Brooke at camp

Wanted to share this fun little sampling of a moment at camp that I had while watching Brooke.

It shows her personality perfectly.

While she is tall and gorgeous, she's also a bit uncoordinated and not much for upper body strength.

She loved the swimming hole. We were there every afternoon.














She got out to the floating rock climbing wall.















And tried and tried to get on it. I'm not sure I could have gotten on it, that round tube part at the bottom would spin when you would grab it. I didn't see a lot of kids on it the whole week actually. But she tried several times, giggling everytime she fell back in.

Then she decided to swim over to the rocket thing and try to get on it. I watched her try for about 20 minutes. Her friends were trying to help her out, and she was trying her darndest but just couldn't do it. Giggled everytime she fell back in.














Finally, she swam over to the floating dock, and got right up the ladder, and proceeded to have a blast out there, jumping in, hanging with friends. Giggling the entire time.















That's one of Brooke's best qualities. Her exuberance for life. She just had FUN. Even if she couldn't get on the rock climbing thing. Or the rocket. She had fun trying, then found something she could do, and had more fun.

I love that girl's spirit. It was such a joy to get to watch it in action from the sidelines like that. 

Too bad I wasn't a nice enough mommy to swim all the way out there in the 75 degree water to help her get on one of the inflatable things :)

It's been over two weeks since I've done a 'real' post! Even longer since a Disney recap!

We're packing all the fun we can into summer! It's off to an awesome start!!!

Here's a bit of what we've been up to, courtesy of the iphone!

We attended a gorgeous wedding....

I made this fabulous cake for a friends' daughters birthday

Then I packed like a crazy woman so Brooke and I could go to Kidzworld Camp! It was her first year going, and I was lucky enough to get to go as one of the counselors! What a huge blessing it was to share my love of camp with my daughter!!

It was an awesome place, with a spring fed swimming hole (that was COLD) that had paddle boats, floating dock, a blob, waterslide... plus so many other things!

But the best part was making connections with these 140 kids and all the counselors, learning about the beattitudes, and rocking laser filled worship times done Kidzworld style. It was so wonderful!

We've finally discovered the Shave Ice hut... and have made several trips there already!

I got to spend some time hanging with my dad last weekend....

and my stepmom too! We had a fun time All Star Sports playing putt-putt golf, bumper boating, and go-karting.

Some father's day time with three fathers in our life...Matt, my dad and Matt's dad.

We've hit the pool several times already....

And today we went bowling with some friends after a morning at Vacation Bible School. Have you checked out kidsbowlfree? You register your kids and the bowling alley near you, and you can print coupons every week for TWO FREE games of bowling PER KID, EVERY DAY! So you just have to pay shoe rental. Fun, inexpensive outing!

We're a month into summer, and I'd say it's been packed wonderfully full! AND, not documented in photos (but video), is the time we have spent bike riding! Finally got Brooke off those training wheels and have done a lot of parking lot bike riding! Coming soon, family bike ride thru the neighborhood!

So, what have you done so far this summer?!

Summer Organization

I have found that I am very "type A" with everything but my house cleanliness/organization. Events, little details, planning...totally type A. My house, not so much!

But it did come thru recently when I decided to defend my home against the invasion of the flip flops! With three girls around here, they were all over! So I took a $6 over-the-door shoe organizer and hung it in the closet by our garage door. It is now home to flip flops, sunscreen, bubbles, and bug spray! All summer staples around here!

Hmmm... What should I attempt to tackle next?

Friends on the zipline

had the honor of being a camp counselor with our kids from church this week. Brooke had several friends there, and I was able to get a video of her buddies Tanner and Devon doing the zipline!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Disney 2012 Post 4: Magic Kingdom

I have been a bad bad blogger.

I blame it on our mouse. I can't tell you how many times I've sat down to do a quick post/update and lost all my time fighting my computer mouse. It double clicks when it's not supposed to. It doesn't click when it is supposed to. Highly inconvenient for blogging and many other things.

Finally I had an epiphany tonight to take the wireless mouse from the laptop and use it on the desktop (where all the pictures are stored). So far so good, as long as it doesn't wreak the same havoc that trying to install the desktop's printer onto the laptop caused earlier this week (another 2.5 hours of my life gone).

But, finally, and before I take off for a week of church camp with Brooke, I am getting another Disney blog post done!

Tuesday was our first morning at Magic Kingdom. At this point, the girls are still doing great at getting up and moving. No surprise here, somehow my children are morning people. That apple did not come from this tree!

We got to MK before it opened so we got to see the opening show where the characters arrive by train. I took a few pics, but thought I'd post this one of our friends Chip and Dale. Ever since this moment on our cruise last year, Hannah has been in love with Chip and Dale.

We trucked on down mainstreet, got a few pics in front of the castle with no one around. (but really, how pics of us in front of the castle do you want to see)?

I do love getting shots of Cindy's place from fun angles though!  

We walked right onto Peter Pan (which usually has a pretty good wait by mid-morning), and then Snow White, the Carousel, Small World...then we headed over to new Fantasyland again to hit the Barnstormer! The Great Goofini has taken over this runaway airplane for a fun ride! Hannah loved it (brooke tolerated it), and we had so much fun, we got off, walked around and got right back on!

Have I mentioned that going the first week of May is great?  

My half-hearted attempt at some pics over the construction wall of the new Fantasyland construction area. I was on a rollercoaster- no miracles here! :)

We headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz, eat some popcorn (great 10a.m. snack, right?), and rode the People-Mover while we cooled off and contemplated our next stop.

Like how this picture framed out: 

We thought it was high time to mosey across the park to hit Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain.

We love this ride (brooke won't admit to actually LIKING it, but I think she does. However, given the choice, she'd probably just ride Small World, Peter Pan, and the Carousel all day long).

Hannah LOVED Splash Mountain (she's got no fear I tell you). Matt got the wettest (he was in front with Hannah).

We grabbed lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Matt and I had fish-n-chips and the girls had nuggets and such. Wasn't too bad. We went upstairs to eat and there was hardly anyone in the upstairs dining area.

By lunch time, we had hit pretty much all we wanted to so far. Pirates of the Caribbean was closed, I didn't want to do the Jungle Cruise for some reason, so we just headed on back to the hotel for some chill time.

Love this sign that is over the entrance tunnel to MK.  

The afternoon was the usual bout of activities.... resting, swimming, etc. Brooke played some pool games that they had going on, and we spent a lot of time on the water slides.

That evening, we were off to one of our regular stops, Chef Mickey's, located right in our hotel. This is a buffet with some of our favorite friends stopping by the tables to visit.

Brooke thought Donald seemed shorter than last year, I told her it was because she had grown so much!

They were very happy to see Minnie.  

Minnie putting the moves on Matt. 

An oreo mousse bonbon thing from the dessert buffet. Brooke thought the ears were cute, and I thought she was right!  

After dinner we hit a few more rides back at MK, then settled in for an early night. My mom and stepdad were arriving early the next morning and we had another day of fun planned! (duh, we were at Disney!).