• Feb. 22, 2008
Would someone like to guess.....
....what this means for us August 2nd?????
For more Show and Tells, visit Mary at CANADAGIRL.
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• Feb. 1, 2008
What we have been up to..in pictures...
Show and Tell Friday with CANADAGIRL! Click graphic to see more.
What's that statement? "A picture is worth a thousand words". Here is what our days have been filled with.
Sean and baby girl catching up on some rest!
Daughter #1 putting curlers on her unwilling sister...
Trying to get some piano playing in!
Helping out with the chores!
Playing with the learning laptop.
Playing with army guys....
Getting a rare day of snow play....
more snow fun...
Tea time when the older boys are at AWANA...
Tea time for the doll too...
And FINALLY but the least fun...laundry piles that never EVER end....
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• Jan. 11, 2008
Cute pictures...
Click on the graphic to go to more Show and Tells.
I just thought I would post a couple of cute pictures today! One hint: when you have pictures taken, never plan to wear red! You have no idea what a headache it was to get the reds the right "red"! There are SOOOO many reds in this world! We had to re-arrange outfits and buy new ones for the girls so the reds wouldn't clash!!! AND another thing. I had this crazy idea to have the boys wear white ties. Do you know where you can find them? No where except online! (and maybe bridal shops???) Why do I always do this stuff to myself??? 
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• Jan. 4, 2008
2007 at a Glance
Click to go to Mary's Show and Tell. Here's a glimpse at our very busy year.
January: We started our cross-country move back home from NC back to WA state.
Is there any room for the kids? (Our stuff went over in a cargo crate later on).
View from a hotel in Dallas--two days out.
February: Welcome baby #5--our second sweet little girl. She looks just like me. 
February/March/April: Birthdays, birthdays!
May: On the go with the girls and our babies
June: The inevitable IOWA year-end homeschool testing.
July/August: Vacation at the Pacific Ocean
September: School starts!
October: Breadmaking day for school
Harvesting and cracking hazelnuts (filberts)
November: Touring the USS Turner Joy at the naval base
December: Cutting our Christmas tree
Son #3's birthday:
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• Nov. 16, 2007
Our day...
Today started at 1am. Last night at 10:30 I took my oldest son to the Emergency room because through tears and pain, he could barely breathe. I just felt at this stage (he had had a sore throat all day) that it was time to be proactive. Unlike other symptoms, not being able to breathe is scary! So into the car we went. We were admitted and saw the Dr. within 45 minutes (A SHOCK at our hospital I assure you!) He was checked and by this time he was breathing better. He was still running a fever of 100 even though he was on Motrin. The Dr. did a strep swab and said it would be really fast for results. By this time, I was thinking "GREAT, this is a QUICK visit, how wonderful!". They must have read my thoughts and decided to stay with the "Extended Waiting Time, No Extra Charge" policy. Just kidding!(I must note though, that the Labor and Delivery is a WONDERFUL department and the Emergency room should really take notes from them)The Dr. took 30 minutes JUST to come back from the lab and say, "they told me that it was the wrong q-tip". SO out came a longer swab and back into the throat he dug. Well, dear son knew what was coming this time, so the Dr. didn't really get a good sample. Back to the lab the Dr. escaped. And he must have circulated the entire hospital and the entire town before he came back again. During that time we waited and waited and had to listen to party next door over. (they were laughing up a storm and sounded like they were on vacation and THRILLED to be there) Dr came back. He said that the swab was negative for strep but he is going to give him amox. anyway because of the lack of a good sample. (son's throat was REALLY red, could not talk, and so tired all day long plus had the fever) So after discharge we went home and tried to get some sleep. I don't know how many times I woke up. You see, my youngest daughter has the flu. She had to be given electrolytes all night and was getting so hungry, considering she hadn't been eating much that day except for nursing and the eletrolytes. 7am came too fast for me. I woke up so tired and groggy. I also have been battling a sore throat just at night from a minor cold that son #3 had. So that, in nutshell is how our day started. Is it summertime yet where sickness is few and far between???? Counting down...
Pictures from our day:
Second son helping sister make a sandwich
My poor sick baby boy!
Naptime!!!!
This last one is of son #3. He is extremely detail-oriented. He makes his bed with perfection. All his fuzzy friends get all lined up around his bed and his covers are smooth. Every family needs a child like him!
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• Nov. 16, 2007
What do you think?
Show and Tell Friday is brought to you by CANADAGIRL.
I have five children, as you know. In truth, during every pregnancy I have longed for a dark-haired baby. When I was pregnant with my third son, (after having two pretty bald babies-son #1 and son #2) I even went so far as to buy a pure white outfit to put him in, just knowing that this son was going to have massive black hair and I thought that he would look striking in white with all that hair! Son #3 was born. He had a lot of hair, but blond! So much for that. (I fell in love with my blond baby just the same!)Then when I was pregnant with my first daughter, I thought "THIS baby is going to be my dark haired one!" Another blondie and a cutie at that. Okay. That didn't make any sense I thought! BOTH my husband and I are dark haired and dark eyed. WHERE are those genes for dark, massively thick hair that I inherited as a baby? Well, along came #5. I think at this point I had given up with the idea of a dark haired twin of myself. (rather vain I know) :) Well, daughter #2 was born and the second we saw her, my mother cries, "She has LOTS of dark hair!!!" Wow, a surprise! So what do you think, after five children, people say she looks just like me when I was baby. So what do y'all think? Is their any likeness? (Yes, mother, I am digging in the archives for that picture!) I guess everything goes to show, you just NEVER know what you are going to get!
my daughter
Me as a baby
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• Nov. 8, 2007
Our ocean trip in September...
We LOVE going to the ocean as a family. Here are some pictures of our trip. It was gorgeous weather and only started raining as we were leaving to come home!
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• Nov. 7, 2007
More pictures...
History and Math time!!!
My youngest son was in tears this morning because he couldn't get "out"!!! He was VERY stuck and after I got him out, he figured out how to pop in and out of this "tight" space.
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• Nov. 7, 2007
"Home sweet home"
I found my battery charger! I am BACK!!! Woooohoo... I know it has been ages since I have posted but now I have LOTS of new pictures to post! So I will spread these out in the matter of a few days. Today I decided to post some pictures of our "Home, Sweet Home". Some of our relatives haven't been able to see it yet and we just moved in this last spring. We are renting this house and we LOVE it! After buying and selling houses way too much in the last year, (that comes from moving across the country and back) we are thrilled with this place and hope to continue living here for a while. It is large and has plenty of space for the kids to run around. It has a HUGE yard and an industrial play set in the back. Our home owners are GREAT and we can't complain. Plus we are getting a whopper of a deal on the monthly rent. Sooooo here she is!
Entry way...
Living room
Kitchen
School room/playroom
Master bedroom
Girls' room (two cribs actually fit pretty nicely in here!)
Boys' room (two older boys have the bunks, youngest has his toddler bed)
Garage we turned into a huge playroom...my wonderful
father-in-law gave us tons of new carpet and padding from his hotel and the chairs!
(he is a manager at a large hotel here)
Extra bedroom that will be a guest room soon..right now it is toy storage!
Playset outside...
We also have another bedroom on the third floor. We told our oldest that he
could have it when he is 10, considering you have to climb up a steep ladder to get to it and we
don't want any late night falls!!!
Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is our "Home, Sweet Home!"
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• Oct. 4, 2007
Everyday in our household...
I really, really, have not run off forever! I have been sooooo busy with school with the kids! AND my digital camera batteries are DEAD. So that means that I either leave a boring blog post like this one or wait to get new batteries. :) It seems that I also have to be a lot more selective about how I spend my "free time" or I don't get anything done. (Well, I have to re-state that, because truly, as my mother can witness to, my laundry is NEVER done. EVER.) A soon as I get REALLY excited that all the laundry is put away, there is another load waiting for its turn in the washing machine because it is the end of the day by that time. :( Very sad, I know. I often say that I wish there were disposable clothes. Laundry stinks. That sums it all up.
Not a whole lot going on lately to talk about. Here is our schedule for our school days. Sometimes it is interesting to see other people's routines-here is mine. (general but not exact)
7am hubby leaves for work and I rest as many minutes as I can in my warm cozy bed,before I get up. :)
7:30am -kids get up and go downstairs. I take baby into bathroom with me to do hair, makeup (as little as possible)
8am- I boil oatmeal for breakfast. Yep, oatmeal almost every day.The kids LOVE it and would have it for breakfast, lunch AND dinner if they could.
9am dishes and clean up-Son #1 starts self work for school. (English, Spelling, Social Studies, Reading)
9:30-start school-(sometimes we start with opening,character quality stories and prayer) depends on the day. Geography with all three boys.
10am- baby goes to bed for nap. Blues Clues and computer school time for three younger kids and time for me to do MATH and HISTORY with son #1.
11am-baby wakes up and plays.
11:30 am time to fix lunch. (yep, you guessed it. Pea. butter/jelly almost every day) I can do it in my sleep.
12:30-naptime for daughter #1
1pm-baby heads to bed for another nap( ie:BOTH babies are in bed at this point!) Boys have their computer time downstairs-30min each. I go upstairs for 65 minutes of treadmill for four miles. I love this time. I get to watch whatever I WANT! Imagine that. An hour of downtime on my treadmill. :)
around 2:30- remind son about finishing school if not done yet. Work with younger boys with their school work.
4:30 start thinking about fixing dinner. (I do LOTS of crockpot meals-sure saves hours of cooking!)
5:30 Dinner/dishes and hubby spends time with kids. Family game time or activities sometimes.
7:30 kids start heading to bed. Later to bed. Repeat next day.
I also have the thousands of things I do in the middle of these times. Like breaking up disputes, changing diapers, cleaning up toys, nursing baby, dishes, laundry, fixing broken items, taking daughter to the bathroom, and the never-ever-ending list of ongoing chores that consume my hours. It truly seems like I can't seem to ever sit down for more than 5minutes without needing to hop up for something. However, I keep pondering a thought in the midst of this chaos. Even though some days I get so drained, I ask myself this question. "WHAT ELSE is there?" For our family, nothing eternally more important. What would I be doing without hubby or the kids? I have no clue. This is the life that I have wanted since I was 15 and it is incredibly fulfilling. For me, I can't think of a better calling than to raise three boys into godly gentlemen and two daughters into women of virtue. Of course my darling children are not perfect either. Far from. On Saturday we went to Costco as a family. (Yep, even with only five kids we get the stares...you should see the looks and comments I get when I am hubby-less...hah!!!) Anyway, daughter number one is still in "training to be polite in public" stage. She was taking her socks and shoes off and throwing them across the aisles. She then proceeded to pull up her long dress into a mini-skirt as far as it would go while she sat in her cart-seat. The baby, sitting next to her, had more self control than her!!There is something about 2 1/2 year olds that drives me CRAAAAZY!!!
One might think that I never have any time to myself...but actually I do. I sneak in time here and there to get on the computer, read a book , do whatever. I just claim the time when I can. :) Without downtime, I think I would really be a crazy person. :)
Well, it looks like this blog has become VERY long. Too long. So I am headed to bed on my carrousel now. The one that goes round and round and never ends. The one that has wild rides, exciting sights, endless adventures, and always keeps me on my toes. Pretty soon in a blink of an eye, I will get off this carrousel when the kids are grown, and wish I was on it for just one more time....
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• Sep. 19, 2007
Oh Baby!!!
(same baby, but the second picture is TRULY her! Don't get it? It is her sisters DOLL hair that has a habit of coming off, so we gave Julie a new hair do!)
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• Sep. 17, 2007
A 4 year olds worst day...
Everyone knows about "Pickles"-our Praying Mantis. Well, a sad day came last week to my four year old. (owner of Pickles)
Pickles died. Not the usual dead-because-he-is-old-death. No, it was a terrible death, I am sure. Well, his immenent death came one morning last week when my son took him outside in the sun (in his cage) for a "the flies in his cage like the sun" tanning-like session. Yep, I am sure you know what happened next. Pickles was left out all afternoon. He was a culprit of the worst sun soaking experience a Praying Mantis could ever have. After my son discovered the stiff, innocent creature he went into red-eyed, crying hysterics. I can't say I kept a dry eye either. Pickles had been so adorable when he pounced on those unsuspecting flies and held them in his little paws..er...claws with his little mouth moving oh so rapidly. He always ate in a most genteel fashion. Never talking with food in his mouth and always cleaned himself so precisly after his delicacies. Well, I have to say that there was ONE day when he wasn't so polite. It was the time he caught a second fly in his mouth when he was still on his first fly. I would say that he had a good excuse though. I think he was overly hungry from not having had enough flies the day before. Anyway though, we loved him and my son adored him. I tried to come up with a very clever way of consoling him (my son) but had a hard time finding what to say in this situation. Every mother should always be on hand with beautiful, dry-up-the tears remark. The only thing I could think of was, "He died oh so cozy and warm".
The day didn't end there. No, being so sorry for my little boy who had just lost his only insect friend in the world, I decided to go the fish route. So my son dried his tears in delight of the thought of owning his own pet fish. (yes, even a PET FISH is a big deal in our house!) I tell people, I don't raise pets, I raise KIDS! :)
Anyway Walmart, here we come. I packed all five kids up and took them to the the fish department. It had a limited selection. All the 25 cent goldfish were missing-hence the empty aquarium.(DId they, the goldfish, have advance notice ahead of time, that the Praying Mantis killers were on their way to collecting their next victims?) We all gazed at the other fish and deciced that the least amount of time and money for a fish was best. After the kids looked in excitement at the all the fish as if they were at Seaworld, we saw the Beta fish. They each had about 2/3 of an inch of water in a tiny container. Yep, thats my style. We will take them. Low maintenance, low feed, low death. My son picked his fish. My second son also wanted a Beta. He wanted one that was the same color as the one on the fish food container. So here I am going through 20 containers of you-can't-see-the-color-of fish-because-the-water-is-blue. My daughter was starting to lose it at this point from waiting so long and started to pull up a smile-face sticker off the dirty Walmart floor. I hate dirty floors.We decide that we found the right fish and all are happy. Except for the fish in the bottom of the stroller who are swaying in very little water on our way through the store. Well, when all was said and done, the boys were very happy at the end of the day.Even our fish are VERY happy now with five inches of water EACH. What an upgrade!
The story doesn't end there. My mother calls and is excited to tell me she has a new pet for my son in replacement of Pickles. She brought back a lizard from the inside of a friend's home . He was on the stairs and the owners of the house gladly gave him to us! Now my son is blessed in a double way. A lizard, a fish or two, what more could a little boy want? Just today he caught (my son)seven flies in his bug-catcher all flying around at the same time in the catcher and deposited them into the lizards habitat. The last time I looked, the lizard,( "Sassy",) was was hiding in a corner with his nose against the plastic, hiding from the invasion of flies.
We are now a very happy family of 10. (seven humans, two fish and one lizzard)
My happy boy with his flies...
Our easy-keepers...
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• Sep. 11, 2007
Pictures of our first day of school...
Here are the three boys doing geography with our overhead projector. We are doing the Evan Moore geography.
Here is one of the younger boys doing their computer work.
A special first day of school donut break...
Daugther #1's school work 2 1/2 years old..(I guess this poor gal on her paper didn't have big enough eyes so she had to put big smiley face stickers over the first eyes) :)
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• Sep. 11, 2007
Time to start school!
Today is our "BIG" day of starting school! We prolonged the start until today because I thought that the kids could use some extra "summer days" since the weather has been decent. However, today is supposed to be an a high of 89 here. That is just crazy for this state. After school today I am going to send them outside to enjoy these last few hot days. This year I have the tow younger boys starting school also. Tomarrow I will post pictures of our first day of school!
Today,someone I don't even know, sent a picture of our family that she took during our little town's 4th of July parade. It is kind of funny. She wanted me to take her family's picture during the parade and then said that she would take a picture of our's....Just today she sent it via email. I had forgotten about it!
Well, better go start our opening Bible Study/ prayer. The year is officially starting!
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• Sep. 2, 2007
Ten steps on how to weigh yourself on a scale while losing post-partum weight...
There is something about losing those last few pounds after a baby. I seem to get a little obsessive!
I guess it is worth a laugh! (and no, this is not my scale or weight, I just found a picture!)
Ten steps on how to weigh yourself on a scale while losing post-partum weight.
1.Gracefully and oh-so-carefully take her out of her cupboard. (if you treat her nicely, she might treat you nicely)
2. Dust her off with a soft feather duster.
3. Place her gently on the floor as if she were an article of glass.
4. Make sure your article of clothing is no more than one ounce.
5. Place a toe on her to make sure she works.
6. After you realize she is working, make one step upon her while at the same time you place a hand on the wall for balance.
7. Place the second foot up and the second hand on the wall.
8 Quickly let one hand go of the wall and slowly-oh-so slowly pry the second hand off the wall.
9. If the scale registers more than desired, do steps 1-8 all over again two more times.
10. The least amount of weight that is registered out of these three times is the true weight.
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• Sep. 2, 2007
Oh, Baby, the places You'll GO!!!!
Dear daughter, (who is 6 mos old and travels in her sleep without her knowing about it)
Oh my poor,poor baby.This book should be a comfort to you as we read it together. Knowing that you, yes you, are not the only one who travels so far and wide. I try to be a good mother to you. I try to give you the best I know how. But I also know that I make some mistakes. Please forgive me for these, and let us go on from here as we graduate you to the crib. Surely now, no harm can come to you! Your loving mother, Kristel
We have a.... ummm...rather unconventional way of putting our 6 month old to bed. Before I tell you about it, I should explain that she does not know what a crib looks like yet. She has one, but she has never seen the inside of it. It has been leaning in pieces against the side of the girls' room as an eyesore for months now. It moved with us to NC and then back again without being used before she was born. Hence, the hardware for it could not be found when we TRIED to set it up for her. SO, this is her routine:
morning naptime: Graco playpen nap in master bedroom
afternoon naptime: Graco playpen nap in master bedroom
early evening naptime: Graco playpen nap in master bedroom
evening bedtime: STEP #1-gracefully put baby in Graco playpen in master bedroom for the night, um, actually for only part of the night. STEP#2-When mom comes to bed, baby is now advanced to the Arm's Reach co-sleeper next to mom on the side of the bed, so mom doesn't have to go too far in mom's half-awake state. STEP#3-When baby wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, she travels once again, next to mom (middle of bed) to nurse. This is the routine every night. That is of course UNTIL this Friday when yet one more event happened without mom's OR baby's knowledge. A step that will never happen again to the best of everyone's ability!!! This event all started with a little stomach ache. No, not baby's, but son #1. (big brother) Son #1 had a terrible stomach ache so daddy had to sleep downstairs next to Son#1 in order to comfort him. Well, because daddy was NOT on the other side of the master bed, acting as a barrier on the edge of the bed when baby was on Step #3, (ie: protecting baby from the floor), it all started with a "clunk, cluck". Baby had rolled OFF the bed much to the shock of the horrified parents. Mommy RACED over and comforted her poor traveler in unified speed as baby's white-faced father coming up the stairs as if his pants were on fire. All seemed to be okay after a brief crying session of 15 seconds. Peace again as baby goes back into STEP #3 after the parents put a nice long bed rail on the side of the bed and check to make sure that she is okay. All is at rest as mommy assumes daddy is going back down the stairs to his post with son #1. Mommy wakes again at another "clunk". Not one clunk, but a series of weak sounding clunks coming from the garage . The time is 2:30am. At 4:40am, daddy comes up the stairs and shares the fact that he has procured the long lost hardware for the crib and all is in place and set up in the girls room. Mommy celebrates with a half-asleep cheer and daddy and mommy can now remove Step #1, 2,3, and unfortunate event #4. Baby can now end her midnight travels and retire to STEP #5- Sleeping in her own crib in peace-that is of course, until big sister wakes her up-three feet away from her....that might be another whole story....
What a terrible night we had. Thank the LORD that Sean found the hardware after a quick desperate prayer in the garage and set the crib all up! We feel like TERRIBLE parents, but I have heard from other moms, that this happens more often than not. (babies rolling off beds) You would think that this would have happened with the other four kids, but I guess I just escaped it all this time.
In the next couple days, I will post pics of her new crib! :) Kristel
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• Aug. 30, 2007
If the neighbors were closer....
...they may have thought I was performing an amputation by the yells they might have heard coming from my second born son. "DON'T CUT!!!!! DON'T CUT!!!!!!!" Yep, it was his turn again for the chair of honor. This duty is performed every six weeks. HAIR CUTS for the whole family. (or for whoever needs it) Come- one -come all. This is a date that our entire family has the same universal opinion about. We ALL dread hair cutting nights. I think my second born is seriously allergic to his own hair. He gets terrible rashes after his hair cut when the hair is touching his skin. He had to get by tonight without a perfect cut because he was crying so much due to being so itchy. He would not keep still! His hair line is a little crooked in the back now. I was so fed up with the ordeal that I just whipped off the hair bib and said, "That's as good as it 's going to get". He and I both were under the same opinion-no more. My first born ALSO was so itchy, I could not keep him still either. He was constantly moving all over. Thankfully though, he has so much hair that no matter what I do to his hair, it never shows any mistakes after a cut. Third born son, on the other hand, was the perfect little angel. Sitting oh-so-properly, he just sat and never itched. He would gracefully blow hair off his plasic protector for the fun of it and ask if he could have a sucker. "No, Honey, it is very sad but we don't have any more suckers"-I had to tell him. Suckers are our tradition. They kids KNOW that hair cutting comes with suckers. I better get some before next time! After the boys had cuts, Sean whisked them away to their showers. One more hair-cutting night a success. Well, make that a HALF success. I still have to even out second born's crooked hair line. And to top the evening off-Sean asked me, "Have you fed Pickles today?" (our praying mantis!)
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• Aug. 30, 2007
Posting more pics!
Here are the kids this August...and some other odds and ends...the bug is our praying mantis pet named "pickles" (yep,after having a horse and dog in NC, this pet is the easiest keeper of all!) The kids love him and feed him flies, bugs and ants. Here are a few family pics...
Our little "cupcakes" from left to right:
Camping at the beach
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• Aug. 30, 2007
New here!
Hi everyone!The first thing I want to say is that I am THRILLED to be on here and second, thrilled able to figure out how blog ! I am a homeschooling mother of five and have been married to my husband Sean for ten years. We have five children. I stay at home and my husband works as the Project Manager at Saint-Gobain doing Engineering and CAD Drafting with fire-rated glass. (quality,thick,glass that has liquid in the center for public bulidings, colleges and schools) His company made the glass for the sky-walk at the Grand Canyon. He loves what he does, which is a big blessing!
We are members at our local church and involved in the AWANA group there. I was born in WA and have lived here all my life except for a quick move-and-come back excursion to North Carolina for a year. (2006) I am looking forward to getting to know everyone here and excited to start a new school year. For our 3rd grader we are doing Saxon 3 Math, ACE English and Social Studies, Bob Jones History, Alpha Omega Language Arts, Apologia Science, Evan-Moor Geography, and Spectrum Spelling. For the two younger boys (4+6) we are doing ACE Word Building, Evan-Moor Geography, and some Reader Rabbit Kindergarten. We begin school the day after Labor Day , after a trip to the coast this weekend-which should be really nice weather I hope! We tried camping in August and figured we need a bigger camper to do any serious camping next time!Well, I am glad to be here!
