it's okay....

 My Suri dog is lying here on the floor next to my chair.  She just had a dream, she was yipping in her sleep, I reached down, patted her head, and told her it's okay.  Sunny came running over, sniffed, and gave her some licks on the face, just to make sure she was okay.  I know they are animals, but they are SO part of the family.

Yesterday, Camille and I went to the library.  It was a long, relaxing library visit, because Camille was intent on getting a stack of good books.  It's never fun to go there when you have someone with you who is tapping their fingers or sighing, rolling their eyes.  They don't actually do those things, but you know they aren't having as much fun there as you are, so you hurry it up.

We stopped at the store for cherries (yay for $1.99 a pound cherries!), and some chicken ($4.99 for 8 pieces of fried chicken, yay for that too!), and some chicken to make the Asian food they want. 

Home...ah, home.  A nice dark rainy afternoon, with library books!

The first squash from the garden...we are going to be drowning in them soon.  

Paul's sister sent me these, wasn't he just so cute?

Hurdles in high school...

With his old dog, Hoss.

Anyway.  It's hot and humid and sunny, and I'm thinking about what to bring for our vacation this weekend.   I usually just start putting things in a pile on the table when I think of them...this isn't as complicated as going camping, since the cabin is stocked with pans, dishes, bedding, ect.  

When our kids were little, we took them camping.  It was hard.  There were all sorts of stages of difficult.  We tented for the first few years, then decided that if we were going to camp, we needed a camper.  Our tent trailer/pop-up was brand new, luxurious, and fit us from when Ben was a baby (Emily, Abigail, Benjamin), to when Aaron was a baby, Aaron was #6.  We traded it in for a 35 ft. tow-behind with triple bunks in the back.  We hitched it up to our 15 passenger van, and then more children were born.  23 years ago this summer, Emily was 13, Abigail 11, Benjamin 9, Mariel 8, Joseph 7, Aaron 5, Molly Rose 4, Samuel turning 3, Margaret 19 months, and Kathryn 4 months...we went to the Adirondacks.  I remember that camping trip because Kathryn was at a fussy stage, and Margaret was at a wandering stage.  Sam wasn't quite 3 yet, and he was still a force to be reckoned with.  Molly had just turned four in March, and was still little too!  Aaron and Joseph were crazy little guys, at five and a half and just turned seven...oh, we had our hands full...then for the second weekend we were there, Emily and Abigail left for a girls' camping weekend, leaving us with 8 kids, 9 and under.  We left one day early, in the rain.

Also on that trip, Paul took the older kids for a hike up the mountain.  I stayed at the campsite for nap time, which turned out to be a huge non funny joke, with Sam, Margaret, and baby Kathryn.  Our site was on the water, a steep incline, what were we thinking?  Margaret was on the go!  I just remember being there and being a bit overwhelmed...chasing her, carrying Kathryn, putting Sam in the high chair and feeding him lollipops...bad mom award, ha.

But, as I tell my older kids:  When you have kids, you take them camping for them.  It's a gift you give your kids.  If you happen to get any rest, have any fun, get some sleep, then good.  If not, remember, it's not all about you.  The memories are priceless.  If we had waited until this one slept better, or that one wasn't so busy, then we would have never gone camping.

Now, we're back to tents again.  We're only going one weekend this year, in August, but it should be a good one.  Ben  and fam have a campsite too, as well as Emily/Abigail/Mariel.  I think Molly and Josh will be there for at least one night, and Margaret and Adrian might pitch a tent. 

Anyway.  Sometimes here you can only hear the dogs snoring and the birds singing, and it's strange.  

Here are a few pics Kathryn took of Achilles, and baby Rhys.

With his stuffed dog!

...and with his baby sister.

Ah well, there are things to do around here...