Picture-heavy post coming up

So, the camping thing turned out differently than I expected. My allergies are still pretty bad, so instead of sleeping in the tent, I came home every night and slept in my bed. I know, what a baby, right?!?
Here's the camping setup:
We had too many tents- Walker brought his tent up, and he slept by himself. His is the little greenish-blue one on the right. The big tent in the middle was for Jared and I, but Hyrum ended up in there too. Oh, and all the food was in there as well, to keep it out of the rain. Did I mention it rained a few times? Yep. And I had to sleep in my bed. Darn it. Then the dog kennel, which we put Kachina in when it was raining, or when the bull was close by. Okay, the green dome tent on the left was for Morgen and Hyrum, but Morgen got it to herself after Hyrum went and slept in Jared's tent with him. So, just to recap: 3 tents, 4 people, 1 kennel and 1 dog. Plus some cows, steers, calves, and one bull.
This is part of the pasture we camped in. Those trees are HUGE, and old, and there's an old plow stored under one of them that the kids like to climb on. They sit in the tractor seat and pull levers, pretending to drive it around.
The tree on the other end of the row [far away from the old plow to prevent accidents] has a nice swing in it. Jared threw a rope over one of the highest branches, so the swing has a huge arc. But it never gets too far off the ground which makes it safe for the little kids. Our kids fight over who opens the gate into the pasture, because the gate-opener gets the first turn on the swing ;)
On the east side of the pasture there's a little creek to splash in, and my kids tried to catch minnows and waterbugs this year. They also played in the mud and made dams with rocks, and completely soaked themselves. And, Walker lost a shoe in the creek. It happens every year- Morgen lost a shoe last year- but so far they've been the cheap flip-flops, so I'm not too upset.
My mom's cousin has some cows in the back half of the pasture, and Morgen spent almost an hour coaxing one up so she could feed it out of her hand. :) She also spent a lot of time chasing the cows out of the picnic area. Thankfully she was smart enough to wait for the bull to leave before chasing the rest of the cattle! You can just see her purple jacket in this picture.
Hyrum raided the woodpile for weapons. This is his bow and arrow. Notice that the bow is unstrung. That's because Hyrum's most powerful weapon is his imagination :)

Morgen's got a pet grasshopper: Peppermint. She pulled its back legs off accidentally when she first caught it. She brought it with her in a jar, and gave it different grasses and leaves to see what it liked best. My favorite part was when she set the grasshopper down on the table and told it to stay. It did. Probably because it is impossible to hop away if your back legs are missing...
Walker spent a lot of time playing with the fire. I ruined his fun by banning him from further fire play. Then he rearranged camp- moving logs and rocks around until he was satisfied with their placement. He takes after his daddy- can't sit still if you paid him!
I came back one morning to find this on the picnic table:
There was a wasp's nest between the leg supports, just under the top of the table. Jared sprayed it to kill the wasps, then he and Walker opened it up, pulled out the wasp larvae, and dissected them to see what stage they were in. Ewww.
Having 3 tents came in handy on the rainy days. We used the space in the big tent to eat, and played cards for awhile one night.
Remember how I banned Walker from playing in the fire? He didn't believe that should include blowing on the fire to [supposedly] keep it from burning out. Hyrum was roasting a marshmallow for his S'mores, and Walker very helpfully blew ash all over it and everything else on the other side of the fire. It's a very good thing that the ground was still damp.
Overall, I'd say that the camping experience was a hit. Jared got a lot of good fishing time, and the kids came back absolutely filthy and sunburned.
My mother-in-law's family had a reunion this past Saturday- lots of fun and games. I was painting faces, so most of the time I had a paintbrush in my hands instead of a a camera.
We had Morgen's birthday celebration early because Jared's in AZ this week and will miss her actual birthday.
She got a drawing pad from Aunt Melinda. Jared found a fishing net just like his for Morgen to use on her bug-catching expeditions.
She also got a new bike:
Here's a picture of our front yard. We're renting for a year, to make sure Jared can handle the commute to SLC from Heber.
And I am *this* close to buying this rental house, just so I NEVER HAVE TO MOVE AGAIN. I hate packing.

**just got back from the ER- Walker cut his thumb on a rock. Yeah, I didn't believe him at first- how do you cut your thumb on a ROCK?!? But it was definitely deep enough to need stitches, so we drove quickly to the hospital, and 3 stitches later we're home and he's playing games with the family. Honestly, every SINGLE time Jared leaves town, we have some kind of emergency like this!

Gratitude List:
* We're down the street from the hospital, so the ER trip was quick without me breaking speed limits.
* We have insurance to cover this emergency.
* As far as emergencies go, this could have been MUCH worse.
* My in-laws are visiting, so they watched the other kids while I went to the ER.
* We have good food to eat, shelter, and Jared's job is secure.
* Through a major coincidence, I was able to get a phone number for my best friend from high school. I haven't talked with her in 10 years, and hearing her voice almost made me cry :)
* God is good. We are blessed.