Last year Bubba had his first opportunity to attend Scout Camp. In February last year, they were needing to know if he was going in July. I wasn't feeling too confident about it and Bubba really wasn't feeling too sure...so he didn't go. Fast forward to this year, Bubba definitely wanted to go.
On Monday morning he had to be at his den leader's house at 4am. I still wasn't driving, so Luke drove him over. Bubba had woken himself up around 3am, so when Luke woke up at 3:30, he was already showered and ready. I woke up about 15 minutes before they left. We had family prayer together and then Bubba gave me hugs goodbye. I had tears in my eyes. This was going to be the longest he's been away from me....alone. Six long days. Thankfully his den leader sent me a few picture that evening as well as posting videos and photos to the Scout Camp FB pag. Every evening Luke and I would lay in bed and see if there was anything posted, hoping to see Bubba's face. We're so sappy....I don't know how we are going to survive when this one leaves the nest one day.
Sunday evening we had to drop off all of Bubba's gear at his den leader's house, so they could load everything up. I was pretty sure these bags weren't even going to be opened this week. :)
The boat ride over to the camp. I guess the lake was higher than it was last year. Their Scout camp was four hours from home.
Their hike on day three.
At camp Bubba worked on three different merit badges. One of them was Wilderness Survivial, which he said was his favorite. They had to build a shelter that was away from camp and sleep in it. They couldn't have any food nearby because it would attract animals. Bubba said five of them slept in this shelter they made.
They have some free time at camp and Bubba said his favorite thing to do was take the kayak out.
On Saturday we were anxious to have Bubba home. I texted his den leader around 11am and I was surprised to hear they were already on the road and going to be home at 12:30 pm. We were all looking forward to having him home again. The house seemed so quiet without Biff in the house. Even Tubbs was melancholy and worrying about his brother throughout the week.
Welcome home Bubba. We love you and we are so proud of you for going to Scout camp and all that you worked on there.
In November 2003 we headed to Las Vegas for 3 days and it was my very first time. Bubba was with us and I was pregnant with Tubbs. Luke had driven through before a time or two, but never spent time in Vegas. I am not really too sure why we chose to head to Vegas for this particular trip, but I remember not being too impressed and cutting our trip a day short.
Luke had an opportunity to attend a conference in Vegas an it happened to coincide with the week the kids would be gone, so it turned into a fun week for just the two of us. We dropped off the kids to go camping and made the drive to Las Vegas. It's a pretty boring drive through the desert, but we arrived around lunch time. We checked into the hotel and there were A LOT of people everywhere. I was surprised thinking Vegas would be so hot, that it wouldn't appeal to people in the summer time. After talking to a few locals, I guess that assumption is incorrect. Summer time is the busiest time of the year. Now I know. We stayed at the Palazzo hotel, which connects to the Venetian. It was very nice and our room was on the 28th floor. We had a great view!
We headed out to find lunch and ended up having chicken and waffles at Hash House. It was HUGE. This was my lunch and dinner.
Before and After
It started raining while we were walking around so it was a nice change in weather. The weather actually was under 100 degrees all week, so we were very pleased. We thought it would be over 110.
On our way to dinner with one of Luke's teachers and her husband. This is in front of the Mirage. Luke strongly dislikes selfies, but he tried to be a good sport.
On our way back from dinner we walked through the casino and put $1 into a slot machine. That turned into $2 and I told Luke we should cash out. We did. We were laughing at ourselves because we have never gambled. We went to an electronic black jack table for a few minutes and then to another slot machine. We won $13 and we cashed out. Luke took this photo of me and it's now his phone wallpaper. I must've been pretty excited when we cashed out. We were $13 richer.
Other items I enjoyed this week....
An Acai bowl and baths in the big bath tub. I could get used to this life of leisure!
Bath bombs from Basin are my favorite. We found these in Orlando when we visited 7 years ago. They are amazing.
I got a manicure one day and spent the afternoon in the hotel spa, lounging in their different spa rooms. It was very relaxing.
Our last night there we ate dinner at Lagass Stadium, which is in the hotel. We had a TV at our table/couch area so we could watch the Padres game. I had a chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries which were really good. We loved this place and apparently it's VERY popular during big sporting events.
We left Thursday morning after Luke got out of his last conference session. We were on the road by 11 and home by dinnertime.
This week so nice and relaxing. We ate good food and spent quality time together. It was exactly what we needed. We did lots of walking, so I feel like we exerted some energy after all of the delicious meals. I did find a new salad at Cheesecake Factory called "Sheila's Chicken Salad." It has cashews in it and the dressing is wonderful. We ended up eating here for lunch our second day here and dinner another night. I also can't stay away from the raspberry lemonade. It's my kryptonite. :)
Every summer the boys go camping with Luke's parents, outside Bishop/Mammoth. This year little Miss Wiggy was able to go along. It was very weird having all the kids leave us and not being able to talk to them whenever we wanted. Thankfully I had a distraction....Las Vegas. Luke had a conference for work the same time the kids were gone, so we dropped them off in Tehachapi at 7am on our way. We didn't have to be in Vegas until later in the afternoon, but Luke's parents needed to get on the road to get a camping spot.
Wiggy fell asleep on the way up the hill. It's sweet to see her give her brother some love.
After we get on the road, Grandma sends me pictures of the tortured children. It's a ritual. Haha.
So then we take a selfie and send it back. It's nice that the boys have a phone so we can send photos and messages.
It rained a lot where they were camping and on the last day, it snowed. That's pretty exciting for July!
Eating sweets at "Pie in the Sky." Mmmmm.
They got home on Saturday afternoon, so we made the drive to Tehachapi to pick them. We wee very excited to see them. Being apart 7 days was a LONG time.
I think it's safe to say they missed their daddy more than mom. :)
Thank you grandma and grandpa for taking such good care of the kids and showing them the outdoors for a week.
That Stop Wasn't On My Itinerary....
So the Hogue's made it to Florida for our first official family vacation. It was Sawyer's first plane ride....and Simon's first plane ride that he can remember. We were excited....the boys were stoked. We had everything we needed! But it seems that Sawyer packed something with him that wasn't on our checklist: a big case of pneumonia. Yes, the little fella made it almost one whole day in Florida before he started heading downhill fast. Our 2nd day in Orlando we were in the Urgent Care south of Cocoa Beach. (By the way, to see a doctor more quickly, it helps if you vomit all over the waiting room in front of the receptionist. Little tip for ya) After chest x-rays they advised us to head to the ER in Melbourne, where they eventually admitted him to the hospital. So, we had 3 night deluxe accommadations at the Holmes Regional Medical Center. The little whipper snapper was a trooper though! The nurses loved him, thankfully, and made us all feel right at home. We were going to send postcards out with pictures of the hospital since we spent 40% of our trip there...but they didn't have any. Imagine that!Hmmm.....maybe its something they should consider.
