Nature Camp week for Audriana and Sofia

Nature Camp with Liz Sinclair (a Montessori teacher) happens each summer and is held at the Finch Arboretum. Audriana and Maria participated last year, but Sofia was too young, so she couldn't. She was so excited to be able to join the big girls this summer (now that she is 4!). It is a M-Th camp and goes from 9am - 1:30. The girls bring their lunches and get to each at camp. The do fun things like tracking animals, learning about trees and plants, stream walking, looking at bird nests (this summer they got to see a hummingbird nest)! They also got to make homemade ice cream! The only thing the girls didn't like was when the week ended!
Here are the girls after they went through the sprinklers! The girl in the green shirt was Sofia's special friend for the week -- her name was Maya.

Maria, Audriana and Sofia -- after an afternoon of stream walking, "mudding up", and running through the huge sprinkers at Finch Arboretum! What fun!

A week in Manson -- Hello Lake Chelan!

One of our favorite places in the world is Manson, WA. It's the place of many wonderful family memories for us. It's where my grandpa and grandma Keeney raised my mom, Aunt Tonn, Uncle Tom and Uncle Dave. It's where my mom and dad took us each summer to visit our grandparents. Memories of running through the apple orchards, climbing cherry trees, swimming in the lake, driving into "town" (Chelan) in grandpa's big green truck, root beer floats, and being with family. It's a cherished place for all of us Keeney's and a place that I want my husband and girls to know and love. Last summer all of the Keeney's spent a week together as we laid Aunt Tonn to rest -- a sad time for sure, but also gave us a renewed sense of the importance of all of us being in Manson together. So this year, we did it again! A whole week together! Uncle Tom, Uncle Dave, and Mom rented a house on Wapato Point - big enough for all of us kids and grandkids. Fun, Fun, Fun!

This is the house we rented -- it doesn't look too big from the outside, but it was enormous! The best part of the house was the deck overlooking Lake Chelan. All of us fit -- Uncle Dave and Aunt Kathleen, Shannon and Neil and Clara, Tim, Marc and Jenny and new baby Hannah, Uncle Tom and Aunt Bonnie, Mom and Jay, Kristi, Mike and the 4 of us!

Here is the view from the deck looking towards Wapato Beach.

Aunt Bonnie and Martin have such great smiles!

Cute cousins! Clara has really grown this past year -- she'll be 2 next week and is already talking like a 4 year old! She's so cute and so smart!

Sofia and Audriana could not wait to get into the icy cold water of Lake Chelan -- and I really mean cold! I couldn't even get my feet in!

We didn't have very good weather the first couple of days, and in fact, we had a day of rain, but luckily it cleared up enough so that we could enjoy some sun the last half of the week!

When the weather wasn't cooperating outside, we didn't care, because the girls loved the big indoor pool at Wapato Point. The water was a lot warmer than the lake, too!

We had many fun nights that began with a big dinner and ended with GAME NIGHT! Such fun. We played "Imagine If", which was just hysterical, and had all of us laughing the night away.

Neil's famous waffles for breakfast!

Peek a Boo, Clara!

The girls are wearing their new Manson Trojans t-shirts that Uncle T and Aunt B bought for the girls. I just love them and think they look so cute. Kinda cool that the girls have tshirts from the high school that their grandma graduated from. Go Trojans!

Jay was not able to be here with us the whole week, but did arrive on Thursday evening, just in time for dinner! Mom and Kristi made bbq pork chops, baked potatoes and sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, and zuchinni. The dinner was awesome and Mom sure was a lot happier once Jay got there. She missed him.

Geez....look at that view! There isn't anything like it!

Mom and Sofia playing around and having some silly time!

What an amzing couple.....inside and out. This is probably one of the best pictures I have ever seen of them -- although they don't ever take a bad picture! :-) Both of my uncles and their wives exemplify such great examples of marriage and friendship for all of us. We love you guys!Finally warm enough to hit the beach! The girls had a good time digging in the sand.Mike decided to bring his scuba gear and take a look beneath the lake -- it was fun for all of us to see him get "geared up" and dissapear beneath the water. Mom, Jay, Martin and the girls and I decided to go into Chelan in search of the Chelan museum. It was awsome! I want to go again when I can really spend some time looking and reading -- the girls always seem to get through museums much quicker than Martin and I! Sofia, of course, has no idea what this old record player is all about!

Here's baby Hannah! Marc and Jenny brought 8 week old Hannah out for a couple of days. She is so beautiful and of course, little Sofia was so excited to get to hole her.

One of the best memories for me (and I'm sure for Audriana, too) was watching Jay fish with Audriana. He had brought his gear so that he and Audriana could spend a little time fishing together. They were only at it for about 10 minutes, when they got a little tug on their line! Here's the fish that they pulled up! Pretty darn exciting!!!!

The house below is the house that the Keeney's lived in on Wapato Point (before it was a resort, of course!). The 4 Keeney kids had to walk straight up the hill all the way to school each day. It's also the house that my Mom and Dad had their wedding reception in the backyard in! After my mom got married and moved out, my grandparents sold this house and bought the one up on the hill in the midst of the apple orchards that I remember going to each summer to visit my grandparents. During this trip my mom was able to reminise about this house and pass on some great stories to all of us.

Aunt Kathleen created a very exciting rock experiment for the girls during the week. I knew something exciting was happening when rocks kept falling out of the freezer everytime someone opened it. Also, Sofia and Audriana would keep checking the freezer rocks, as well as putting more in! What was happening? Well, that was the question......did the rocks change when they were put in the freezer? If so, how? How about if water was added on the rocks? Did the color change? Oh my.....so many experiments. Uncle Dave even took pictures of the rock subjects! A few days after we got back home from Manson, the girls received a little box in the mail. They were so excited and opened it right away. In side was pictures of their experiments, as well as very official certificates of completion for both the girls. They also each got a very cool ball that changes color when you squeeze it (fitting, eh?), as well as Baskin Robins gift certificates! You would have thought that Christmas had come early! :-) My Aunt is the best! This simple experiment (and the excitemet that came with it!) kept them entertained and engaged with their natural curiosity about life-- both of them were so into it!