Torn between two places

This past weekend Birch and I had to make a really hard decision. Birch's brother Logan was being honored with the HUGE achievement of graduating from dental school. Even until the night before the graduation we tried to figure out how we could make the weekend work, and would it be smart to be two hours away from home or be separated if I stayed home. Being dilated to a 2 and 90% effaced (and with a history of one hour labors) I was told by my midwife that we would be crazy to head out on an adventure at this point in the pregnancy.

So we sent our well-wishes to the graduation party and filled our weekend with lots of other activities. Friday night Birch took the four younger kids to our annual church camp out. It was a blustery night but the kids had a fabulous time! They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, stayed up until 11:30 pm (apparently Nate and Coop couldn't stop giggling and talking in their sleeping bags), went fishing, and explored nature. It was Coop's first memorable campout and I think he is hooked.

Aren't my kids lucky that their dad would head to the mountains with just him? Luckily a few other dads from church helped out with pitchin' our very large tent. Tyler had a great time going crazy in the woods.Coop loved every minute of being in the outdoors.Alysee was so at-one in nature that she slept in until 9:00 am, when Birch finally decided that he had better wake her up if she was going to get any breakfast.
Nate was probably the most excited to go camping. When I asked him what he was most looking forward to the most he answered "going fishing and roasting hot dogs on the fire." Well, Birch didn't let him down. Since Nate is such an early riser, the two of them went fishing at 5:30 am. Though Nate didn't end up catching anything he still had a great time.

While Birch and most of the kids were camping, Alex and I were at his Little League tournament. After Friday's game I decided to try and make the night special since Alex and I get little one-on-one time. We watched a movie in bed and ate Alex's favorite Papa Murphy's cheese bread and a DQ blizzard. We had a really nice time together!

Alex played Friday night and Saturday morning. Both games were really competitive and Alex loved the challenge. He did a great job pitching each game. Birch and I were both really proud of him because when he heard that their final tournament game was to be on Sunday afternoon, he had no hesitation in telling his coach that Sunday is a day that he spends with his family and at church. The coach understood, and Alex set a great example for all of us on choosing the right even when it is hard. Overall Alex had a great season and it was really cool to see how the whole team improved so much over the season. Alex is already looking forward to next year!