Tales Of A Basement Remodel

All remodels come with their delays and unexpected expenses. We have been fortunate to only have a few minor items added to the latter category. And really, in comparison to some remodel stories I've heard (Adam's parent's whole-house remodel was supposed to be a 9 month project and ended up taking 2 years!), we've really had a smooth go of it. But we had a few bumps and some funny side effects that I wanted to make sure and record.

Tale #1: This is a picture of our rough in. The pipe on the left now houses a toilet and pumps waste from our home. The hole on the right is the water source for the shower and sink and should have had pipes and plumbing connected up to it in the first few days of the project. Why did it not? Because our plumber was in jail the day he was supposed to come plumb the house. YES. Jail!!!! Sweet, right? We were reassured by our contractor, Sonney, who is the brother of said plumber, that the reason this man found himself in jail is because of a dispute with his ex-wife, not burglary, assault or worse. At the time, Sonney told us if his brother didn't show by a certain day we'd call in a different plumber. I was desperately hoping that the plumber wouldn't show up! But he did, and I just made myself (and the boys with me) scarce for the day until Adam got home. And he was only a little scary. :)Tale #2: On another note, an interesting side effect that we did not foresee from the remodel was Ruby's descent into a total state of freak-out. Our poor pup! She was completely terrified by the sound of the nail gun, constantly banging hammer, table saw, and all the other noises of construction. She followed us around more than ever, like an appendage instead of a shadow, and just seemed totally on edge.

I first noticed it one day while Josh was at preschool and Tommy and Luke were napping. I was watching a TV show up in my bedroom. Ruby was frantically pacing the floor beside the bed, then she'd dart down and try to squish her way under the bed. Then she would jump up and put her front feet on the bed, something she knows is a big no-no, and has never done before. I thought there was a mouse or something she was trying to alert me to so I kept checking under the bed and all around the room, but there was nothing! Finally I figured it out, it was the noise! Awwww. She also tried to hide under the desk on numerous occasions and kept unplugging all the computer cords. Poor chicken dog. She was so happy when work would end for the day and she could just relax. I am sure having it all done has given her a peace of heart that only a true fraidy cat (or dog) can know.
Tale #3: The last story I have for you comes from a little accident caused by the window well. I guess it was kind of my fault because I was being wishy washy about what kind of window well I wanted. I thought a nice terraced one that kind of stepped down to the window would be lovely, but it would also take up a huge chunk of the space around the window and cost a lot so I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. We finally decided on just the boring old metal white kind, but it doesn't take up too much space and looks just fine.

While I was taking my own sweet time making up my mind, Adam had been industrious and dug a HUGE hole out around the window. One day we had one of our typical summer rain storms. The rain suddenly dumps down in buckets, lightning flashes, thunder rolls, hail balls come flying and then bam! It's over. It wasn't until the next day that we noticed one of the "jobs" of the window well. It's not just something to allow light into your below ground spaces, it's not just there to make emergency escape from said below ground spaces possible. It's also for drainage. Did you know that? We didn't! Oops.

Apparently, without the dirt and wooden wall there to hold back the flood, the mud and water from the storm had rolled like a tidal wave into the hole, crashed up against the window and began to fill. We figure it got about 6 inches up the window when, the window, which could only take so much pressure, began to leak. Thankfully the window didn't break, but we had quite the mess to clean up in the morning! There was water all over the bedroom floor under the window and some had leaked out under the wall into the rec room, stopping only when it encountered the edge of the toy box.

The blessing was that Sonney had not yet put on the window sill wood. We got it all dried out and vacuumed up the dirt that had filtered in and you couldn't tell it had ever happened once the paint was on and the stains from the mud down the wall were gone. But it was quite the shock to see that morning we discovered it. Needless to say, that's when I decided on the metal window well and we had it ordered and in place within three days!

So yes, our 3 weeks stretched into 7, and our budget stretched along with it! We had a few bumps in the road, but we are so glad it's finished and are completely pleased with the results!

The Reveal

So here's photos of the finished product! After 7 long weeks...LONG weeks...the basement is finish-ish-ed! The extra "ish" is because we still have to move everything back down there, and get it all set up, although you will see in the pictures that some things have been dumped down there already. I was hoping to get everything back down before we left for Washington so we wouldn't be coming home to a dining room/garage full of storage, but oh well! This way we can take our time and do some "weight shedding" in the process. I love getting rid of junk!

I will take pictures again when we have things set up a bit better, but it looks so nice and neat empty. If only it could just stay that way! We absolutely love how the basement came out. It is going to be such a great space for the kids and having an extra bedroom will be awesome (now if you want to visit, we don't have to kick some of our kids out of their beds to make room for you, so come on out!). Adam is thrilled to have an office for the days he wants to or needs to work from home. And the bathroom. {sigh} It's my favorite room of them all! :)

So, without further ado: The Basement.

Here are the stairs down. The paint on the walls is new, the little peek-through on the right at the bottom is new and the light is new, but that's all we changed here. Oh yeah, and the stairs are carpeted now. I no longer fear a bumpy tumble down rough wooden stairs to the concrete floor!
When you get to the bottom of the stairs this is the room off to the right. It shall be called "Rec Room." And it shall be loved. Originally we planned to do a built-in on this wall, but the budget got too lean, so we have to save up a bit and do it later. But if you notice the plugs in the middle of the wall, all the wiring is in for Adam's dream of homework carrels built-in to the left and the entertainment center built-in to the right. For now we are going to put the big TV down there on the wall and move the Blu-Ray and Wii down too; then get some bean bag and banana chairs for chillin' and let it just be. We've got a nice living room and family room, so we figured a good kids' space would be fun. We also are planning on getting a ping-pong table, so we are keeping our eyes on Craig's List!
This is the toy box located down the right wall from the picture above. The lids are on the floor with the paint drying...again. They stuck a little because they weren't dry all the way so they had to be repainted. We're waiting nice and long this time to put them on! This toy box is going to be great for hiding some of those bazillions of cluttery toys we have!
Across from the toy box is this little nook. The boys already love it and have each laid claim to it as theirs! The pillows stuffed in there will stay as they are and it will be a cozy reading space. The night the carpets were put in the three older boys had a slumber party down there and Zach slept in the nook. I guess being the oldest has its privileges!
This is the entrance to the bedroom at the back of the rec room. I wanted french doors so that the light from the window in the bedroom wouldn't be taken from the rec room because we only have three windows down there total. Especially since the room is primarily a guest room and isn't going to be in use all the time. I'm putting curtains up on the windows so when someone is staying in there they can slide the curtains closed and there can be privacy. Here's another shot of the bedroom. It's pretty big and has a nice big closet (for all our storage!). I have a bedspread and lamp that match that wall color...it's going to look so pretty! And there on the left is the new window well. Adam did an amazing job! What a guy!These are the entrances to the office and the bathroom that are to the left of the stairs when you go down. The color of the accent wall in the office is "Mark Twain House Brown." Really? Some of the color names were hilarious! The bedroom colors are "Tailor's Chalk" and "Arrowroot." Ah, I see. That makes the colors so clear to me now. Um. No. But the Mark Twain one really cracked me up!
Here's the office closer up. We liked the glass pane door on this one too so Adam can keep an eye on the kids when he is working, but have a buffer from the noise level. Good idea, right? :)
These shelves are built into the wall behind the office door. The bottom shelf is just high enough for filing cabinets. Right now Adam gets a lame little desk, but that's another thing we're keeping our eyes out for. This room begs for a nice, manly desk!Here's the bathroom. You can see why I am in love with it, right? I might just put on an evening gown and some diamonds and come hang out here so I can feel fancy from time to time.
These shelves are behind the bathroom door for towels and other kinds of things such as that. The hooks are to hold our guest robes. GUEST ROBES! Hahaha! I don't think Adam even has a robe himself, but by golly, we will have robes for our guests because there are already hooks in place for them! Now you really want to come don't you?So once I have things a little more decorated and put together I will post new pictures. That's probably not going to be until late August though. My goal is to have it all put together by Labor Day weekend when Adam's parents and my parents will all be out here for Ben's baptism. I am so happy with how everything came out!

A Sneak Peek at the Painting

The painting is complete! The carpets are in! And I will post pictures tomorrow of how it all looks pre-cluttering with toys and the stuff of life. We won't have the furniture in and everything set up until we get back from Washington, so the total presentation is going to have to wait until then. But I will post those pictures too in August.

But here's a little sneak peek with a few pics of us painting. Our amazing neighbor David is in the background of the picture with Adam. He offered to help as soon as he found out that the daunting task of painting lay ahead of us upon our return from Hooper and that we had a snug time frame with the carpets coming in on Saturday. Little did we know that he's a trimmer extraordinaire! He did all the trim on the big room: around the windows, along the baseboards and ceiling.

I took on the office and most of the bedroom and bathroom. My neck was kinked all day Friday from reaching and looking up to do the ceiling edges! Along with helping me do parts of the bathroom and bedroom, Adam did the back-breaking job of rolling out the walls in the big room and hallway going up the stairs. That was A LOT of work! He had the help of David's power roller brush (sweet!), but it's a big room and requires a ton of rolling. I was impressed.

Since we couldn't start until the kids were in bed, we were up until 12:30am Monday, 1am Tuesday, 11:30pm Wednesday and 10:15pm Thursday. It was so nice to just sit and watch So You Think You Can Dance on Friday night! More to come!

The Five Stages

Denial: Hmmm. That's interesting. Why are you doing that with your leg, Tommy? What good is that? You really shouldn't bend it like that it might get tired or sore. There's really no good reason I can see for you to move your leg in that way, why don't you go ahead and stick it out in front of you again. Anger: Don't reach for that! It's too far! No Tommy. That toy is too far for you! Nooooooo!!!!! Stop that!
Bargaining: If you don't push up on your arms like that Tommy, Mommy will nurse you all night long. No? You're just going to nurse all night long anyway? Yeah, I bet you are. OK. How about I make you some yummy sweet potatoes then, and I promise I won't try to sneak in peas too.Depression: Oh no. This is terrible. What am I going to do?!! How will I be able to keep this kid from choking on Legos, or worse...MARBLES?! He is going to get into everything. I'll really have to start cleaning the floors more regularly and I hate cleaning the floors. This is going to be awful. Life as I know it will cease to exist and I will be trailing a busy, wobbly walker all day long! {groan} Goodbye blogging, goodbye books, goodbye productivity. Quick! Someone tie a brick to that kid's bum!
Acceptance: OK. Crawling is obviously on its way. I don't feel like I'm quite ready for this part, but ready or not! It's coming. And it's good. Babies are supposed to do this around this age. {deep breath} I've been here before...four times. I can do this. I bet there is a way I can hide the Legos, the big boys will help in that, I am sure. And if I sneak a few marbles into the trash can every day maybe they will all be gone by the time he's really on the move. Life is about to get WAY more interesting!

Turning Tween

We have an unexpected visitor this summer. Perhaps he's more than just a visitor. Maybe he's here to stay for awhile. His name is "Zach the Tween" and he is all at once immensely enjoyable and unquestionably irritating.

Mish mashed into my dear little boy is person who is emotionally moody, incredibly helpful, constantly pushing back, uproariously funny, does what he wants, does the right thing, can cross the line in his jesting at times to disrespectful, engages in intelligent conversation, loves rock music, still loves La Vida Mickey, supremely aware of what's going on around him, completely oblivious to what's going on around him, self-centered and woe-is-me, sweet and thoughtful, happy then frustrated in the blink of an eye.

It's hard to keep up! But I think he's confused by it too. Part of it is that he's spending a lot of time with two of his friends from the neighborhood, both of whom are the youngest or almost the youngest in their large families, so the rules for them are much more lax than they are for our Zach, the oldest in a family that sets pretty high standards. For example, he doesn't understand why they get to stay up until 10pm roaming the street while Zach still has a 9pm summer bedtime (a whole HOUR later than his school-year bedtime--I thought I was being generous!). I've been trying to make sure he spends time with his friends who have stricter family rules too; it will be good to be in Washington where that's more the norm among the friends who we will be visiting. But he's also trying to prove that he's older and can be trusted with the responsibilities of an older kid. He pushes and pushes the limits and his boundaries, but then steps back and tries so hard to do the right thing and do what he's asked. I can see him struggling with it, just as we are.

This is uncharted territory for us. Zach's our oldest, and thus our "experimental kid." He gets all of our great ideas for parenting that prove successful and that we use again and again...and some of our worst ones too. Too bad we don't realize how stupid some of them are and scrap them until we get to Ben!

It's been a little rough going, there's been a lot of lecturing from me and "loud voice" (as Luke calls shouting) from Adam. Sometimes I am at a total loss for what to do. I don't like that he's pushing away a little, even though I know this is natural (and necessary!) for boys at this age to start to do (and girls too). But we make sure he knows he's loved. We're going through this time of growth together. He's not alone. There is a lot of prayer from me for guidance in the new situations we find ourselves in. And we are constantly trying to give him opportunities to stretch. At the same time it's been so fun! He's bright and witty and comes up with the best jokes and ideas. We have deeper conversations and I really enjoy the time we spend together in a new, more mature way. And he can be so great with his little brothers, helping and guiding them.

Zach is an amazing kid. I love this stage, and hate it at the same time. And I know it is a crucial stage to the teen years ahead. Sometimes it's a little scary too. I feel like any wrong move could send him in the wrong direction. But I know he's finding out who he is and growing into the person he will be for his life. I guess the most important thing is that as he finds who he is, he knows his dad and I are standing beside him, supporting him, and will never leave his side. And I know, even as he changes and grows, he will always be our little boy.

Fadda's Day

After the exhausting Saturday we had, everyone slept in on Sunday until around 8:15am...pretty impressive sleep-in for camping! We woke up the dads with a big "Happy Father's Day!" and set about making chocolate chunk pancakes for breakfast. Mmmm! Adam got his new jacket back in Steamboat Springs for his big gift, but the boys and I made him a "Some Of The Reasons We Love You" jar containing little slips of paper each with a word or phrase telling him things we love about him that he can pick out one day at a time. That way he can learn a different thing that we think makes him special every day! On top of that, Ben made him a lovely multi-colored finger-knit scarf.
Ben, Josh, Luke and Krista went out to do some more fish catching. Ben caught a couple of biggies! And by "big" I mean four-inchers. It was a little pond. Ben practices catch-and-release, though, so after being stared at and petted (and many attempts to pick them up by Luke) they were safely back in the pond.
And then we were off to the pool! The kids had a blast jumping off the diving boards, showing off their best tricks. Cannon balls, pencil dives, wacky poses...it was endless for a good 45 minutes. Josh was the first of our boys to bravely try out a forward flip. Ben gave it a try too, but Zach wasn't too comfortable with the thought of throwing his body off the board head first, so he stuck with jumping. Adam and David both got in on the flipping fun. And that's just one of the reasons they are very cool dads!
Luke wasn't too comfortable in the water wearing the life jacket. I think it made him feel like he wasn't in control because it was doing its job and kept trying to get him to float when he just wanted his feet on the ground. So he stuck to the kiddie pool where he didn't have to have it on and only ventured into the deeper pool if he was in Adam or my arms.Tommy LOVED the water and enjoyed floating in his little boat. He was squealing and splashing and sucking on the boat. But after awhile the water was so warm and the waves swayed so peacefully that he drifted right. to. sleep. He was out cold! He even transplanted out of the water and boat, staying sound asleep and spent a good hour-and-a-half sleeping on the towel pile on the table we had claimed for the day. His brothers were so oblivious to his quietly slumbering body that they tried to take towels from underneath him...twice!Valerie caught some zzz's too! She made me think of the years ahead when Adam and I won't have to be on full alert because we will no longer have little ones to watch like hawks when we go to the pool...nice. But also kind of sad! The kids all rented flippers from the store. They had to give a shoe and then they could borrow an item. They thought the flippers were so funny, but none of them knew how to swim with them, so they just wore them in the shallows. Here's all our ducks in a row!The big kids all split slushees, but Luke and I opted to share a frozen yogurt. I think we got the better end of that deal! Although I had to arm wrestle Luke for even the teensiest of bites.
The lower part of the pool area had a little tiny water slide where the kids liked to play, but the bugs were out even during the daytime down there and I guess I am particularly tasty, so I didn't want to stay too long. Luke asked me to catch him a bird while I was down there to take pictures, but I told him that unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to catch the birds. He was pretty bummed out that I couldn't get him one, but decided to try himself instead. It was so funny watching him race around, clapping his hands at the birds. He cracks me up!
It was hard to leave the pool, but we did have to get home eventually. So after a yummy lunch and some final packing, we were off on the 3.5 hour drive home, praying the van would be fine and make it back safely. I was glad I was in the Excursion with Valerie and the little boys, because Adam opted to keep the AC off for the drive to keep the engine as cool as possible, and it was a hot day!

Before leaving for home I got a picture of Adam with his boys. He's such an incredible father! I don't think he could have come up with a more fun, more perfect way to celebrate Father's Day. We had a wonderful time with our friends, the Simonds, and enjoyed all the activities we packed into the weekend. We can't wait for next year's annual camping trip! And yes, the van made it home just fine and didn't even require all that expensive of a fix...for once.
On the way out of Hooper I got a picture of the forest fire that is burning above the Dunes. You can even see a bit of the orange flame! Over the days we were there we would see it flare up like in the picture, and then also have times where there was barely even smoke. It's pretty controlled, started by a lightning strike over a week before this, so they are going to let it burn for the health of the forest until September...of course while keeping a close eye on it! We were lucky that the winds were taking the smoke out over the plains to the east instead of into the valley so we didn't even notice it much. But there was a sign at The Sand Dunes park entrance that basically said, "We know there's a fire, don't report it." I guess they'd had a lot of calls!

"Where Man Himself Is A Visitor Who Does Not Remain"

After breakfast on Saturday we packed up and headed out for the Dunes.

The Great Sand Dunes Wilderness National Monument is perhaps one of the strangest places on earth. The title of the post is a quote from the Wilderness Act that declared the area a National Monument in 1964. It all kind of gives me the heebie jeebies. I have to make sure to look up and out over the dry, brown sand occasionally to see the green mountains beyond in order to shake the feeling that I'm not in some awful nightmare, where I'm dragging my half-dead self through the desert in search of water that never appears. Because really, the Great Sand Dunes seem as if aliens picked up a small section of the Sahara Desert with their transplant lasers and plunked it down in the middle of the Colorado mountains. The shape of the mountains, plus rainfall, water runoff and high winds have made this bizarre collection of sand piled hundreds of feet high...weird! My favorite fact from the Park's literature was the assessment of the age of the dunes: they are between 12,000- and over 1 million-years-old. Um...that's quite a spread! So basically they have no idea.

This time of year there is a small river that winds its way across the flats below the Dunes. It was so pretty and green, and the water was shallow, cool and inviting. That is where Tommy, Luke, Josh, Ryan and Valerie (who has a bum hip and can't climb) plunked down to wait for us while we climbed to the top of the highest dune. The part of me that fears endless brown wanted to stay too, but the adventurous part won out and I headed off with the rest of the crew. YIPES! Isn't it scary?! The high peak in the background is the highest dune in the park, and really, the picture doesn't do it justice because it doesn't look that far or that high. Trust me...it's far and high! Look at the tiny dots up behind us, those are people still at the bottom of the dunes in the "flats." The tallest dunes are 750 feet up from ground level, and you go up and then down, up and then down on your way to those highest dunes. Not to mention that the park itself sits at 8,200 feet above sea level, so you're not getting tons of oxygen. It took us two hours to do the whole hike, much of it up steep dune crests where we back slid a half step for every one step. And it takes minutes to get down, so most of that time was going up, up, up! Krista started with us, went up the first two dunes, then turned around and headed back to the river. Smart girl!! So why do we even do it, you ask? Because it's there! :) Even with all my griping about the difficulty, as long as you have a nice big bottle of water and stop when you need to, it feels like a huge accomplishment when you get to the top. And the view! Awesome.
Here's our group on the way up, stretched out like a camel caravan. Climbing the dunes is not a chatty, social thing. You kind of have to go inside yourself and keep saying "one more step, one more step." Adam is the closest to the camera and the black dot in the middle on the right side of the photo is Ben. Again, notice the tiny dots on the dunes out in the distance, those are people, to help give some perspective to the vast expanse of sand dunes before us. We wear socks going up to protect our feet and keep the sand out. Socks are really the best hiking option, as any other footwear just fills with sand and hurts. They kept the heat from the ground bearable and I only had to dump mine out once. Oh, Ben! We know just how you feel! I love this picture because Ben's face shows just how we all felt inside climbing these monstrosities of sand. We were all dreaming of that cool stream waiting for us at the bottom. About 2/3 of the way to the top Ben said he wanted to stop, he was too tired. You have to understand that Ben is like the Energizer Bunny, he's never tired! It was odd to hear that coming from him. I went to hold his hand, make sure he was drinking enough and share some trail mix with him. We started to walk again and Ben said, "Mom, don't walk so close to the edge!" Then I realized: Ben was afraid of how high we were and how steep the dunes were! I was really surprised. Fearing heights has NEVER been a problem for Ben, who I've had to tell to come lower down many times when he's climbed trees over the years. I don't know what caused it, but he was pretty nervous, even when we showed him that even though the dune looks steep, it's really hard to fall off of it because the sand "catches" you. In spite of his fear, Ben made it to the top...and then asked, "Can we go down now?"
Zach and Josiah were the first in our group to the top. I had left Ben with Adam and caught up to them so they wouldn't be too far ahead and Zach would have his water, which Adam had been carrying for him in the pack. They were pretty proud to be the first up! The mountains behind them, the Sangre de Cristos, are what create the bowl that causes the dunes to build up where they do.
And here's that view! Beautiful!
If you enlarge this picture of Adam and Ben on the final ascent you can see a bit of fuzz around their legs. That is actually the sand blowing around. It was pretty windy up there on the dunes and the sand was pelting us everywhere! Let's just say I won't need to exfoliate for a couple of weeks, my skin's baby soft!
We all made it! The group at the top, clockwise from the left, David, me, Adam, Josiah, Zach, Micah and Ben. HOORAY!!!
One of the most fun parts of making it up is going back down. Jumping off the dune peaks and running full-stride down the dunes makes the going down take minutes compared to the hour plus of going up. Plus, it makes for some fun photos!
Back at the bottom we all cooled our blazing, sand-pumiced feet in the clear, cold water and then fed our famished bodies picnic-style. It was a perfect antidote for a long, hot but successful hike up the dunes.
We weren't done hiking yet! We drove over to a short 1/2 mile hike in the mountains called Zapata Falls. And that's where it happened. To get to the trailhead you have to leave the highway and drive a long switchback dirt road all uphill. On the drive up our car began to raise the alarm and lights began flashing. Uh oh. The radiator fan had gone out (it was actually the relay from the engine telling the fan to turn on that had gone out) and the engine totally overheated. Radiator fluid was boiling and roiling all up and out of our engine! We pulled over to the side of the road, opened the hood, all stood staring for a few minutes as the engine bled florescent greenish-yellow blood, piled in the Simond's Excursion and went for our hike anyway, figuring we'd fill our bottles with cold river water to pour in the radiator when we got back and allow the engine to cool on the mountainside while we hiked.
It was such a refreshing hike compared to The Dunes. When you come up over the crest where the river is cascading down the mountain and the green, leafy trees are growing there is a wonderful rush of cool, crisp air. Thank God for trees, or this place would be HOT!
Once you get there you have to hike up along the river a bit. It's such a picturesque Colorado river mountain scene! I just love it!
After the river walk Tommy and I stopped and headed back to wait for the rest of the group. The falls is in a little cavern that you can see the entrance to off to the left in the picture below. But the footing as you skirt up along the wall between the river and the rocks is too unsure with a baby in a backpack, so we didn't get to the falls. It's OK, I saw them last time and I am sure we will be going again! Adam said the waterfall was much fuller and the cavern much wetter than when we did the same hike Labor Day weekend two years ago (and this time even a bit of ice remained in the cavern from winter) so he couldn't get the camera out to take pictures because he was afraid it'd get too wet. The roaring of the falls was definitely too loud for Luke, who waited for Dad outside the cave.
After a short explore of the cavern and waterfall, everyone returned to the top of the trailhead where Valerie, Tommy and I had been hanging out. Before heading to the cars, we filled a couple of water bottles with river water for the van, and Luke found this little green caterpillar. He loved it! It was very hard to convince him that it needed to stay behind up by the river in the trees to live. So with tears and loud gasping sobs, we said goodbye to the little green "wor-um," as Luke called it.
Here's the view from just below the falls, the light brown at the bottom of the mountains there is Great Sand Dunes National Monument. With smoke from a forest fire that was burning in the mountains above the Dunes softening the air, it looked almost like a painting.
It was a fun, exhausting day of hiking, but we all had a great time. We went back to the campground for some swimming (although a hot springs pool isn't quite so refreshing on a hot day as a nice cool pool), tinfoil dinners and more s'mores! After the kids had crashed for the night, Valerie, David, Adam and I played a couple rounds of a fun card game called Wizard. I had a terrible showing the first time around, coming in last by nearly 200 points, but much to my shock (and everyone else's) I pulled out the win in the second round!

It had been another great day for the Conlin family!