Camp leftovers!

We had such an amazing summer of camping this year! Each trip just got better and better. This is my last Deadwood installment, so enjoy!

Right when we got there, the kids headed down to the water. Gorgeous! The water was really low because of irrigation, so we actually got a beach this year, usually it's just rocks.

Froggie friends from the beach. You can tell it's Kimo holding it because of his "nub" finger!

Elliott's eczema gets pretty crazy when we're camping. All the alcohol in the bug sprays and sunblock, and all the dirt make his skin pretty irritated. So, I needed to lotion him up, but first, I needed to clean him. Mike was nice enough to document the whole thing. I don't think I have many more years of him letting me do this, so eat it up!

Happy birthday Mikey! This year we celebrated Mike's birthday up there. Kimo made a dutch oven cake and Heather decorated it. Super-fun. No better way to celebrate a birthday. I don't think we'll ever be celebrating mine while camping...being in January and all!

One view from the Deadwood Dam.

And the other, sunnier view.

Lilly the fisher-girl. Thanks Kimo for remembering to bring the fishing stuff!

Elliott the fisher-boy.

Lucy getting her fishing on.
Mike and Kimo each caught a fish!!! We cooked them up in foil with limes, and they were RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING!!! One one was a rainbow trout and one was a cutthroat trout. I liked the cutthroat best, and not just because it was the one Mike caught!

What Elliott and Lilly do when they tire of fishing...pop tart break! Camping food is the best.

Lucy and Daddy pushing onward! They kept fishing when all the other kids had given up.

A natural spring where we got some of our water.

And, while Dad collects water, Lilly and Elliott make a dam. This was the camp trip of Lilly and Elliott playing. They were practically inseparable. My favorite game of theirs was when they strapped on all the glow sticks and necklaces they could and fought crime in the darkness. Very cute.

Elliott is our resident fire chief. Always looking after the fire...and poking it, putting logs in it, and burning things with it. Here is his fire stick. He is very serious about the whole thing apparently. And very dirty.

Finally the kids get the electronics! After 5 days of no games or electronic toys, the kids get to play on our phones on the drive home. This is the view we saw the entire 3 and a half hours. Oh well, back to the real world.

My Little Man

ELLIOTT HE CHOL HYNES

Alright! Here is my little man, Elliott! He is a fun camper because he is always so busy and game to eat any sugar he can get his hands on. When the doctor took him out of my tummy, the day he was born, Mikey looked at him and said, "we had a white boy!" He is our little white-Mike. He is so much like his Dad. He is compassionate and considerate...he sees people's needs and helps without being asked. He is the best hugger in all the land; his favorite is when he squeezes you and you say, "too tight...too tight!" He once ate so much candy while Aunt Ruth was watching him that he threw up; he would do that every day if we would let him. He is so smart, so focused, so curious, and so mechanical. He baffles me with his observations and train of thought. He still speaks like a little boy (speech therapy has helped a bit), and I kinda dread the day he will talk correctly...it still keeps him young in my eyes. My favorite expression of his is his response to being teased or told something extraordinary. He says "really? really Mom?", but of course, it comes out "wewie? Wewie Mom?" Very sweet. He tilts his head and grins a knowing and all-believing grin. He is our dreamer, he believes he can ride with Spider Man to the moon, and I won't tell him he can't. He is my little man.

Here he is at camping. I think I was trying to get a shot of how dirty he was after sliding up and down the hill to the lake.

This is his quintessential grin! This is the look that makes me melt. Young women will swoon at that cheeky smile someday.

Again, my kids not loving the mutlitple shots of them in the car on the way to camping.

You can still see a smile in his eyes...his angry face isn't convincing yet, and I love it.

Ahh, the sugar. I let him have a jelly powder donut while camping....I couldn't resist a chance to see just how dirty he could get! Here are the many faces of Elliott eating a donut.

He is so animated and so full of life. He breathes optimism and joy, even in eating a donut!

Here he is whittling a stick. Uncle Kimo and Uncle Jason were whittling away, and being the curious, industrious boy that he is he had to give it a go. I gave him a butter knife to work with. It kept him busy for a while, but he soon realized it wasn't creating the same results!

That's him though. He sees something, watches for a while to see how it works, then gives it a go. Always doing something.

Here is his nightly fishing in the dirt.

While we all sat around the fire chatting, Elliott took the opportunity to brush up on his casting skills. He fished in the dirt for a good 45 minutes a couple of nights. Very rarely do I hear him say,"I'm bored", he is always coming up with something interesting to do.

Here is something he found to do...monster truck towing. Give a boy a bungee chord, and two toy cars, and he can do amazing things.

Amazing.

We had a lot of fun on this trip hiding each other's "family dolls". I wish we would have taken a picture of each doll, but I forgot! Emily and Jason had a rubber chicken, the Wilsons had a family of skeletons taped together and decorated with camping brush, and we had Ken doll. We would hide them and find them constantly. The kids especially liked this. Here is Elliott modeling our family doll.

It kinda looks like Elliott in 10 years huh? Disregard the dirty, dusty, dried booger clinging to the edge of my son's nose...we are camping, remember?

That's my Elliott. Determined, loving, kind, creative, imaginative, innocent, dramatic and lovely. He is my white Mike--my color on Mike's face. He is all I love about Mike combined with such a happiness and innocence that I can't resist. He is my nap buddy, hugging man, and my joy. I love Elliott Hynes!

My Little Lucy

LUCY KHUMSU HYNES

I've decided to do something different to document this camping trip. I was looking through the pictures and I just couldn't help LOVING my kids so much! So, I am going to tell you all about my little Lucy while I tell you about the trip. Here goes!

This picture was taken during one of our after-dark glow necklace fiestas! It is a tradition the Wilsons shared with us and we love doing it. She looks way too old in this picture...I think it is the earrings. No ear piercings...EVER!

From the beginning of her life, Mikey has always loved the color of Lucy's eyes: he calls them "root beer barrel eyes". Ever since she was little, I have told her a story I made up about the girl with the root beer eyes and root beer hair; I think she ends up saving the world or meeting her prince or something! She loves it, and I do it in hopes that she will not covet any other eye color, but know that hers is beautiful and special. Look at those eyes...c'mon! They're gorgeous!

This is on the way to camping. She is too cool for me lately, and hence this look on her face. She CAN'T BELIEVE I am taking another picture.

I love that she can't keep a straight angry face though. All you have to do is make eye contact with her and smile, and she breaks into a grin every time. Such a sweetie.

We made friendship bracelets while we were camping. I think it was my sister Emily's idea, and we all loved it! This is Lucy's first bracelet. Joy and Heather taught her and she just pushed right along.
Notice who taught her how to make the bracelet. Lucy and I are SOOOOO much alike that sometimes information coming from me is deemed irritating to her. Thanks Auntie Heather and Cousin Joy for stepping in!

Here is her finished product and her proud grin.

She didn't stop until she was done. Very persistent and independent. It was a beauty too. It is still on her wrist weeks later and shows no sign of coming off any time soon.

Ahh, the geo-caching incident. Mikey and Kimo laid a night cache near our camp site. We were all walking there to help them set it up. Good thing to know about Lucy...3 days with little sleep and maximum stimulation makes for a breakdown. Here she is when I told her we had to hang back and take a nap instead of join them on their little adventure.

She is a Johnson like her Mom and doesn't like to miss anything. She DID eventually take that nap, but in the meantime, amid a meltdown that may have registered on the Rictor Scale, I'm pretty sure we affirmed Uncle Jason's decision to have no kids. But, she was an angel after her nap. Sleep is a good thing, I'm telling you!

Posing for me by Uncle Kimo's canoe.

I don't know what to say about this one other than it is Lucy: the pose, the Wellie boots, the expression, everything. Love her.

She started skipping rocks on this trip. The lake is just down the hill from our camp (a very steep and dusty hill, but not too big).

Lucy loves her dad. He is the rock-skipping man, and it is something they can do together. She and Lilly spent most of their time by the lake catching frogs, imagining, or racing (photos to come later).

Here she is contemplating the beauty of the lake.

I just wanted to throw that one in there to show you all what you're missing! LOVELY HERE!

Here is that race.

I love the look of determination on their faces! I'm just happy they still think exercising is playing! When do we grow out of that? Bummer that we do.

That's camping as seen through the life of Lucy. I love my Lucy; my little angel-girl. She is passionate, dramatic, considerate, sensitive, imaginative, rule-abiding and rule-enforcing, loud, kind, and everything that she should be. She is perfect the way she is because that is how Heavenly Father made her, and that is just how I like her.

Back again

We just got home from a camping trip at Deadwood Reservoir with the Wilsons and Emily and Jason: a Hylsonsky camping trip!! Anyway, those pictures will be forthcoming, but until then I have some quickies!!



This is a flower in my neighborhood. It may seem random, but I took it for my Dad. I thought he might like it.



Onion harvest!!!



The day after we got home, Dad took the kids fishing at a local pond. Success!! Lucy caught enough fish that even Harmony came to get in on the action.


Elliott caught some too!! His first catch!!
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Some of my favorite things

Here are some of my favorite things we have been lucky enough to do lately!!






A Piñata at Rowan's birthday party. We only have a picture if Elliott doing it because Rowan broke it on hid first shot!!





Stormy summer evenings; better with some thunder and lightening, but I'll take it anyway!





Lucy's hilarious tantrums. She had just played with my makeup, so she has mascara running down her face. The surest way to get get out of her funk is to take pictures. She can't help but laugh.





This is three favorite things in one picture. 1. Decorating things with stickers!! 2. Reusable laptop lunchbox/bento box to help save the earth 3. I can't wait to pack Lucy lunches for first grade!!! What yummy treasures will she find inside?!?!





We ran an errand for Dad that took us to the cheesecake factory right around snack time. What's a mom to do? The kids ate their pieces in the car. Elliott wanted the one with the chocolate swirl (turtle cheesecake).





Lucy got my favorite, lemon raspberry!!





Mmmmm, chocolate!!





I told Lucy how I used to sit in my garage and watch it rain. So, when we hot home, she hit the porch and watched our wonderful mini-monsoon (hey, at least Boise is trying!). She ended up coming inside to grab her coat, mittens, scarf, and a hat. Oh well, its a monsoon boise style. She snapped this picture.
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