Albuquerque Turkeys

Hiking is good for you.  We believe in teaching our kids to hike.  It teaches hard work, endurance, and all kinds of life lessons, in addition to just being good for your health.   (An extra bonus for us if we're hanging out with Nona and Papa, is that if you want "prime-time"with Papa, you go hiking.  My Dad loves to hike, and we love hiking with him!  He's always prepared for everything.)

So our last day at the cabin, we took our kids on a hike with Nona & Papa and all the other nieces and nephews who were there.  (Except the twins.) We made Bennett walk as far as we could convince him to go before putting him in the backpack.  It took a lot of distraction, (walking "like a giant" or a "a horse," and singing "You're a Grand Old Flag,"which has become his hiking song this summer) to get him to go as far as he did, and he whined for most of that.  Including while he was singing.  But once he finally got to ride, hiking was suddenly the bestest, funnest, greatest thing there ever was.  Ha!  Baby steps.  Start 'em out young, and get them to go a little further each time.  Don't you worry; we'll make a hiker of him yet.

I'm happy to report that Sydney (who was our whiney hiker last year) has graduated to the happy hiker group and now loves to be up near the front of the line.  She said that last year she didn't like to hike, but her legs are much stronger this year and that's why she's a good hiker now.

It was a gorgeous hike to Alpine Lakes with views that caught my breath and wildflowers everywhere.  When we got to one of the bigger lakes, the kids were all hot and hopped in that cold mountain lake to play.  Unfortunately, I forgot a swim diaper or a change of clothes for Bennett, so we ended up stripping him down to play in the lake.  The kids were all properly scandalized and couldn't stop giggling about Bennett's skinny dipping.  I didn't bring my swim stuff either, but instead of skinny dipping, I just put Sean in charge of him.  I loved watching Sean playing with him in the water and doing funny things to make Bennett laugh.  I loved watching the kids play in the water, and help each other over a fallen log bridge.  I loved watching my kids holding their Nona or Papa's hands hiking along the trail, and seeing my Dad whip out his first aid kit to help with a couple of scraped knees.  Yep.  It was a good hike.

One of the days, we packed a picnic and headed over to a nice park a short drive away.  It was pretty hot while we were up there, so it felt nice to be in the shade and out of the cabin which can get quite stuffy in the summer afternoons.

We celebrated Sydney's 5th birthday up at Stonehaven with lots of cousins and Aunts and Uncles!  It's not everyday we get to celebrate birthdays with so much family!  We had a pink pony piñata and pink cake and presents.  Bennett LOVED hitting that piñata, and asked the next day to play "pink pony game."  When we were saying things that we love about Sydney, two things stand out in my memory.  One said they loved her laugh (me too--it's completely contagious) and I think it was her cousin, Gavin, who said he loved that she was magical.  Sydney laughed, "Magical? I'm not magical!"  But I think he's right--Miss Sydney is a rather magical little girl.

It's always a good day when you get to enjoy the beautiful clear blue waters of Lake Tahoe.  The lake was lower this year than I've ever seen it, but we still had a great day.  We spent hours there and still had to drag Bennett out of the water.  

We brought rafts and our inflatable surfboards (courtesy of CMT) and a picnic lunch.  The surfboards were a huge hit.  There were only two, so the kids had to take turns, and I had to smile when I heard Hayden trying to convince Kyrie to give him a turn.  He said, "Come on, Kyrie, you live by an ocean--you can play in the water whenever you want to.  But I don't have ANY water in my state.  So I hardly ever get to play in the water."  When all else fails--play the "I live in a desert" card.  

One of my favorite memories of this day was the epic water fight in which a raft may or may not have been sacrificed.  

Reed, Nathan, and Dallin had been asking for it all day, so Jen and I decided to take them on.  We were clearly outnumbered, and let's be honest, as strong as I am, we were also out-muscled.  But we went after them anyway.  

They were hiding in the rocks, likes cowards, waiting for us to launch our assault. We attacked from the water with buckets and raft paddles but they had the high ground.  So we thought we should try to find their raft and steal it, but it was secreted too well, and an attempt to find it was unsuccessful.  That could have been because our vision was severely impaired as a result of Reed's constant onslaught of water in our faces with his raft paddle.  While we were on the rocks, and our raft left empty, Nathan snuck around the back and jumped into our raft in an attempt to commandeer the vessel.  

Alas his endeavor at thievery was foiled because I heroically leapt off the rock into the raft and pushed him out.  Then in an act of sheer bravery, Jen jumped even further to the safety of our raft, which in a few seconds, we realized was loosing air.   They gave us a 20 second headstart to get back to the beach, but it was two moms in a sinking raft against 3 pretty muscly boys in a better raft and the sleek inflatable surfboards.  What chance did we really have?  It was hopeless.  But we paddled and kicked as fast as we could, and didn't get away in time.  Luckily they took pity on us because of our increasingly limp sea vessel and ceased their hostilities.  

But then they had the nerve to blame me for the broken raft!  I think we can all agree that in actuality, it was Nathan's fault.  If he hadn't been trying to sneak off with our boat,  I wouldn't have been forced to jump into it from such a lengthy distance and the vessel would never have been breached.  Right???

June 20-26

Stonehaven

Northstar, California

Right after we got done with CMT,  (literally--we unloaded all the CMT gear, put it in the shed, and immediately repacked the car for our trip) we drove out to California for a week at Stonehaven with Nona, Papa and as many of the other Stones as could make it.  Present were Nona, Papa, Garietys, Evans, Reeds, Reed, Emma and Nathan.  And we really missed the Andersons, Melanie and Jacob!!

The kids played outside constantly reveling in the abundant dirt and making forts.  Reed built some new beds for Bedroom 6, and most of us helped out somehow staining, assembling, clearing out the old furniture, etc.  We also spent a day at the lake, celebrated Sydney's 5th Birthday, played games, watched movies, went for a lovely hike, and enjoyed the pools at the Northstar Rec Center.  How we love summertime at Stonehaven.

All the Stone cousins who were there this trip.

The kids might look a little like ragamuffins, 

but that's just a testament to the amount of fun they had!