Happy Birthday, Charlie!

For Charlie's birthday this year, the whole Ray family got together to go camping!
Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly FOR his birthday, but we did have a fun camping trip. And, Charlie and Logan got to celebrate their birthdays together.
Most of the family made an appearance at some point. Below is our nephew Ty, with his friend.

We each took turns doing meals. One night we made home made ice cream. You can see that McKenna's ready for her Mom to give her some (above)! Jocie (below) was loving hers, too!

Charlie LOVES that his big boy cousins will wrestle and have fun with him. On this particular night, he didn't give Kaden a break.

This was our first real camping experience with the boys. Papa Dennis gifted us his tent, and Charlie and Adam thought it was great! Unfortunately, the allergies were horrible. Adam and Christian had to go home to sleep the second night, and it really took them all month to recover.

Uncle Ben and Uncle Dan shared their boat with us. It was so fun, and perfect for the kids. They had a blast!


Of course we could count on Kellan to be a happy camper!

Above: Adam and the other birthday boy, Logan

Below: 4 of the 6 Ray boys, L to R: Ben, Dan, Darin, Josh

Above: Uncle Darin and, one of our coolest cousins, Hunter

Below: Charlie, catching some air, and Daddy


Adam, Charlie and Payton found some time to just relax!

For some of us, relaxation is knitting. Unfortunately for me, I was too worried about Adam falling into the water. The poor little guy had to wear a life jacket almost all of the time. It didn't stop him from getting dirty. I didn't get any knitting done!


Cousins are the best! Above, Kelton and Adam found some shade, and below, McKenna is one of the ladies. She's really doing well wih her own knitting projects!
Charlie and Adam are so lucky to have the cousins they have. Brennan and Kaden aren't too old or too cool to hang with these little boys. It's great!


It's fun to have so many girls around. I don't always get to enjoy the giggling and chatting of little girls. They're all growing up before our eyes, and it's fun to watch. Darcie and Kylie are the youngest and oldest in their family (above). Jocie and Libbie (below) were born seven days apart.

The boys were happy to have a warm day, so they could do some jumping! Above, I caught Hunter mid-air! Brennan, Hunter, Kaden, and Payton are in the picture below, but Logan was jupming, too.


Adam snuggled into Uncle Matt and got very sleepy. By the end of the ride, he was zonked!


Darcie thought it would be a good idea to have s'mores! Jocie agreed, but her marshmallow was so big she couldn't get her mouth around it.
Special Kay indulged!
Brennan, Hunter, and Kaden brought more firewood.
Charlie mastered the golden marshmallow!

Kelton seemed pretty happy about his...

And, finally Hunter, the messiest of them all! We had a wonderful weekend! We should get to spend one weekend a month with our family. It was really great!

Done with Pre-School.....Onto Kindergarten?!

So, I'm a bit behind on my blogging. Did I just state the obvious? Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to document the end of pre-school before Kindergarten starts in a few weeks.
On June 8th, Charlie was very sad to say good-bye to his 17 everyday friends. He loved pre-school!
His teachers planned a fun program for the kids. They each got to bring home a bucket of fun things.


Yeshi and Charlie hit it off on almost the first day of school. They had so much fun playing together.
Adam enjoyed taking Charlie to school each day. He felt very comfortable in Charlie's classroom.
Charlie and McKenzie
Charlie and Lily. Lily's Mom told me that the night before, Lily had asked her what her last name would be when she married Charlie. :)
Ms. Aline was such a wonderful teacher! Charlie was very lucky!
Charlie also loved Ms. Maria. She greeted us each morning with a smile, always making Adam feel special too!