Balch Family Blog

At Target this summer they had several camping items on sale, so we picked up a tent and stove. We had not used it and decided we should try a test run in our backyard. Mark arrived home a little after 6pm. He began to set up the tent and built a fire (we have a firepit in our backyard). I purchased a mesquito lantern and sprayed the family down with bug spray. By 7:30 we were grilling our hotdogs. Camden thought he would investigate the mesquito lantern and burned his fingers. We rushed inside to put them under cool water. He was fine so we headed back out. We ate our dinner and then made s’mores. Camden liked the chocolate the best. By 9:00 pm we were all in bed and asleep a few moments later.

It was a lot of fun and we are glad we practiced in our yard before venturing out to the wilderness. When we woke up this morning to a neighbor talking on the phone, Mark and I agreed to a few more backyard trials before doing the real thing!

Here are a few pictures:

I feel like I need to write a post, but I don’t have anything really big to report so I will just do a quick family update.

Camden is a very busy 3 year old. He is attending a Christian preschool 2 days/week and this Sunday will start AWANA at our church. With the weather cooling down a bit he is playing in the backyard more. His favorite thing to do is help daddy with any project.

Carsten just turned 6 months, and he weighs as much as most 1 year olds (20lbs)! He sure is a cutie though! He is so alert and really takes everything in. He loves his big brother. Camden can make him laugh like no one else can! He is trying new foods and he is getting stronger in several differfent areas.

Mark is also very busy. He continues to work…A LOT. His schedule does allow him to be home on Tue/Thur mornings so that is a very important family time. His softball league is starting up again. Mark really enjoys playing ball with the big boys. His games are on Sat nights so the boys and I will go to the early (6:30/7:30) ones. He plays a double header each week.

I am working here and there with the school district, about 8 hours/month. I also just picked up 2 private clients that I will begin treating this week. One is a little boy with Down Syndrome and the other is his older brother (who I worked with before being put on bedrest).

Our family is on pins and needles waiting for our sunporch to be stuccoed (sp?). With it being such a small job we are very low on the priority list. We will use the room as a play area and toy room. It is not closed off completely (silly town codes) so the windows and doors will just have screens, but for what we are planning it should work perfectly. We are also looking forward to our FL trip in November.

I guess that sums up our happenings here. We hope everyone is doing well too!