I recommend the Disney movie Eight Below. It was a lot of fun and the story keeps your attention. Well, Rachel and Joanna weren't always engaged, but most of us were.

Oh, I had to geek out and use a projector to display the movie on our ceiling. We all laid down and looked up. Fun!

 

Day 2 - Full Day of Fun

Very cold at night - below freezing. Here is frost.


At this camp, we were served all our meals. Normally, we make our own, but it is okay to be served occasionally




Captured lizard.

Competition

One event was to catch a catapulted water balloon in a sheet




Another event was to build a fire.


The team had to build a fire with very little material that was no higher then the metal wire, but hot enough to break the string above it.


Bamboo spear throw. Cool!


Not an official event, but there is always time for dirt throwing


Ever heard the story The Crow and The Pitcher? Here we have to fill up a tube holding a ping-pong ball with water from a sponge. The boys have to fill up the sponge by running to the orange kid pool about 50 feet away.

We won this event!!



 

Elijah and I with the Royal Rangers from our church had a "survivor" camp-out at Camp Featherstone near Lakeside, CA.

Day 1 Arriving and Initial Explorations

 

I (Leslie) met some e-maginary friends at the Zoo today: Brown-Eyed Girl/Amy and SugarPlum/Heidi. I "know" them from the homeschool forums that I frequent. We had a great time, and the kids made some new buddies too! (though it was funny trying to figure out what to call one another; we finally settled on "Mrs Girl", "Mrs Plum" and "Mrs Yet" (since my screen name is NoUglyOneYet). I'm so glad that we were able to meet-up!!

First stop: the reptile house (eek!)



Checkin' out the Galapagos Tortoises (they're HUGE!)



Joanna & Heidi's youngest daughter check out the Gharial skeleton. They really hit it off and enjoyed playing together (the girls, not the skeleton!).



Amy gives Joanna a boost to see some creepy-crawlies. It was nice to have a kid-less mom along to lend a hand with all the little ones! (Amy was enjoying an adult-only vacation, and left her 7 kids at home in Texas!)



Amy teaches Rebekah how to make a rubbing. Rebekah is now making rubbings of everything! Thanks, Amy. :)



Elijah gets a little help in being a monkey.



Abby provides the boost that Joanna needs to be monkey-fied too!



The boy gang stops running amok long enough to accost the gorilla statue.




 

She loves her slide.





 

Les loves it when it snows in the mountains. She can pack up the kids and drive up to the snow and play. The key here is the fact that she can then drive home and leave the snow. Sorry everyone else who can't leave their snow behind

Rebekah was pretending to be a snow leopard



Of course, Joanna had to do the same thing (it was a lovely day, and she got too hot in her ski jacket, hence the bare arms!)



This is pretty much what Rachel did the whole time--she wasn't so fond of the snow!

 

 

 

We had a combined birthday party for Rebekah (whose birthday was in January) and Joanna (whose birthday is in April) at Pump It Up. What a fun place to go!



















 

Elijah is now being taught cursive writing. Rebekah saw this and wanted to try it, so she did and she did a terrific job.



 

Les coordinated a little digital scavenger hunt for our friends at church. She came up with a list of items to find and then the team had to take a picture with the item. Afterward, we met at Dave & Buster's. We had a great time!

 

Leslie & the kids went on a field trip to Indian Hills Camp with our homeschool group. The kids took classes in wilderness survival & the web of life/food chain. The camp was really neat, and they all had a great time!












 

Our second fishing derby. Elijah, Rebekah and I went to Lake Poway as part of the Royal Rangers-sponsored fishing derby.

We didn't catch a thing, but we had a nice time exploring and enjoying the lake.







I guess Elijah was really hungry



 

 

 

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While in Blythe, we had a great opportunity to go to a birthday party in the desert. Leslie's friends from high school have a daughter just a few weeks younger than Rebekah, and they enjoy playing together. We were blessed to be a part of the celebration and had a great time! They brought along some cool little 4-wheelers too. We all drove / rode -- it was a blast!



Elijah gets suited up in his "armor", as he called it.



Elijah thinks he's going to get to ride by himself. Yeah right.





Mike with Rebekah. She *loved* riding the quad, and even got right back on after she & Mike fell off & rolled partway down a hill!



This is Leslie with Joanna. This is about as long as Joanna sat there--as soon as Leslie started up the quad & headed off down the road, Joanna started yelling "Take me back! Take me back!!" Poor thing, traumatized yet again by her mama's crazy driving.



Jess gives Sarah her cake while sister Alyssa looks on. Happy birthday, Sarah!



Ah, bliss. What more could a child ask for? This pic was taken right after Rebekah laid back and made "sand angels". Too bad we couldn't capture that on film!