A Post of Epic Proportions...

Camden has had a rough stretch since the wedding last weekend.  Between the chaos of travel and sleeping in a hotel room he came down with a respiratory infection upon our return.  He had a fever for about 3 days and had swollen glands and red ears (meaning he was in a great deal of pain) but it wasn't a bacterial infection so we just had to kind of wait it out.  Luckily, the day after going to the pediatrician his fever broke and started feeling much better.  Unfortunately, we haven't had a good night's sleep since our trip.  After traveling and being sick, Camden has been thrown off and is having a great deal of trouble settling in at night time.  He is waking up multiple times before we even go to bed and it has made for some long nights for all of us.  He's been overtired and a little feisty during the days too (and he's been sneezing and coughing - wondering if he might have allergies with all the pollen outside) but we've still had many fun adventures as a family during our first official week of summer vacation!
Here's our poor little sick boy last Wednesday...

On Saturday we drove to Vermont to see Mom and Dad A and Brian and Sarah and to celebrate good family friends, Russ and Lenore Gates.  Russ and Lenore have been pastoring the Allenby's church in Proctor, VT for 20 years and have been incredible friends of Steve and Nancy.  Russ married both Scott and me and Jeff and Ashley and had a huge impact on that small Vermont town.  They are moving to PA to be closer to family and we were so glad to be able to celebrate their time in Proctor with them (and the other hundreds of people who showed up to support them!  Here are some pictures from our afternoon...

Checking out the train tracks with Pop...

It was VERY exciting when a real train came through...

As I mentioned in my last blog post, we have been given an amazing gift of a condo in Eastman for the week this week.  A wonderful family who have two students that we know very well at Proctor offered us their place and we are loving spending time over there.  It's only about 25 minutes from home, so we are kind of going back and forth depending on what else we have going on each day.  We slept over there on Sunday night, but it turned out to be pretty tough with Camden not sleeping well (and he's already practically outgrown his pack-n-play...what's up with that?!?!?!).  Here are a few pictures from Sunday and Monday out at Eastman...

Monday's weather was pretty cool (this whole week hasn't been the best for being on a lake) and we decided to go up to the Montshire Museum for a quick visit and go out to lunch at Molly's (one of my all-time favorite restaurants).

Checking out the bubble exhibit...

Camden had SO much fun playing outside with the water exhibits.  We've had a family pass since winter, but have never been to the museum when all the outdoor exhibits were open!  So fun!

At Molly's - practicing his letters.  Camden knows all of his letters A-U...it's pretty cute!

Monday night we celebrated my niece, Clara's, 5th birthday party!  It's hard to believe it has been five years since I received the phone call that my sister was undergoing an emergency c-section two months before her expected due date.  It was a scary time and little Clara had to spend a month in the NICU, but she is a thriving, vibrant, smart little girl (5 going on 20) and she had a FUN birthday yesterday!
5 years ago...

And yesterday...

Kite making in the barn...

Camden wanted nothing to do with organized activity and instead had fun playing with Clara's toy kitchen on his own...

Dinner with Daddy...

Practicing being a good big brother...

This morning Scott surprised me with an INCREDIBLE early birthday present.  I've never seen him so excited to give me anything in his life (except maybe an engagement ring) and it was definitely worth the excitement!!!  I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel T1i - a really, really, really nice digital camera just like I've always wanted!!!

I'm still figuring it all out, but we had fun experimenting with it throughout the day today!

We had a blast hosting our good friends at "our condo" this afternoon and the windy, cool weather didn't scare the kids away from enjoying some time in the water.

Camden and his friend, Paige, on the slides...

Camden and Paige watching Cope head out in a kayak...

Nelson working hard against the wind...

Camden giving the boat a try...

 

Lots of food, lots of kids and lots of fun!  Thanks Gregor and Amy for coming over and hanging out with us!

(Wow...blogging took up most of the night tonight!  Good thing I broke this week up into a couple blog posts because there will be lots more pictures coming in the next couple of days!  Gotta love summer vacation and new cameras!!!!  Thank you SOOOO much Scott!  You're amazing and I love you!