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As we arrived, the Ulvelands had brought special bags for our kids to paint bird houses.
Walter here has paint all over his hands and face.
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Henry and Gracie with their matching sunglasses.
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Walter working on his bird house (inside the shelter).
Henry doing bum drops and launching an air rocket
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Henry and Gracie painting their bird houses.
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Izzy and her friend Ava inside our hammock. The hammock turned out to be a great 'second space'
to give the kids somewhere away from the other kids so it was totally worth bringing.
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Campfires are definitely a big hit with Walter as he and Jackson light their own fire in a small pit.
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And then Jackson tried to roast marshmallows from his pit fire.
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Henry's molar came out while he was eating pretzel sticks. This is him in the outhouse taking
a photo since there wasn't a mirror in there to look at.
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Yup, the XL candy straw of sugar! Five bucks well spent!
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And these two rocked out the same sticks too. Note the use of the walkie talkies to keep the
kids semi-in contact. It doesn't quite reach the beach though.
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I'm not sure why this photo is so awesome, but Jackson with his helmet, his shovel, his
oversized gloves, and his smile make this awesome. His dad calls him a 'unit' and this
could be his action card.
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Gracie and Henry on the lawnmower-powered merry-go-round. Now charging 50 cents a ride though,
they still give you your money back if you can land your shoes in the bucket.
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Ice cream at the beach is pretty awesome! All of our beach days were over 30 degrees and without a
cloud in the sky making it one of the best camping trips here so far.
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Walter crushing a Gatorade. It's always a challenge to keep kids hydrated over a ~5-7 hour tour
at the beach. Bringing the shade shelter though was pretty key.
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Walter likes getting buried in the sand since he says his legs are 'warmer' that way.
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The candy store is a big draw for our kids. This year was the first time that the kids could
ride their bikes there unaccompanied and buy their own crap candy.
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NEEDING some cooling off after hitting up the Wed market.
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A VERY hot day means that Old Mac actually turned on a sprinkler by the ice cream store for
patrons to cool off a bit.
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It was so hot one night, we decided to do an evening swim as the sun set. It was still well over 30 as the sun
went down, but these kids thought that was cool.
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Walter and Jackson having some tasty soft serve.
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Blaine and Erin and their kids + Ava so that Izzy had a friend to play with too.
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Natalia French braided Ava and Izzy's hair, which they both LOVED!
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Walter and Jackson really 'leaning into' Old Mac.
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Family photos in our Tie-dyed T-shirts from this year and last.
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One of the rare moments that Henry and Walter actually played together on this trip. It's nice
they both have friends to play with but it's still nice to have them play together too.
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Jackson and Walter mining for quartz. I'm not sure why Walter got so excited with quartz on this
trip but he bought a necklace at the market with quartz and then he and Jackson kept running up
to me asking "Is THIS quartz?? Is THIS quartz??"
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Grilling ribs while getting hailed on for our 15th wedding anniversary.
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Natalia and I making dinner on our anniversary in a hailstorm.
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A view of our cooler getting some 'cooling' from a hailstorm.
New way to cool off the cooler
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Walter showing the size of the pellets. They were bouncing off our tent so that's a good sign I think?
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Kids get excited to light things on fire. After the isolated storm cell hammered our campsite,
it didn't take too much work to light wood and cardboard on fire.
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The kids threw in 'Funky Flames' and were thrilled to see the fire turn green.
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I'm not sure if roasting marshmallows on a metal-infused fire is safe, but no one seemed to mind.
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Gracie with a massive marshmallow jammed into a smore.
Henry and Gracie with their bike lights on
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Walter NEEDED to crush an arcade game the second he saw me get a quarter for change at the candy store.
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On the way home, we stopped near Red Deer to have lunch with my sister Danielle and her family
at the Little Red Barn. Here's Henry LOVING the frozen lemonade.
