Thompson Lake Camp

Every summer we go to camp with Joe's family for a week. This summer we were on Thompson Lake in a rustic little camp with a wonderful sand beach! Joe's sister wasn't able to come this year and we had a few run in with mice, but other than that we had a wonderful time! Lily and Eli slept together in the same room for the first time and that went far, far better than I expected! Camp with a baby is never a completely restful experience, but it was lots of fun and I got my fair share of relaxing time (including completing my yearly puzzle)! This post is well overdue (we were at camp over a month ago), but here is our week in pictures!

Our niece Lacey

The girls loved running off of the dock and jumping into the lake. Brenna wasn't so sure at first, but after watching her fearless little water bug of a cousin (and with uncle Joe waiting to catch her at the end) she went for it!

The fearless little water bug herself!

They did this over and over and over again!

The very first afternoon we were at camp I was getting things ready for Eli's nap and he fell off the bed right onto his head. I was literally standing right next to him by the bed, but I turned away for just a second and down he went. Of course I felt absolutely awful. Especially when he woke up from his nap looking pretty bruised and scraped up. Thankfully he seemed no worse for wear and was right back to being his active little self!

Have I mentioned before that I adore it when babies have cute little things on their bums? Well, I do. This hasn't been my first picture of it and I doubt it will be my last...but I just couldn't resist when Eli and Holly were both sporting cute little faces on the same day (not planned)! Unfortunately our little ones were not cooperating with me and this was the best picture I could get!:)

I think you might agree with me that one of the best treats of summer is ice cream cones! So one night after dinner we wrangled up the kids outside and let them go to town with this messy summer treat.

Can you tell they enjoyed it?

Moments after I snapped this picture Lacey started eating the ice cream with her hands!:)

Joe and Eli enjoying the lake the same night after dinner.

Every year at camp I can't help but marvel over the sunsets.

Camp at night

These foam blocks got used (and chewed on) by little ones every single day. Every morning (before it warmed up enough to swim) they would get dragged out to entertain the babes. And for the older girls? Well, we found great success with a couple packages of stretchy bugs from Walmart (they can be found in the toy dollar section and are a fantastic toy with many uses). The girls had many "stretchy bug hunts" around camp! And just so you know it took many attempts to get this picture- every time a tower was built one of the girls or Eli or Joe would come and knock it over before I could get the picture!:)

Joe took Lily and Brenna each on their own early morning canoe ride one morning.

Ooh, I just adore this picture and this memory of Lily, all dressed up, doing a little dance on the dock while she waited for Joe and Brenna to get back in the canoe!

One morning we went with Donald and his family to a farm and petting zoo nearby.

The donkeys were Lily's favorite- I can't quite remember if she was talking or "hee-hawing" to the donkey here, but this picture just makes me laugh!

At the farm they had this wonderful little kid's area- which came in all too handy while we waited there for our lunch! The kids had a blast playing on the all the ride on toys! Here's Eli on his first "tractor" ride!

No, I didn't place his hands on the wheel- I think that driving tractors must be a basic boy instinct!

This is my absolute favorite picture of the girls from camp! Could they have looked any cuter peeking out from this little wooden car?

Girls get to drive tractors too!

While at camp I was trying to complete the alphabet assignment for my photography class (we had to take a picture of each letter without using any actual printed letters). This is my "Q" that I found in some old chains next to camp. Everybody in the family was helping me find letters all week. I'll spare you the whole alphabet, but in case you are wondering I did use the deer antlers above for "W", the foam blocks for "O", and the ice cream cone for "V." Oh, and the crosses below I made for my "T"- I kind of love how they turned out!

Eli finding Lily's toes

About a week and a half before coming to camp Eli starting pulling up on things to stand!

Flying!

The whole week Eli spent most of his lake time in this little inflatable boat! He did go in the water some, but it was often pretty wavy so he enjoyed this even more! In fact, my very favorite memory from camp this year was the first day we put Eli in this raft. Everybody else was playing and I was holding the raft while Eli just bobbed along with the big waves. We were out there for quite a while when I looked over and realized that my sweet little boy had fallen asleep (sitting up with his head resting back against the boat)! Adorable!

I loved these flowers so much that I just couldn't resist picking one and snapping a few pictures of Lily with it (I didn't even realize until after I took them that the flower matched the flowers on her dress perfectly)!

Lily just loves flowers and discovering nature in general. She took a few nature hunt walks this week around camp- looking for and collecting all sorts of rocks, flowers, micah, and berries!

More Eli in the sky!

The sandy little beachy area extended well up into the lawn and much time was spent that week digging in the sand (and during this day making a "sand trap")!

On our last day at camp (when it was just us and Joe's parents) we spent the evening at the Casco Days Fair! It was an adorable little country town fair (not a single "carnee" in sight)- just some simple rides and games and food. Lily waited very patiently for the merry-go-round and loved it (Eli went too- riding in the backpack on Joe's back).

Lily and I rode the cutest little ferris wheel ever- she liked going up the best and I liked coming down the best!

Riding the firetrucks

So that was our week at camp in a nutshell- thanks for coming along!