Epic Hoagland Family Vacation - Part 2

Float Trip!!!  This was a part of our vaca that we were all really looking forward to.  We let the boys get ride-on kayaks and James and I shared a canoe, I paddled, he fished, we ran into trees, banks, rocks, he fished, hee, I love to paddle and I sometimes steer, hee hee.

 

Cameron had this brilliant idea to make the Superman logo on his chest and then apply sunscreen.

The tape ended coming off right away and his "Superman" logo ended up pink instead of just untanned.

 

They jumped off logs and fallen trees...

 

 

James caught his first fish...

 

 

 

I even jumped off...once.

 

This was a very long float trip...seriously, we were so exhausted and

ready for it to be over but it was a blast.

 

 

Epic Hoagland Family Vacation - Part 1

This summer we decided we would go "camping" for our vacation.  That usually doesn't sound too relaxing to me but I just wanted to get away with my family.  Then we started planning...muhahaha!  I found some "cheap" cabins on the internet near Bennett Springs, so no tents, fabulous!  We booked the cabin for Monday night thru Thursday because they doubled in price on the weekend...and face it, we are cheap....thrifty.  We decided we could be spontaneous for the last few days of our trip.

The search began for fun and entertaining things to do while we were away that were close to Bennett Springs, etc.  It turned into a ridiculous search for the oddest things to do.  I made a brochure with our faces on it and the itinerary inside...I know, totally cheesy but the boys thought it was hilarious...I just can't help myself.  We picked up the boys from an FCA Leadership day at Camdenton and then we were off to find our cabin and see exactly what we had gotten ourselves into.

Not too shabby :)

James fixed breakfast every morning!  I cleaned up, we make a great team.

 

This was great, there were nice restrooms (flushers) with showers closeby and everything was very clean.  Next we went to Lebanon to do some of our fun activities.

 

The boys (all 3 of them) have gotten into Disc Golf, I know, I know, just go with it.  I play for the exercise?  I really just play to be with them.  The first course we went to was pretty lame rough but we had fun :)

 

 

 

Next...on to Bennett Springs State Park to get fishing tags for the morning and what not.

 

Yes, planking...

Some of the Epic things

The men went fishing....really early, and I sat in a camp chair near them and read a book.

 

We went to an Alpaca Ranch....

 

 

 Very exciting...

 

More Disc Golf...different course...a much better course, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Betcha can't wait for part 2!

 

 

Oops!!!

I know, I know!  I haven't blogged all summer long!  Can you tell it's been busy?

I will try to sum up the last few months briefly, ha.  I was once again VBS Director, lots of work but lots of awesome help, that was the beginning of June.  Also in June, I chaperoned Broadway Baptist Church Youth Camp in Springfield, another week....gone.  We went on vacation in July, it was awesome.  I will have an exclusive blog post about that soon, someday.  Christian had his tonsils out on July 30th, we had a week long youth mission trip at our church that same week.  The boys have had weights and sports camps, fca things, boys state, etc throughout the summer, almost every day of the summer, and on and on with lots of excuses.  But rest assured I will be back....soon, ha ha.

Stinky Storms

My oldest son had a week of stinky happenings.  The first occurred on a Friday, State Music Contest which should be an exciting thing turned into a frustrating pitiful day.  Sometimes things just happen that are beyond our control, he didn't do so great on his solo.  The next day was prom...and it was a lot of fun, yay!  Wednesday rolls around....Sectional Golf Tournament, if you advance you compete at State.  Christian was stoked, he got to play a practice round, stay at a hotel with lots of new friends but missed the cut by a couple of strokes.  Friday...girlfriend breaks up with him.  What a week!?!  This is a stinky week but all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.  There was opportunity for grace to be shown at music contest.  A big achievement making it to sectionals when he didn't last year.  And a reminder to rely on God and trust Him and His plan for our lives.  That just because we don't understand what or why things are happening, we can know that our Father in Heaven loves us and wants good things for us and knows so much better than we do what we need.  Thank you Lord for the lessons you've taught my son and me this week.

Prom 2012

My oldest baby went to Prom!  He looks so handsome and no, he didn't get dirty...surprisingly.  He took pictures at his girlfriend's house (her name is Lydia).  And then took pics with some friends.  I'm just gonna post some of them.