Fathers and Sons Campout

Last year was Nolan's first Father's and Sons campout and he had an absolute blast! So when we moved into our new ward one of the first things we checked the bulletin for was Father's and Sons. To our disappointment though we only saw an announcement for a Daddy-Daughter camp. Long story short, we asked about it and they just don't do a Father's and Sons (totally LAME if you ask me).

Well anyway, Justin wasn't about to disappoint his oldest son so he made it happen! He called up a few friends in the new ward and talked them into coming. He also researched nearby camp sites AND even got up at 6am the morning of to reserve the site (which, if you know Justin, that's some serious love). I'm so proud of him for making this happen! And Nolan of course had such a good time with his dad!

 

Some of our friends actually brought their daughters too haha, but that's ok. Nolan just wanted to camp!

Justin was worried about taking both the boys, especially because the campsite was close to water and looked like a recipe for disaster with a, um, not so careful kid like Branson haha so he decided to wait until next year to take B. Branson was really upset at first when Nolan and daddy left, but I talked him into having a fun time with just mommy that night.

Actually my friend Emily ended up being in a bind and needing someone to watch her two little ones, Clint and Lillie so I told her to bring them over to play. So it wasn't just B and I, but it was still a lot of fun! After they left we settled into my bed and since Justin was gone I asked B if he'd sleep with me. Of course he was excited about that! I let him pick the movie and he picked Coco :)

The morning after the campout. 

Purple Dragons Soccer

Can we just take a moment to document just how many pictures I had to take of this kid to get a 'good' one? This is only about 1/4 of the outtakes! oey

 

 

  

One of Nolan's teammates, Cash, had a little brother named Harvey that was just about Branson's age and they loved playing together at the games.

They won most of their games because they had two kids that were really good, but the last week both of them were gone so we got our butts royally kicked. After the game Nolan was talking about how they won the game (for the record, they don't really keep score so he didn't actually know if they won all those other games or not, he just assumed). So I told him I didn't think so, he'd have to run a lot harder if he wanted to win the game haha. To which he said, "well, I'm the fasted kid on the team." It's actually probably the opposite (well who knows what would happen if he was actually 100% engaged in the game), but keep that confidence kid!

Justin volunteered to be the coach this year. What a good dad. He did a great job corralling the kids and helping them have fun during the games. Love him!

Nolan would.not.smile for his picture. Oh well, in hindsight it doesn't really matter, but in the moment I wanted to strangle the kid.

Trip to Minden to Visit Cousins

Poor Uncle Preston got dog piled!! 

Aunt Devin let the boys pick some veggies from her garden.

 

Branson has been liking Gecko from PJ Masks lately.

These boys swung on the swings for the longest time!

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A Day at Lake Tahoe

We tried to get up to a beach called Sand Harbor, but they only let a certain number of cars in the lot by a certain time and we missed the window so instead we headed farther up the mountain to the Donnor State Park and Museum and Donnor Lake.

We loved Donnor Lake and all agreed that it is a bit of a hidden gem!

The Donnor Museum - I've always been interested in the tragic history of the Donnor Party so I really wanted to go to the museum. Luckily everyone indulged me and I think had a good time!

You know I love little ice cream shops. We found this one (Susie Scoops) in Incline Village. Yummm!

 Letting the boys roam while we waited for the lot to Sand Harbor to open up.

The boys LOVED the kayak Uncle Preston brought!

I enjoyed it too :)

 

   

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Virginia City

On the way out of town we took a little detour to Virginia City - a 19th century mining town that started after the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver mine in the U.S. (I love anything western themed and in fact have read Louis L'Amour's book called The Comstock Lode!). Justin was sweet to let me go check it out 💙

The first store we went to we were looking around and in walked these two guys in period dress, one of whom looked exactly like Virgil Earp from Tombstone!

  

Mark Twain worked for the local newspaper and set his novel Roughing It in Virginia City!

Uncle Preston has done some work at the courthouse in Virginia City (which is apparently haunted!) #eek

 

The boys were acting like there is a baby in their tummy just like mommy :) Then they'd said the baby "popped out" and suck it in haha.

The drive was long, but so worth it to see our cousins! We love Preston and Devin and their cute family so much!