4th of July Weekend

Stiles, Starkweather and Anderson Families

I'll apologize for all the pictures from the beginning. This blog serves as our family journal and scrapbook, so I try to put as much on here as possible.

Memorial Day weekend we were suppose to go camping with some friends, but due to the weather we were experiencing the trip was cancelled. Fourth of July weekend, was a swim meet free weekend (all of our kids are on swim team) so we decided to go camping. Three families, 6 adults and 11 kids. One of the families has 40acres up in the Stanislaus National Forest. We didn't really have an idea of where we were going. We just knew it was somewhere up past Sonora and that there would be no running water, no electricty and no phone service. We have never been "dry" (without hook-ups) camping before so this was going to be an adventure for us. A few days before leaving we were told that we needed to leave early enough to get there before dark because some trees had fallen and they needed to be cleared out of the way so we could in. We pulled off the paved road around 7:00pm in the evening and drove for like 30 miles on dirt, rocky trails through the forest, stopping along the way to remove any trees that had fallen. John decided he needed to get the camera out, because no one would believe the adventure we were on. Right before we reached the gate going into the property, there were about 4 large trees down, the chain saw was getting dull, at one point it died and we didn't know if we were going to get it started again. John had his little hand saw out trying to make some headway on the trees, it was getting dark, cold and we were being ate alive by mosquitos. By this point we were all determined we could've never been pioneers. We weren't sure how 6 adults and 11 kids (the oldest one being 12) were going to be able to move these trees. There was no way we were going to be able to turn around and get out. Luckily after some hard work and team work we were able to get the tree's out of the way and enter into the property. All the tree removal took about 2 hours.

Friday, July 2, 2010- We enjoyed the day playing in the creek, learning how to ride dirt bikes and going on a hike.

John, Ashlee, and Mikayla's Highlight of the day: "Mom learning how to ride a dirt bike".

Saturday, July 3, 2010- Some of us went by car, some of us went by dirt bikes for a drive and a little bit of river playing in Clay Creek.

Some photo's of the kids:


Stiles Family: Austin, Ashlee, Alyssa, & Allison. Starkweather Family: Taylor, Sarah, Brooke, Heather &Riley. Anderson Family: Ashlee and Mikayla

Stiles&Starkweather Families

The Stiles Family: Sam, Meliesa, Austin, Ashlee, Alyssa and Allison

The Four of Us.

Sarah, Mikayla, Brooke, Ashlee, Heather

Sunday, July 4, 2010. Spent the day going for a hike and exploring an abandoned church camp, dirt bike riding and packing up to go home.

Silly Faces

We arrived home around 7:30pm. Took a much needed shower and headed to the Stiles Home for Pizza, fireworks and swimming.

It turned out to be a great weekend spent with friends. We survived "dry" camping. Came home with our water tank 2/3rds full. Lot's of mosquito bites and memories. It was great to be out camping somewhere where your kids could just wonder off and you didn't have to worry about them distubing someone else or someone trying to pack your kid off. You could be as loud or as quiet as you wanted to be. Mikayla and her friends were big girls and slept out in a tent everynight. It was fun and we hope to be able to go back someday.

Columbia Park-Turlock

Today was a scortching 105 degrees. The girls and I went with their friends from school to Coulmbia Park in Turlock. They have this water play area, a play ground and pool. Everything is free, except the pool. The pool is $1.00 (can't beat that). They had fun. I think we will make a few more trips there this summer to beat the heat.

Mikayla and Allison

Brooke

Ashlee, Allsion, Mikayla and Alyssa.

Family Fun

Monday night we had the opportunity to go to Teresa and Dan's home in Cathey's Valley for some family fun. We had a hamburger and hot dog BBQ. Took the paddle boat to the lake and took turns riding the boat, swimming, homemade ice cream and visiting. It doesn't get much better than that! We had a good time. It was nice to see all the cousins playing together.

Our family on the paddle boat. Paddling that boat is definately a work out on the thighs.

Yucky Week

This week has been one of those weeks. John went to Iowa last week. His first day there his back went out, a few days later he got sick. He spent his last day in Iowa in the hotel room sick. Saturday night on his way home his flight was delayed so he got home later than expected. Sunday he spent the entire day in bed sick. Monday he went to the doctor. The doctor said his ear drums are bulging and he has a sinus infection.
By Wednesday I was feeling pretty yucky too. I went to the doctor and guess what? I have an ear infection and sinus infection too. John was still feeling pretty yucky too, so I asked the doctor if there was something else he could take. He changed him to a different antibiotic. Hopefully it kicks in soon (he snores to no end at night and I can't get any sleep). Wednesday night Ashlee spikes a 102.6 fever and says her ears, throat, etc. hurt. I guess she has the crud too. We are going to the doctor in a while to see what she has.
Mikayla is the only one that doesn't have the 'Iowa Crud", but for the last couple of weeks she has been having problems related to the surgery she had 2 years ago. Today she is going to have another test done, so they can try to determine what is going on. I also found out today, that my doctor has decided to go on vacation, so my surgery is being postponed until July now. Not good news for us. The plan was to have the surgery done and be recovered by the time the girls went back to school. That doesn't seem to be the case now. Maybe in some way it's a blessing in disguise. Maybe I am suppose to get everyone else's issues taken care of first, so then they can take care of me! All I know is that things around here never seem to stop and we are so ready for a much needed break from it all. I am seriously starting to think that something is living in the walls of this house making us sick....

Ashlee's First Swim Meet

Today Ashlee participated in her first swim meet. She did a total of 5 races. 2 relay races (her and 3 other team mates), the 50 yard backstroke, 100 yards freestyle and 50 yards freestyle. She did very well. In the 100 yard freestyle she got 2nd place in her heat. She was so close to first place, but she thought she only had to do 50 yards, so she was stopped waiting for the rest of the swimmers, instead of turning around to do another 50 yards. She still did great and we are really proud of what she accomplished. Especially since it was her first official meet. Way to go Ashlee. Next week she will be participating in an invitational swim meet (swimming with 8 other teams).