The Brooks Family

Scott had some extra time off last week, so we packed up the kids and took a 5 hour car ride to stay with family in Spokane! It was so much fun. We loved every minute of it! The kids chased/talked to/scaredthelivingdaylights out of Joey and Coleen's two cats. We watched funny videos, cooked delicious food, colored and wrestled the children. They are still catching up on their sleep from our trip! Here are some photos of our sight seeing adventures:

Our awesome tour guides.

We went to a greenhouse at a beautifully HUGE Park. Please forgive my mullet hair!

Cutie pie Ella.

Olivia, who was too excited to slow down for pictures. This girl was running laps in this rose garden!

Ava Clair in her Pocahontas boots.

Makayla Rose Peanut.

This was love at first sight for the children. We drove past it, and then they would not stop begging to go on it. That is Olivia on the slide. So fun!

I love this picture!

This is a goat in the park that sucks up leaves and garbage like a vacuum at the push of a button. I want one for my house!

Ella Dear in her snow suit because it was so cold outside! We got to see snow, and have a mini snow ball fight, of coarse with Daddy.

These photos were taken on the way home. It was so windy! We pulled off on a rest stop, and let the kids run around and practically get blown away! I stayed in the car with the two youngest, and Scott ran around with the older girls, and spun them around in the grass. He is such a wonderful Husband and Father!

And such a cutie!

Ella and I playing in the car, catching snuggles when I can.

And this little girl in the red stretch pants cracks me up! :)

We decided to go camping this year in Eastern Washington for 4th of July weekend at Blue Lake, a place where I went camping in high school with some of my best girl friends. It was so much fun, and had hardly changed a bit. We choose Eastern Washington to make sure we would have some nice weather to camp in.

My dream tent, that I sweet talked my honey into buying at Costco this year. It was love at first sight! It's a 10 man tent with all the bells and whistles. And it was a great price too. (Come to find out, I know nothing about tents! to be continued... )

Our first day, we got in around 6pm, and set up camp. The kids played in the dirt while Scott and I set up the tent. There was a really sweet older couple nearby that were so good to us, and the kids. They let Olivia walk/boss around their dog for long periods of time. She really loves to mommy her sisters right now, particularly in disciplinary action (I have no idea, don't ask.)

I took the kids for a walk around the campground while Scott got things set up. With a trip to the bathroom every 25 minutes. Our little peanut, Makayla, also has a bladder the size of a peanut. Next time I am bringing the Winnie the Pooh training potty with us. Problem Solved!

We went for a drive at dusk to the Grand Coulee Dam, for the nightly laser light show. It was really fun to see, but the photos didn't really turn out, because it was so dark. Here is Scott telling his dad all about it. :)

We got back to camp and all went to bed in my palace of a tent. Scott and I woke up at about 1am to high winds. They were very loud. We could barely sleep. The kids kept waking up scared, and I would quickly calm them down, thinking the winds would die down. At about 2am, one of the tent metal poles broke, bringing down one third of the tent, on the side the kids were in. We decided to move the kids into the car to sleep with me, so we removed all of the car seats, and laid down the seats to a make a flat back seat area. We slept TERRIBLE. 4 children ages 6 and under and one adult in about a full sized bed, is not cozy at all. Especially when Ava likes to sprawl and snore super loud and Olivia freaks out when she is too close to anything. Everyone fell asleep in the car at about 4am, and the sun was up at 5. Scott slept in the tent, because there was no room in the car for him. I have to admit, I was jealous of him for a little while. It is a nice memory to have now, all snuggled up to the kids, but for the rest of the next day, I kept falling asleep sitting up. I would catch myself letting out a REALLY loud snore, literally so loud that I would wake myself up. And it happened all day long. Super awkward.

Scott fixed the pole in the morning with a butter knife and duct tape, and reinforced the stakes for the tent with better ones from the mini mart nearby. We got the children ready for the day and went to the campground park. It was nice to really watch the kids play. Without the distractions of day to day home life. That's what camping is all about I guess!

This girl LOVES the monkey bars lately. It's fun, because I remember loving them at that age too.

Here is Ella. She is growing up so fast lately! She reminds me of Olivia as a baby, with the wild hair. Those of you who have seen her killer bald spot know what I am talking about. She has a Mohawk, with a cute little goatee in the back from the sweet bald spot.

Next we went to the lake to let our little fishies make mud pies, and swim to the dock with daddy's help.

Makayla and Ella took naps on the beach with Mommy. Makayla is under all of these towels. I was trying to keep sunburns at bay. She was so tired that she slept for a really long time!

Next we went back to camp to make dinner, chicken that Scott cooked on the camp fire. Then we ate smores, with almond butter, (like peanut butter) instead of chocolate on them, for Scott's allergy diet. They are so good!

Ahh Yes, Where is Ava?

I don't know why this is upside down. But I can't fix it. You get the idea!

But as soon as the sun went down... more winds! And they were stronger than the night before. We said family prayers together, as we always do, making sure to ask Heavenly Father to be safe during the winds. We tucked the kids in bed, and we had the idea to pull the car right up to the tent on the side that the winds were the strongest. After we did this, we noticed all of the campers around us doing the same thing. We went to sleep, and woke several times just to what sounded like our tent about to rip into pieces. And the loud creaking of our tent poles. We kept hoping the wind would die down soon. At about 4am the winds shifted, and Scott was yelling me out of a breif sleep that the stakes had ripped off of the tent, and his side of the tent was coming off the ground. We tried to keep it down from the inside of the tent, with no luck. I ran to the outside and held down the poles as hard as I could while Scott tried to re secure the stakes. After a couple of minutes, we realized we were fighting a losing battle as the poles started breaking, with our children inside. Olivia was the only one awake, I don't know how the others were still asleep through this, but they were! I yell at Olivia who was crouched down outside with her blanket to go and get baby Ella. She is such a good big sister. To be able to be so scared, and still run into what seemed like a danger zone, and get her baby sister without a second thought. So sweet. Scott and I were trying to wake up Ava and Makayla from the outside of the tent by yelling their names, because if we would let go of the poles, it would roll with the kids inside. They had stayed asleep, snuggling with their arms wrapped around each other through all of this. Seriously the cutest thing ever, especially for the situation we were in. Ava wakes up after a while and shoots out the tent and into the car with Olivia. I end up letting go of the tent poles to get Makayla, and as soon as I do, the poles start breaking and the tent falls to the ground. Luckily, Makayla sleeps through this with none of the poles falling on her, and I was able to crawl in and get her. We all get into the car, with wide eyes and thankful hearts to be out of that wind.

We were able to watch the sunrise together as a family, which we have NEVER experienced before.

We can look back and laugh now, because if you look close at the picture below, Scott is in the car, only half awake, and in the background there are the other campers near by still in their tents, with a tent that was rolling away as I took this picture. Look at that orange tent! That would have been more sturdy than ours, but I can't see my kids sleeping through getting slapped in the face by our tent repeatedly, either. We packed up right after this, and drove home defeated, but also a stronger family because of it. And a little bit more humble. ;)

The next day, we returned our tent to Costco. And are now shopping for a pop up tent trailer. Ha! :)