More Camping Pictures

This little boy sure liked his chocolate. We brought the Hershey's chocolate and marshmallows but forgot the graham crackers. Benny found out that eating chocolate near a campfire is a very messy thing.



Timmy had a great time camping. As long as he was fed and took his naps, he was a happy camper (pun intended)!
There was a little beach that we could go swimming and Benny surprised me by wanting to go. He even got down in the water on his tummy and tried to "swim". He would have stayed in the water all day if we let him.

Here is our handsome three year old!

We went for a hike through the woods. Benny was okay with it as long as we paid attention to him.

Benny had to bring some friends along. Too bad Thomas, Percy and Kelly spent most of the time covered in dirt and pine needles.

Stopping to rest. Benny liked climbing the rocks.

Once again, Timmy was probably the most comfortable one during our hike.

Timmy really liked the backpack. He even fell asleep in it.

Here is Brad and Benny telling Timmy to be quiet. It was early in the morning and we didn't want to wake up our fellow campers. Timmy wasn't crying, just babbling and laughing. Notice what was for breakfast, Doughnuts!

Heilenman Camping Trip 2010

We took the boys on their first camping trip and despite the fact that we forgot to bring our sleeping bags (we ended up purchasing some) and that the air mattress had a hole in it, we did okay. We went to Millersylvania State Park (just south of Olympia, WA). We had great weather.
Here is our campsite. Could you believe that we fit all four of us in this tent? Timmy slept in his pack n play and the rest of us slept on the ground. I think Timmy is the only one who really got any sleep at night.

Here is the rest of the campsite.

Timmy liked sitting in his special seat. He is doing a good job of sitting up.

Here is Benny with one of his many rocks he collected.

We stayed two nights at the campground. That was enough to start with for us.

A Special Visitor!

Benny and I found this little guy in my flower bed in the front yard. He is crawling on an Iris leaf. He has to be the biggest snail I have ever seen.

Benny kept trying to feed the snail grass.

Our Garden

We planted a garden this year. We have corn, a few green bean plants and a few carrots.

We also have a few watermelon plants. I would be surprised if we get any before the weather turns cold.

Silly Boys!

What silly boys!

Daddy and Timmy doing some serious computer work.

Happy Timmy!

"Yum, this tastes good!"

This is Benny's "don't take my picture face".

Benny Sings!

Benny decided to sing some songs for me. Enjoy!



Here is the Veggietales theme song.



Benny attended his first Vacation Bible School class. The theme was "High Seas Adventure". He had a great time singing a song during the finale at church. Here is a video of him singing along to the video I took of him singing in church.

Brothers

Benny playing with Timmy!

Big Brother Little Brother

Benny just loves his little brother and I think Timmy love Benny right back. Most of the interactions between them are spontaneous.

Benny's Birthday Party

This year Benny had a Thomas the Tank Engine party (no surprise there). I took it upon myself to make his birthday cake. I am amazed at how it turned out. It only took about 3 hours to decorate. The best part is that Benny really liked it.

Yes! It is a solid cake. I had to get a special cake pan in order to do it. Here's hoping Timmy likes Thomas too.

Here's the birthday boy! Aunt Jill, you might notice that he is wearing the shirt you got for him. It is a little big, but he didn't care.

Way to blow the candle out!

I had also made cupcakes in case the cake was not big enough. Benny had a cupcake. Do you think he liked it?
All in all, I think he had a great time at his party. He had a lot of friends to play with. Next year, I think I will only invite 4 of his close friends to keep it less hectic. At least the parties are kind of spaced out for us. Timmy is in February, Brad is in March, Benny is in July and I am in November. Then, we have fun at Christmas and it starts all over again.

Graham Jam

Every year this wonderful church throws this wonderful fair like event called Graham Jam. This was the first year we went to it. Benny had a great time playing some of the games.
It was basically a lot of tents with games and prizes, a live band that played music and refreshments were served (for a very low price I might add, I got 2 bags of chips and a bag of cotton candy for 3 dollars). They even had a few bouncy houses for the kids to play in. It was all free (except the refreshments).

Benny got to try his hand at fishing. Of course Daddy had to help.

Sorry the picture was blurry, but Benny caught a fish!

It was a trout. We had the choice of keeping it or throwing it back and we chose to catch and release (what do I know about cooking a fish). Benny did get to touch it though.

Graham Jam (Part 2)

Here is Benny getting a snake tattoo. I am really surprised he wanted to do this. Of course his tattoo came off in the bathtub later that night.

Benny really had fun with this game. We had a contest to see who could pop their balloon first and I won. Benny didn't mind. He got a prize anyway.

He liked throwing the balls at the duckies.

Here I had to help him hold the mallet.

Nothing like a good old game of ring toss. We had to do it a couple of times before he got one.

NorthWest Trek

A few weeks ago, Benny, Timmy and I went to Northwest Trek. Benny had a great time. He told me that he wanted to tell the bears about his birthday party. Unfortunately, the bears were sleeping. Benny was in charge of the map.
Timmy took a turn at the map.

Some of the big horn sheep. We actually saw some of the babies, but I wasn't able to get a picture of them.

There is a tram ride that we went on and Benny had a great time. They had taken the windows out due to it being summer time. I was a bit worried about this, but Benny did well with keeping himself inside the tram car. Here he is looking at a baby bison.

More baby bison with their mothers.

All in all, we had a great time. We even had a picnic lunch. Hopefully we can go back before the summer is over and take daddy with us.