San Clemente, CA july 17 - July 31 2010

This is going to be a million pictures of our vacation this summer. Once again we went over to San Clemente, CA to camp and play for two weeks. We took our good friends with us. We have so much fun with these guys, and our kids just love each other.
We spent several days at our "usual" beach. Just eating, and sitting and playing in the ocean.

Spending time at the campground at night is a huge part of the fun. The four adults sat in these chairs for 2 weeks and laughed our guts out.
Our kids almost always woke up before theirs, so we spent some quality time in the trailer racing each other on Mario Kart DS.

Kennedy sleeps in some of the most unusual positions. An NO she's not faking!
Then it was time to head to California Adventure to use our free tickets we had earned from tying blankets. Luckily it was overcast for the first part of the day. But by noon it was hot and the lines were long!

Colton, Casey and Kennedy wanted to ride the huge Ferris wheel. I hate those things, so Stacy took them on. Casey loves Landon. If his mom or dad isn't available for a ride, then Landon is definitely his first choice!

A couple of the days we decided to head to Oceanside and try the beach there. It was way more sandy that San Clemente, and the waves started out way far so the kids could ride them in a long ways. The drawback was that there were jellyfish in the water. Tons of them. Colton came limping in saying he had been stung on his leg. He had 3 long red marks where he had been stung. I, jokingly told him that he needed someone to pee on it to take the sting out. He instantly had several volunteers! Mason was finally the lucky winner, and he peed in a sandcastle mold, and poured it over his leg. He claims it help. About an hour later, Mason comes limping in and says he's been stung. Now it was payback. Colton then peed in that same mold, and poured it all over his leg. I think that might be my favorite moment of the trip!

It was really cloudy most of the trip, and hard to figure out my camera settings.

We're off to Knott's Berry Farm. They have awesome rides. Much more up our alley.

Stacy and I found a couple of gents to hang with.

The sun came up for a little bit in the afternoon, and we tool full advantage. We hit the Perilous Plunge, and got SOPPING wet!
Not to be outdone, Landon and Travis hooked up with these two floozies!Last but not least, Landon and Travis took the kids on a fishing trip the last day. They caught tons of fish. However, Whitley was the day's winner. She caught a shark! A 6 foot thrasher shark. After about 2 seconds she needed help reeling it in, so Landon took over. They cleared the deck, and just about had it in the boat and it broke the line. So disappointing! An awesome memory though.

Once again we had another great vacation with the Nuzmans. Can't wait to see what next year's adventure brings.

Zion Encampment aka Scout Camp

This is Colton's first scout camp. He missed the one in Washington last year because we moved. He was so excited to go. They left Tuesday morning, and didn't get back until Saturday afternoon. The deacons all ready to go
First night at camp

They had an FBI obstacle course for the boys to run.

Noah and Colton finishing. Shirts off of course!

As a troop they would have a spiritual thought each day.

They shot bow and arrows

Colton and Mason were working on their Wilderness Survival merit badge, and had to built a shelter and sleep in it one night. This is what they came up with. Colton said Sam slept in it with them just for fun. However, once it got dark, Sam didn't think it was so fun. He kept making Colton shine his flashlight all around.

Noah, Colton and Dayton earned the Climbing merit badge. Colton loved repelling.

Look how filthy they are. Can you image how they smell? When Colton got home, he hadn't changed his socks in 4 days. Hadn't brushed his teeth. Hadn't showered. I pretty much burned everything he had on.

Colton said is was one of the most spiritual experience of his life. From the pictures it looks like all he did was have fun, which he did. But they also had many testimony building opportunities. The spirit was so strong at camp. To bad they can't do this more often.

Diving Lessons

I decided to put the girls in to diving lessons this summer. Colton didn't want to since he is leaving for scout camp next week. Whitley and Colton has done diving in the past, and really liked it. Kennedy was not old enough when we lived here before to do it. She was super excited.

After a couple weeks of lessons, Whitley and her friend Parker were both able to do back flips, and a one and a half. They were pretty impressed with themselves.

Kennedy got her front dive, back dive, and eventually her back flip as well. We will definitely do this again next summer.

Lake Pleasant

We signed Colton up for a scout camp with a few of his buddies this summer. He was a little iffy on going, but ended up having a blast. They earned 3 merit badges. Canoeing, Rowing, and Small Boat Sailing. They left early every morning, rode the bus about 2 hours north to Lake Pleasant and then spent the entire day on the lake. They each had a partner for most of the boats and Colton ended up partnering with Mason N. (Mason is standing to the right of Colton in green) Colton is easily twice Mason's size. Poor Mason had to row Colton all over the lake. When they would race Colton would row and Mason claims he was the "motivator".

When we picked them up at the end of the day, they would smell so bad you couldn't hardly ride home with them. During small boat sailing they were in their own boats. Colton is so tall that his sail kept smacking him in the head. They were crashing into each other, the mountain and who knows what else. I'm so glad Colton had the opportunity to go to camp, and for his buddies that went with him.

Bear Flats Campout

Here we go again. The boys are working on their fishing merit badge, so the leaders took them up to Hon-Dah to catch some fish. Brother Johnson claimed this was a sweet spot! Nick, Colton, Dayton, Chip and Noah
Apparently Colton decided he needed to chop down this stump

When he got home, Colton told me that they had been fishing in a certain spot, and no one was catching anything. They all decided to move downriver a little bit, but he stayed. Said he had a good feeling about that spot. Not long after the other scouts left, a wrangler came up and told Colton he needed to move immediately because they were bringing a head of cattle across the river. He moved and didn't think much about it, until the head of cattle showed up. (Colton is in the bushes on the far left of the picture). He had been right in the path of the cattle a few minutes before, and probably would have been trampled! Bless that wrangler's heart!

They fished their guts out, but not one of them caught a dang thing. Guess this means they'll be another fishing camp out soon.

Skinny Dippin'

So our new house has a pool YEAH! I know this will come as a shock, but Kennedy has been asking to swim naked since we moved in. Being the good mother that I am, I explained to her that that was called skinny dippin'. I kept putting her off when she'd ask if she could "skinny dip" thinking that eventually she'd forget. Yeah right. So the stars finally aligned for my little exhibitionist. Colton was at scouts and Landon, of course, was out of town. Whit and Kennedy wanted to swim, she asked again to skinny dip, and I let her. Whitley was appalled! She could not believe that Kennedy was just sauntering around the yard naked, and that I was just sitting there laughing and taking pictures! I say, you're only 8 once! When else will you truly not give a care in the world what your butt looks like, or if you have cottage cheese on your legs, or who's looking for that matter.

The Lizard Hunter

This is the kind of crap Colton does all the time. There are little geckos all over our yard (which is a good thing. They eat the gross bugs) Colton loves to catch them, and harass me with them. Luckily I saw him, and locked the door. The funny part is, the lizards don't seem to mind. They just sit there, and wait for him to put them back down!