Labor Day Camping and Cute Kid Quotes
This Labor Day camping trip included more family than ever before. We had all the McGregor siblings, all the Luukkonen siblings, all the Peters siblings, spouses, parents, friends, and kids. Wow. Speaking of kids: eventually, someday, in the future, not right now, later on, I’ll have my own kids to enjoy and laugh at and write about. Until then, I have to settle (settle? I’m not sure it’s settling, really) for enjoying and laughing at and writing about my nephew and niece. Particularly my nephew. Being the only kid in the immediate family who’s old enough to run around and talk, he gets a lot of attention for the funny things he says and does. I figured I’d share some of the funny quotes from the weekend with all the pictures. Oh, and there are LOTS of pictures!
Here’s the family! It seems like a few of us are gone every time the group gets together, so it was a rare occasion to have us all in one spot.
This is when we all show our true personalities: (oh, and the consensus is that Sam-top middle- is making a peace sign but his index finger is blurred and hard to see. For his sake, I hope that consensus is right when we zoom in and take a closer look).
Now for the kid stories…
Story #1:
While Elaine and I were taking a walk with the C-Man, I started repeating a story that Heather had told me. I was just to the part where Heather told me how Carter has already started to blame his gas passing on his sister, saying ” sister! ewww! yucky sister!” when it’s not really sister…Then, I was interrupted. Carter looks down at me from Aunt Elaine’s shoulders with a big shy grin on his face and says, very firmly, “Stop talking Aunt Margaret!” then he giggles a little. Apparently, this little boy doesn’t like to hear people sharing his embarrassing stories.
Story #2:
After Carter fell off his “horsey” (a big log stuck in the sand) at the beach, (cutting his chin and biting his cheeks: ouch), he got right back on and started “riding” again. Heather and I asked him what he was doing:
C: “goin’ to da store. I got my monies” *thrusts arm out to show us a hand full of polished, flat, circular rocks*
M&H: “What are you gonna get?”
C: “uhm, just some orange jushe”
M&H: “What else?”
C: “uhm, just some len-nade (or lemonade), and uhm just hambuhgers, and uhm just some gas for my horsey”
Someday we’ll tell him that horseys don’t run on fuel, but we didn’t want to crush his dreams right away.
The Luukkonen siblings and their honeys. (Margaret, Heather, and Elaine + Tim, Phil, and Tim)
There were a lot of elk at the Campground…until some campers came and took over their favorite resting place. Gosh.
Story #3:
One morning, Carter and I took a walk down to the pond. It was so quiet and peaceful until we heard a bunch of loud honking and wings flapping.
With a surprised face and a gasp, Carter looked up at me suddenly and whispered: “You hear dat noise?”
M: “Yeah, it’s a bunch of birds at the pond, Carter.”
C: “Actually, I think it’s ducks.” Then we heard them again. He was right, they were ducks.
M:” Oh, um, you’re right. I was trying to simplify it for your 2-year-old mind by calling them ‘birds’ but I guess I didn’t need to.”
C: *big grin and giggles*
So, we were both right, but he was more right than I was.
Clam Beach was gorgeous and reminded me of my trips to the Coast back in the day when I lived up North. There’s much more room to explore than the beaches down here in So. Cal.
One of these days, Elaine is going to be a super hot mom. Here she is showin’ us how it’s done.
Story #4:
One of my favorite scenes from this camping trip was Carter and Tim running around in the woods in their pajamas, hiding behind trees and jumping out at each other to sword-fight with their sticks. I especially liked when Carter jumped out with his stick and yelled “Enguard!” before charging (more like dancing or tip-toeing) after Tim. Occasionally, Carter would decide that Tim’s sword was too big, so he would commandeer it and give him a smaller one.
We had lots of fun with the reflections on the sand at Clam Beach….even if our toes were frozen and numb…
Story #5:
Carter can be a crazy little boy, but Phil and Heather (and Nana!) work hard at training him to obey. When we were playing “bollyball” or kicking around a volleyball, Carter knew he wasn’t supposed to go in the street. Every once in a while, he would go right up to it, hold the ball, then look at me with a sneaky little grin on his face. In a soft, sweet, questioning voice, he’d say, “I gonna kick it in the roooaaaad??” But when I reminded him that the road was dangerous, he would run back toward the middle of the empty campsite and have fun until he got another urge to test the limits.
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in this picture below, but I do know that Carter’s not crying. He was being silly and rambunctious and making faces about the sun in his eyes. And Lily likes to grab him.
Story #6:
Sometimes Carter likes to follow around one person and say hi to them over and over and over. Example: Tim and I pull up to the campsite after being at the beach, and Carter is wandering around aimlessly. As soon as he sees the car, he starts saying “Hi Aunt Margaret” “Hi Aunt Margaret” “Hi Aunt Margaret.” It keeps going when I get out of the car. Then he starts following me through the campsite, stopping wherever I stop, saying “Hi Aunt Margaret” Hi Aunt Margaret” “Hi Aunt Margaret.” His tune changes when Heather drives up in my mom’s car. Carter gasps, gets a huge smile on his face, reaches out for his mama, and starts saying “Hi Mama” “Hi Mama” Hi Mama” and the cycle begins again…
Story #7:
Carter also likes to assign roles to people. During much of our camping trip, he was “Luke Skywalker” and Tim was “Darth Mader, da bad guy” This must’ve been why they were sword-fighting (or light-saber-fighting). Although, I don’t remember Luke Skywalker ever saying “enguard” to Darth “Mader.”
Story #8:
Elaine and I took Carter and his new friend Izzy (above, in the adorable pink bathing suit) to go look at the horses that are kept at the campground. Carter started a song, and we repeated after him:”We’re gonna see the hooorsees” over and over and over. When we got up close and personal with the horses, Carter couldn’t stop giggling and yelling, “Don’t eat me! Please don’t eat me!”
When the fire got big and bright, it made for fun picture taking time. It took me days to get the campfire smell out of my clothes (and hair!) but I didn’t really mind all that much.
Story #9:
When we were exchanging our last hugs and goodbyes before heading off, I held Carter and told him, “I’m gonna miss you, buddy.” He put one hand on my shoulder and the other in the air with palm up and elbow bent, asking in a soft inquisitive voice, “Do you wanna stay here?” Yes! I do, I do!
Oh, and that cute, calm little kiss on the cheek he’s giving me in the picture above? Those generally end in a big wet lick across your face and a burst of laughter from the sneaky little boy:
PS: Please, look at something else, perhaps the slideshow, before you leave this site. I would hate for that image above to be the last thing to stick in your head. Please!
To view more Images from this trip:
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