Annual Bury/Corrigan camping trip: Lake Billy Chinook

This year the Bury/Corrigan clan of 12 ventured inland for our annual camping trip. We traded ocean beaches for some lake livin'. We both brought our canoe/raft and then one day we rented a party barge for further lake exploration. There was lot of eating, drinking, scooter riding, fishing, swimming, hiking the trail several times a day to/from our campsite to the lake. Awesome time with our favorite favorite bestie family.

Marcus loves having one person younger than him to boss around.
PS. Bossy Lady doesn't cower easily ;)

Tent Kids

Group hug!

Storytime by the campfire

Holland loves coffee with the momma's

Best photo of the weekend

Bury/Corrigan party of twelve!

Haircuts

Madeline wanted to cut her doll's hair. Well, it's her doll! Go girl :)

Already dreaming of her new career

Happy 7th Birthday Max

Max turned seven! What a delight he is, just such a sweet, kind, hard working, thoughtful and sensitive human being. I love all those qualities. He is starting to speak his own mind more, and learn how to stand up for himself and others. He has already learned the quality of a quiet leader. He does not demand his respect, but he earns it. He is learning a lot of these things by having Marcus for a brother (Marcus is... the... assertive type). What I love about seeing some of these other qualities emerge in Max, is that it when they come out, it is in his own way. We are encouraging him to grow and stretch in a way that still honors his personality, who he is. What a generous, caring and gentle soul he is. Happy birthday to our Maxy!!

Birthday Cereal: Lucky Charms

Marin's gift to him: flarp

Marcus' gift to him: a "thing for shaving your face"... or a sand toy

Maddie's gift to him: homemade canvas with his qualities listed

Best gift from Dad: a water rocket!

A busy birthday, opening gifts after dark!

Watching Obi

We did a bit of dog-sitting for our friends this summer. It was the biggest delight of the entire Earth for Marin and Max, and a big stretch in overcoming fears for Madeline. What a sweet and delightful puppy, Obi was the perfect dog for us to "practice" on (they are still begging for our own dog)...

Besties

His favorite snuggle spot

A little brush

Besties

Max's Day Camp

Max got to go to his first day camp at church! All day, Monday-Thursday and it was a big time stretch for him. Even longer than a school day, in fact. This is because the kids and I volunteered on the "before camp" team which was for an hour and a half before camp started, a place for staff kids to go during the staff prep meetings. We ate breakfast together, played games, got the staff kids to their classes! It was a fantastic week for Max, and he became very close with his leaders. These two young guys really did such an amazing job with their group of boys. On the last day (which happened to be Max's birthday), they had a family BBQ and affirmation/celebration time. We broke up into small groups, with all the families, and the leaders shared specific things about each child, things they observed in their week with them. Max's leaders observed his quiet leadership, his willingness to listen and respond, and they repeated multiple times how much this meant to them, as they tried to keep everyone in their group on track throughout the week. This is no surprise, these are some of Max's best traits. He is a good boy. I'm so happy he had his own special camp to attend!

The camper!

Fellow Quatama classmate

Small group

Sharing about Max

Team Haiti

Max's small group