Summer vacation!

Just like last summer, we kicked off this year’s summer vacation with a camping trip to the mountains.  We went to the same spot as last summer, Woods Canyon Lake, just about an hour east of Payson.  The drive isn’t too bad for us and the area is beautiful, green and cool with a great lake for fishing just two miles from where we camp.

This picture was taken just a couple hours after settling into camp the first day.  The kids were pretty much covered in dirt from head to two each day!

Going fishing with Dada, while Mama and Jed hold the fort down.

Camping arts and crafts!

Play ball!

Nothing like s'mores, ghost stories and a game of Old Maid every night by the fire!

Even Jedders got to sit by the fire and enjoy some graham crackers!

Caught lots of cool bugs and butterflies.

The kids caught tons of baby fish and some crawdads with their nets and hot dogs.

We saw a bunch of very tame elk.  This one in particular actually ate some leaves out of this girl’s hand!  I don’t think the kids had any clue how lucky they were to be able to see these beautiful animals up close.

We got a great rain and hail storm one evening!

Jed & Dada stayed warm and watched from the trailer.

Buddy & Susan picked the kids up yesterday and drove them up to their camp for a couple nights, while Blaine, Jed & I drove home last night for work.  Luckily we only have to clock in two days and then can head back up tomorrow night after work.

Below are some pictures I had taken from before we left for vacation.

We had to cut Grayson’s swimming short the last two weeks due to vacation.  He’s done really well with it and not only got to learn new strokes, but actually got to compete this year. Here he is holding his second place ribbon from his first swim meet doing the backstroke. 

Baby blues is crawling everywhere these days!

What is wrong with this picture?  Oh, right…Grayson & Colbie are sprawled out in Mommy & Daddy’s bed… no their OWN! 

We’ve been doing lots of crafts and projects this summer.  This was a baking soda/vinegar food coloring one…. wasn’t as cool as I had hoped.  We also made some super cool Ghostbuster backpacks out of cereal boxes, soda cans and other odds/ends!  I have the song downloaded to my phone and they really get into exterminating all the ghosts around our house!

This was their mean face!

It was a Batman kind of day!

Our own Cinderella princess dressed her “Lizzie” bear in a matching dress!  And our little minion!

Happy Fourth of July!

 

Three fantastic days at the beach and our fifth annual Handerson Haulenmorrisbach reunion and lots of pictures to share.  I will need to get a copy of the group from Grandy Sandi and post later, but wanted to get these up while I had a moment.

The guys have a new pacer now!

Colbie & Camdyn!  These future wildcats are going to be trouble! They already gave us a huge scare that evening before dinner when we noticed they were no where to be seen. The girls decided to take a little stroll outside and after a somewhat panicked search, Blaine found them a few houses down, totally unaware of how worried everyone was! We learned our lesson and won’t be leaving the kids with Grayson as the babysitter anymore! He is mature, but he is just five!

Lots of arm wrestling going on this trip.  Grayson of course played by the rules and then there’s Colbie, who didn’t think twice about using her other hand and body to slam down her competition!

Met a friend, “Hoppy,” who literally hopped into the house one evening and soon became the kids’ pet frog!

It’s all about the “pulp!”  Thanks for all the Coronas Ryan!

After calling him “lazy” in my last post, this little guy has decided to take off crawling!  It happened the first morning we were there (last Wednesday).  All this freedom and exercise has also seemed to help in the sleeping department too.  I don’t want to jinx myself, but I feel like we’re finally turning a corner! Jed also says “mama” quite a bit now.  I realize he probably doesn’t make the association, but it is sweet to hear him say it! 

Miss Colbie has such an imagination! Here she is telling Ryan & Kim all about the “mountain lion that broke into the trailer and dada had to get a banger gun and kill it.” I’m pretty sure there were bears and coyotes too.

Dinner on the pier in San Clemente