Phillips Lake

Monday through Wednesday were devoted to the Romans' family annual camp out. We switched it up this year by going a month earlier and trying a completely new location. We went to Phillips Lake just 20 minutes out of Baker City. Have to say that I LOVED the location. It was beautiful, it wasn't overly hot, the bugs were sooo minimal and there was a variety of things to do. We had a wonderful time!


I never realized how much these two look a like.




I'm pretty sure we just ATE the entire time we were there. There was so much good food. Thank you every one for your delicious contributions.

Tuesday night while we were dining on yet another dutch oven masterpiece Emma asks, "Why can't we just have hot dogs?" LOL

After grandpa went on a walk with the kids he was ready for a nap. He invited all the kids into his tent to nap with him. :D They played cousin stack up {how many cousins can you stack up on top of each other??} Definitely the party tent and amazingly enough no one got hurt. Only lots and lots of laughter.






Besides eating we played horseshoes,


blew bubbles, bounced balls, rode bikes, drew pictures


and watched for birds


And then there was the WATER activities! The Lake was so much fun, the kids especially loved it.






We added a raft to our camping supplies this year and I'm so glad we did. It was a fun addition!


Monday before we got to camp Grandpa Ken took Braxton and Brooke tubing on his boat. My kids were sad they missed it until they went out in their raft on Tuesday. That was just as great in their mind.


Austin got to be quite the proficient rower.


Wednesday all the cousins went down to the lake before we left camp. Marti had brought her supply of water toys and plus our raft and thus was born the WATER PARADE. {the water, water, water, WATER parade.} They were "singing" this song at the top of their lungs for the whole lake to hear.




Camping was a little bit different for me this time since I was bringing a 1 month old. All in all she did great but she was starting to get fussy by the end. There was something disturbing to me about having my infant smell like a campfire. She definitely didn't sleep as well but Bill and Cindy were kind enough to bring their trailer for us and Kelli and Kenzie to sleep in. She spent most of the time in the infant carrier.


At one point she was very alert when it was time to change her diaper so I let her check out the forest for just a minute.


This is where we found Austin when Lucy was taking her only nap of the entire trip not in the infant carrier.

He was hard for him to have her strapped to me all the time.

One of my most favorite things of this camping trip was watching the cousins play together. Spencer and Braxton: Hiding the Suburban cause they needed a warm place to write down their super powers. Those two are inseparable. It made me really sad they won't go to school together.

Rooster and Brooke-O: just their endless chatter with each other makes me SMILE. Especially around a campfire.

"Did you paint your babies fingernails?"
"Yes."
"What color?"
"Pink."
"You should paint her toes too."

Kenzie and Mollie: they were sooo adorable chasing the birds all over the place. I really wish I would have gotten a picture or video cause their little legs running all over the place is too cute.

And then there is Madison. Who is SO adorable. Period.

I LOVE her facial expressions. And her need to explore everything.
She was everywhere.

Emma was a helpful big cousin. "Mom, I just love Madison. She is so cute."


The kids always want to get this plus-size jar of cheesy goodness when we go to the store. Naturally I always say no without thinking. I finally gave in for this camping trip, when else can you justify such things?


The funniest part is that when we were breaking up camp on Wednesday I saw 3 cheese balls placed evenly apart on the picnic bench. I didn't think much about it before throwing them away. That night as I was tucking Roost in bed she was chatting about the camping trip. She told me that she was going to catch a chipmunk. I was curious how she planned to do that and she told me with the cheese balls. Her and Brooke-O had put 3 cheese balls on the bench for the chipmunks to eat and then they would grab them! Cheese balls are the perfect bait for everyone. ;)

It was a wonderful camping trip. Thank you, THANK YOU everyone!