I am pretty sure that I blinked somewhere in time. This is a picture of the kids on their first day of school last year.
And this is the kids this year heading off to 5th and 3rd grade. This will be Leah's last year at the elementary school and Sam has moved out of the hall that we are all so familiar with. Where has the time gone and when did they become so big?
Well before the kids started school and since Tela, at this point, is a couple weeks old we got in a camping trip. We went to Kennedy Meadows for the first time and am so glad that we did. It was exactly what we needed as a family. We spent a couple nights and three days playing, swimming, and fishing in the perfect flowing stream for the kids. Tela survived with no mosquito bites and no sunburn (unlike the rest of us.)
After the first night with little sleep and sore hips from sleeping in the car with Tela I wearily exclaimed, "I am looking forward to reflecting back on this trip and laughing at how ridiculous we are for camping with a two week old." Yet as I said it I knew that we were not very ridiculous as I see Sam and Leah return from yet another adventure like two best buddies. The grin on Ian's face as he smiles at me once again and says, "I am glad that we did this" and Emma who is singing away as she is collecting rocks.
The perfect smore. Emma kept saying how much she LOVES SMORING!!!!
The water was cold but not cold enough to keep anyone out. We pretty much had the whole campground to ourselves and we loved the quality time together.
Neither Sam or Leah caught any fish but oh my goodness the amount of bites Sam "got." We did see a lot of sizable fish and I am sure that he got a few bites unfortunately they did not want to stay on the hook. Leah tried to scare one of the fish out of the water but that did not work either.
My favorite time was sitting around the camp fire as we all took turns telling ghost stories or just scary stories that can't be too scary. Emma did a great job with her voice fluctuation as she told of a headless ghost who stole everyone's smores. Oh the horror. Sam did a great job until he lost focus and then the story just turned into a directionless story of a cat who had wings chased a dog up a tree. And of course Leah was on top of her story telling and repeated a spooky story from school.
Well I am glad that we went camping as a family and can hardly believe that the kids are back into school and lazy days of summer are over. This summer has felt like a daze and new beginning, changes, and time passing seems to take me by surprise each and every time. I know that blinking is part of life but I wish that not so much would happen in between blinks.
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