Camping Trip

With church cancelled and life in general suddenly very open, we decided that we needed to unplug and go camping more often. It helps that in Clovis we are close to the Sequoia National Forest and the Sierras. One weekend in May we decided we should finally go. Camping with a 2 month old seemed a bit crazy but I figured that since I was losing sleep, I might as well be doing it in the mountains. I found an available campsite about an hour and a half away on recreation.gov and we went for it. It ended up being the best weekend!

We barely managed to fit everything we needed in our van. We definitely need either a bigger car or a cargo thing for the top of the car. We got there Friday night and got everything set up:

Enjoying this view:

Eli was SO excited to camp. He's been begging to go for years and didn't even remember the last time we'd gone. Here he is hanging out with Eve:

Nate chopping wood:

We had a lot of fun throwing Joe's hatchet and playing with Elizabeth's archery set. We all figured out how to throw it into the tree:

We also had fun playing on these fallen logs by our campsite:

Eve did pretty well on the trip. We tried to protect her from the bugs in our tent a lot:

It was pretty warm during the day so she was fine. Look at this chubby goodness:

The nights were another story. I hardly slept at all. It was pretty cold at night so I'd bring her into our double sleeping bag but then I was freaked out the whole night that she'd somehow be smothered. It was hard to feed her in the middle of the night while staying inside the sleeping bag in the dark, too. I've never mastered nursing while lying down with my babies. Joe and I were a little better prepared the second night with layers so it was a bit better. 

We made beef stew and cooked hot dogs and made lots of s'mores. One day the kids and Joe walked over to Hume Lake to fish, swim and kayak. Eve and I caught up on sleep and then we walked over later. 

The girls had fun swimming across the lake. Apparently, Eli took off in his life jacket wanting to swim across the lake so all the kids did it once. Then the girls did it again. Natalie decided she wanted to swim across and back one more time:

She definitely got a good workout in!

Joe brought his fishing set (that he'd been given 8 years before and finally got to use) and he and Nate were determined to catch a fish. 

After hours of fishing on the shore and from the kayak, they still hadn't had any luck. Other people around them were catching some so it was frustrating. Still, they kept at it. I left with the other kids. Then, Natalie and Eli walked back over to them and right when they arrived, Nate had caught a fish! Joe was out in the kayak and so we're not sure exactly how it happened because the hook in its mouth was someone else's. We think he got the line that had broken off. Still--it was a good-sized fish! They brought it home and we cooked it up in the fire and ate it with no seasoning or anything. It was pretty good! We forgot to get a picture earlier and by the time it was cooked, Nate was weirded out by its eyeballs and didn't want to hold it. :)

We had our own little church in the woods and really enjoyed being together with no distractions. We'll definitely be back as soon as we can.

April

Everyone got lots of snuggle time in with Eve once they could:

We loved her alert times, too:

We enjoyed watching General Conference at home with a nice breakfast since we couldn't have Grandpa's omelets:

Eve's umbilical cord finally fell off and we all loved giving her her very first bath:

She liked it pretty well!

She didn't really like when we started dressing her up in all the cute hand me down clothes we got from my friend Megan and from other friends at my shower:

My phone is just full of tons of pictures of Eve since all the kids love using it to take pictures of her. Here are some of the highlights:

Natalie managed to get this early smile with her Gabb phone camera:

Joe decided that he'd shave his head while we were in quarantine. He didn't just shave it, though, he bicked it. The kids were all dying! They hated it. He did let them decorate it with dry erase markers one night:

Bald like Eve:

It did grow back fast and got to this length by the end of the month:

I love that picture with both of their arms up.

We got into a kind of a rhythm with school. The kids would spend the morning getting things done, we'd sometimes watch movies or shows during the afternoon. I loved this picture of all FIVE of my beautiful kids one afternoon:

At night we'd eat dinner and then we'd often try to get out of the house on a walk. Joe and I (or just me if Joe was in Clovis) would walk with Eve in the stroller while the kids rode their bikes or ripstiks.

Here's some shots from one night:

It was actually amazing how many people would be out doing the same thing. We saw a lot of our neighbors that way. Unfortunately Natalie took a spill on her bike one night and landed right on her hip. It was hard helping her hobble home but luckily she healed up pretty quickly.

It was sometimes crazy while Joe was out of town. Jaime was nice enough to send us pizza one night (and Dr. Pepper!). I was so grateful and snapped this picture:

I tried putting Eve in the carrier sometimes to get things done:

Of course the kids all helped with her, too:

Homeschooling was hard. Especially when they announced school was done for the year and that there wouldn't be any grades given--just pass/fail. No one had any motivation after that. Funny memes helped us get through quarantine:

Baking helped us stay sane. We entered an Our Best Bites giant cookie challenge contest a few times:

Elizabeth made this yummy chocolate cake:

Natalie typed this into Siri as a joke and I thought it was funny but true:

Snuggling Baby Eve helped us all when we were feeling down or frustrated with each other. Here are some more pictures we took one day:

And some more: :)

Elizabeth isn't in a lot of these because she had the most work. She did a good job staying on top of all of it.

Nate seemed to have the magic touch with Eve in the beginning. He would hold her and do a kind of vigorous, funny dance with her that she seemed to love. It would calm her down when nothing else seemed to.

Sucking her thumb:

She isn't a thumb sucker yet like her siblings. She's more of a binkie girl.

The boys had fun with the tea set one day:

We were able to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Allen one Sunday so they could meet Eve:

We knew it was a risk with Covid but they so wanted to meet her and we wanted them to get a chance while she was little.

About a week later, Marsha drove out to come help us for a week. We were so grateful!

First picture as a family of 5!

We weren't enforcing dressing up for home church at first so you can tell who chose to and who didn't. :)

Marsha was so helpful and even drove down to Clovis with Joe to help take some boxes. He'd take a carload every trip down for work.

The kids and I drove down to meet him one day so I could help pick out our new carpet. We all loved the house (it was my first time seeing it in person!) and the kids got in the pool immediately:

Eve and I watching them:

Eve liking the new house:

They were so glad to have something to do outside for once. 

Once school shut down for the year, and after dealing with our air conditioner at the rental not working and ant problems, everyone decided that it would be best to move down to Clovis early. The kids were really sad about not getting to say goodbye to friends but even if waited we knew we wouldn't really be able to. We decided near the end of April that we'd move on May 8th. Yikes--it was fast. I did as much packing as I could, and the kids helped a bit, but it mostly fell on Joe. He was a rockstar.

My time was mostly spent feeding, snuggling and caring for Eve:

And also catching up on sleep when I could.

It was a busy but pretty wonderful month.