Marsh the Mallows

We've had some really good times as a family lately...Jeremy has had more free time with only one class this summer. I love watching him and the boys together--they love him so much. Their favorite thing in the whole world seems to be "wrastling" with him on the bed. Here they are putting together Evan's new tricycle that he got from Gamma and Pa J for his birthday.
Evan calls it his motorcycle and I am wondering how I am going to remember to put it away every night to keep it from being stolen!

Sam's been drawing on the driveway a lot recently, and I discovered that he did this all by himself:
Jeremy took some high schoolers camping over the last 2 days and the boys and I joined up with them when we could--we had to work around a doctor's appointment for me and cooking dinner for a family of 11 who just had a baby. I think we drove 2 complete circles around Mt. Elden on Tues. and then drove another 9 miles on bumpy roads in the woods yesterday. I suppose that would put some women into early labor, but it seems to be a traditional part of pregnancy for me--with each child, it seems I have ended up bouncing down a dirt road and thinking, "Should I be doing this?" We joined the group for dinner and marshmallow roasting (or as Samuel called it, marshing the mallows). (Look at the girl's legs behind Evan...what???)
This was a sweet moment...til Jeremy told me that later that night the guitar got broken by a stump...now it is a bittersweet picture to look at.

A couple of the students were making "bombs" with plastic bottles and acid and foil and after a couple of them exploded near Evan, he had post-traumatic stress disorder and wouldn't uncover his ears the rest of the time we were there.
The next day, we joined the group (see, we conveniently missed having to actually sleep in the woods) at the Lava River Cave. Evan burst into tears when he saw the cold, dark, rocky entrance, but Sam waited for Jeremy to take him in and had a lot of fun. Evan ended up climbing in as far as we could go without a flashlight. While the students were in the cave, Jeremy had them turn off their flashlights and told them the true story of our friend, Tennessee Dan, who went into the lava tubes and his flashlight broke. He was in there for at least a day and a half, thinking he was a dead man, until someone happened to come in and help him out. Jeremy talked to them about how we sometimes feel like we are groping in the dark, but that God is near, etc.

On one of Jeremy's walks with the boys in the woods, Evan suddenly looked up and exclaimed, "Tree, see Daddy, right der, tree, tree," like he hadn't noticed that there were trees all around him the whole time.

Sam rode on the fun bus for one part of the day and Evan's heart was broken that he didn't get to ride it until I put on the Veggie Tales CD for the 100th time and found the last piece of cookie for him to have.

When we got out of the car at the lava tubes, these underwear were laying on the ground, and as a joke, said, "Sam, did you leave your underwear here?" and then turned to get Evan out of the car. When I turned back, Sam was holding them sheepishly and said, "Well here, Mom, can you just put them into the car for me?" Poor little guy, trying to be such a good boy! I can just imagine the mom whose kid had an "accident" there in the woods and she didn't want to bring stinky underwear all the way home in the car and just decided (like we all have at one time or another) that it would be easier just to abandon the soiled underwear and not think about it again. But at least she could have buried them or something.

Then we headed up to Snowbowl, where if you brought 3 cans of food, you could ride the ski lift for free. I had another, "Should I be doing this?" moment, but didn't want Jeremy to have to deal with both of our kids on the lift. So I went, and then just sat on a picnic table at the top while everyone else explored. It was cold but beautiful. Then our kids had a snot blowing competition with each other on the way down.