Cousins Camp 2015

On July 10th Eric, Lilli and Carmi took a trip to Spokane Washington for 2nd annual cousins camp hosted by Grandpa and Grandma Turnidge. They had a great time. They got to spend four days with 6 of their cousins. (The camp is for all the grandchildren 5 and up) They also got to meet another cousin for Sunday dinner (since she wasn't old enough to come the whole time).

Carmi and Giraffe getting cozy.

Lilli is ready for takeoff.

Apparently Brownie got sick on the plane. Poor thing.

Balloons were a hit.

French braids by Aunt Holly
 

Lilli got a nice sunburn from a lot of time in the lake.

Lilli working on her balloon.

View of the lake from Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Carmi and Cousin Hannah.

  

Lilli and Evie

Gary (There are not many grandsons, Gary is one of four. Then there are 10 granddaughters)

 

Cassie

And then they came back. We were sure happy to see them. On Friday after we took them to the airport Jared kept asking when it was time to go get Dad. After the third time I showed him the calendar and said they wouldn't be back until Tuesday. He started sobbing.

A Little Red Dress

Lilli in 2010. This dress was made by Grandma Turnidge. Lilli LOVED it! She wore it as often as possible. It's pretty worn out so before I turn it into a craft project here is Nadia....

Afterwards

We went outside for a few minutes after the tornado to snap a few pictures. I thought it was fascinating that at 6 PM it had been as dark as midnight. And then at 8:30 it was as light as day.

(Notice on the side a spilled plant, our one fatality from the wind and rain) Luckily it was just an extra start from our massive aloe vera plant, we replanted it) The plants behind the kids are more then 10 years old, and boy they are tough! One of them survived getting frozen in Dillon, Montana!

 

The Time There Was a Tornado

I guess technically we live in "tornado alley" but in our three years here nothing has ever happened. Well late afternoon on July 1st I was at Walmart and it started raining, so Jared, Nadia and I decided to walk around the store a little bit waiting for the rain to slow down. Then I started hearing alarms. We headed for the door and one of the employees said in five or ten minutes they would lock down the store and get in the shelter. We hurriedly left. I figured we would be okay, home was less then ten minutes away.  Yeah, probably not the smartest thing I've ever done. We were in the car and I looked east and saw a funnel cloud coming down several miles away, but luckily it didn't come all the way to the ground. About halfway home the rain got crazy and I started to think maybe I should have stayed at Walmart.
As we pulled into our neighbourhood all the tornado sirens were going off. We got home and headed to the basement and watched updates online. The kids were definitely frightened. Lilli and Carmi mostly, since they have learned about tornadoes at school and had plenty of drills. The sirens finally stopped going off about 1 1/2 hours later. Lees Summit, which is the next town over south of us had some damage, as well as Raytown, west of us. The weather service later said it had been an F-1 (F-5 being the worst). I sure hope I never experience one of those!

Lilli and Carmi have really been into Monster High lately. I was very amused one night when Lilli and Eric went on a walk and apparently Lilli wished upon a star. Later that night she said "guess what I guessed for?" Of course I guessed that she wanted to be a vampire, then she got really upset because I had gotten it right. You know how  if someone knows your wish it doesn't come true? Well that led to yet another conversation about things that are real and things that come from someone's imagination in order to make an entertaining show...

Summer Movies

We have a local theatre that shows older movies during the week in the mornings for free. We've had a lot of fun going for the most part.

The first week we saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. Unfortunately Jared and Nadia weren't really into it (they lost interest when the popcorn was gone) so I had to take them out and spent half an hour chased them around the foyer and tried to keep them from climbing everything. The second week we saw Despicable Me, which is just great. All the kids loved it.

This past week Eric, Lilli and Carmi were out of town so I took Jared and Nadia to see Lego Movie. That did not go well. I think the movie was designed for an older children's audience. (boys I'm guessing, there were a lot of explosions..*snicker*)  So we left. We're looking forward to a few more weeks of fun theatre adventures....

One of Carmi's friends at school the past year loves minions, and he got Carmi to love them too!