Camping - day 4

The last day. Here is Uncle Mark pushing my little ones in the hammock. They love this. A hammock is a must have camping!

Even baby Matthew took a nap in it.

Look at that little pudge!Russ and I were going to stop by his Great Uncle and Aunts 70th year Anniversary party in Flagstaff so I decided to rinse my hair in the creek. It was so cold, but felt really good. (We didn't take any pictures at the party, but it was great to see some family and the best friend I made in Flagstaff, I guess technically she is family too:)

These pictures are from the day before, somehow they got out of order, but I thought I should put them up because they are of Mark doing a back flip and I was glad I got the pictures.

Connie taught the kids an original game of What Time is it Mr. Fox. The kids ask what time if is and the one in the chair gives a number, like 3 o'clock. Then they take the appropriate number of step (sometimes) until they get to the chair

The first one who gets to the chair...

gets to be Mr. Fox next. None of the running and chasing business.

The kids loved it and did it for a long time. Even Gracie. Without adult help on intervention. Awesome! Thanks Connie.

A special thanks to my mom and dad for reserving the campsite and for preparing all the awesome food. My mom even got veggie burgers for Connie and I:) It was so much fun and very relaxing and I can't wait until next year.

Oh, and a lot of people have asked me where this spot is. It is at a campsite in Oak Creek Canyon, in between Sedona and Flagstaff.

Camping - day 3 evening

After we got back from the creek, cousins Marie and Anna were there! And we made homemade root beer with dry ice.

Russ got some in a bottle and tried to make it come out his nose...But he just coughed a lot.Gracie and Anna spent a lot of quality time swinging in the hammock.

And my mom brought cup cakes for everyone to decorate for Ashley's birthday.The we roasted marshmallows and we had some huge marshmallows.

William only had the patients to hold it long enough for the picture, then he said he was done.Russ on the other hand will sit patiently for twenty minutes to roast it to perfection. Gracie wanted to help. Look at that beautifuly golden mallow he is roasting. I told Russ he should have a smore stand (like a hotdog stand) and sell his perfectly roasted mallow smores. He said, "the world isn't patient enough for my marshmallows." It's true.Maire enjoying the sweeties.

Looks like Anna had some.

I nearly got sick trying to eat my smore. Those marshmellows were really big.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Camping - day 3

It all started with sweet morning snuggles

and then observations of the skunk that would roam our campsite while we were sleeping. He even tried to while we were awake and almost scared me half to death when I was walking to get something out of my car.Here we are observing the whole of a ground squirrel (or something like that). We watched him push dirt out of his whole for a few minutes and it was so cute.

Russ, Connie, Eric, and I headed to town for a few necessities, learned about Michael Jackson's death, and returned with a hammock. We tried to make my dad nice and comfy.It worked...kind of. But everyone else sure loved it. Today was exciting because more people came up, like Vaeh!

And her dad Ryan. Here he is planning his ambush on the way to the creek.

You won't be able to see him here because he is using his camouflage. Look at those studly guys - Mark and Russ. I don't know the kid in the blue.Such nice posers. Pop belly Russ.All the boys are up there and Mark and Russ are jumping.This is my brother Kent just after he jumped. Here is Mark pretending to push Eric in.
And here is Eric jumping on his own. My nephew Melvin wanted to jump in but was a little nervous...

So he slid in.

Here is his sister Bianca with Grandma. I finally made a connection with her and she seems to like me. (Making a connection was made difficult because she doesn't speak english).

Connie and Gracie observing all the jumping madness.

Stayed tuned for the rest of the day. Too much to post right now.

Camping - day 2

Heavenly to wake up to a fire and hot chocolate. And cozy up to someone to keep warm And eat pancakes, my kids love pancakes!

After awhile we went down to the creek to play and see if we could get a family picture in all this beauty.

Good thing William is such a good poser. Gracie wanted to look under all the rocks and say, "oh my gosh" at all the interesting things she would see. Her Daddy taught her that.

This one turned out best

Then we went down to "the door" to play.

Russ running down the log.

William decided to put his face in the water.
Russ even got some studying in too.

Every night we fell fast asleep and slept very well.