I'll be looking  back at this blog to see when he hit milestones and to remember what that first year of his life was like.  Because surely all my brain cells will be focused on surviving and none will be left for remembering : )

 Back in mid-July we left for a family vacation in Tamarack, Idaho.  Car travel has not been a high point with Henry.  I have to admit I was fairly nervous about spending 10 hours travel time with a screaming baby.  But, we packed up the U-Haul--yep, you read that correctly--with the 5 bikes, one bike trailer, fishing raft, fishing gear, clothing, food, craft supplies, etc., etc., etc. and loaded the van with books on tape, dvds, coloring books and snacks the night before we left and settled in for a good night's rest.  Alas, Henry was not willing to let us have that good night.  He was up a lot.  So we started out fairly tired.  Lucky for me I am married to a stud road trip driver (as long as it's not night) and he had no problem grabbing his coffee and keys and plowing ahead at 6.  We had to make a few stops along the way--including a very long stop at the Lewiston/Clarkston Costco but we made it safely to Tamarack by 6:30 that night.  And get this, Henry slept the last 3 hours of the ride!  We were living the high life.  Uncle Nathan and Aunt Megan and Crew had arrived just a bit before us and the cousins started up a joyous and raucous reunion.  While we were getting moved in and settled, Grandpa and Grandma and the Uncle Alan's also arrived.  The noise level was off the charts.  Somehow we all calmed down enough to eat a late supper and figure out which kids were sleeping in which cabins so that we could all find our beds and settle in to vacation mode!!

The first morning started with an early bike ride for a few of the adults.  Later that afternoon I decided to tackle making cake pops with all the kiddos.  Thankfully Aunt Megan and Aunt Heather were willing to help out.  First we had to squish up all the cake and add some vanilla coffee creamer to make it mold-able. 

 The kids were in and out of the hot tubs the whole week--thus the constantly wet hair.

 After squishing comes rolling.  Each kiddo rolled out 4 or so cake pop balls.

 And then things got super hectic and crazy and I had to put the camera down.  They added sticks to their cake balls, dipped them in melted candy coating and added toppings.  Then they were pushed into the styrofoam blocks to set.  The ones pictured below are the few that survived.  Many of them broke off the sticks, or slowly slid down the sticks to a certain death.  I think I added too much coffee creamer and the pops were too heavy. 

 Doesn't this picture just make you want to eat one????

 These two ladies showed such patience!  We had a giant mess to clean up by the time we were done.  But the kids are old enough now to clean themselves up and to help us with the mess and that makes allllll the difference.

 Mr. Henry did not get very many naps but he wandered around exploring the new places and people and really had a fun day.  By the time this picture was taken, he was ready for bed.  But all day we kept commenting on how well he was doing.  Little did we know how much we should have enjoyed his mellow attitude of this first day!