I'm Back....Sort Of....

Sorry to be MIA for so long.  The first few weeks of summer have been full tilt with not a lot of down time!  Our first week was spent camping with some very dear friends of ours.  She was my maid of  honor and her kids are the same age as mine and have known each other since they were born :)  Best part is they have a nice big fifth wheeler which made my dislike for camping (sorry camping lovers!) much more tolerable LOL! 

I love how the kids have so much freedom in the campsites. They were able to hop on their bikes and peddle around the campground, play walkie-talkie tag etc. - freedoms I had as a child and never thought twice about, but in this day and age many kids never get to experience.

The "big event" of the week was our 30 minute hike that turned in to a 4 hour hike since we took a wrong turn and ended up going to the far side of the lake rather than the near one!  The first hour and a half was some serious hiking - reminded me of the Grouse Grind we did last September only much longer LOL! Here are a few pictures - think we should have twigged in when they told us you have to get through a rock slide first by just following the orange spray painted lines LOL!
 

 The orange arrows on the huge bolders at the bottom!

Part of the rock slide we had to navigate up.

My tired daughter at the top of the rock slide portion of the hike.

At the back side of the lake - we could see it but we could not get to it as there were cliffs going down to the water.  This is where we decided to turn back - though it sure would have been nice to have been able to jump into the lake to cool off!!  Three hours up, one hour down!  Needless to say, we all slept reeeeally well that night LOL!

We also went up to the Whistler Village one afternoon.  The Olympic Rings were still up so we took a few pictures in them.  Love this picture of the kids in the rings.  A little butt push and we got the boys into the upper ones :) 

I am always blown away by the beauty of this part of the world.  Many years of skiing up here and it still takes my breath away!  Now if they could have just taken the skeeters away I would have been a really happy camper LOL!

Last week was our VBS and as always, it was a great week but very tiring.  This year was quite special in that both my kids were working for VBS rather than attending.  Best line of the week: "Now we know why you were so tired by the end of VBS, Mom".  There is justice in this world LOL!  Some very special mommy moments to treasure in my heart as I saw them serving.

Things will be quiet here for the next little while as well.  I am feverishly working on my Verve Guest Diva Sneak Peek cards and release cards this week before we head off for a few days and am not finding much time to do any additional cards...sorry...  This summer has been a very busy one and I treasure the time I get to spend with my kids as they are growing up soooo quickly.  Come August things should slow down a bit as we will be sticking closer to home and I am hoping to get into my craft room a bit more.  Until then, you'll most likely only be getting my Friday Inkspiration challenge posts. 

Thanks for sticking with me through the "drought".  Promise it will be worth it as my blogiversary is coming up in August :)

Hope you are all enjoying your summers (((hugs)))