Sometimes the weather cooperates, and sometimes it doesn't

Our last hurrah of the summer was a quick camping trip up to Payson Lakes.  We like it because it is close, there's a plenty of places to play during the day, and you can generally get in without a reservation (although this time we got there barely before dark and there were only 3 spots left - phew.) 

The night we got there, the weather was perfect.  We got everything set up before dark and had an awesome time around the campfire.

 

The next morning was chilly, but perfect mountain morning weather.  It felt great to be outdoors.

 

 

The sun rose higher and we headed over to the lake.  It was quite warm for a few hours.  While Russ & Corbin went horseback riding with Grandma & Grandpa . . .

. . . my friend brought her kids up to play with us at the lake (you just have to believe that I have friends, because I have no pictures to prove it, but trust me they were there with their cool boat and we all had lots of fun.)

 

And of course, as soon as I decided it was too hot and I should put on my swimming suit, the clouds rolled in and the cold swept through (along with some rain).  But that didn't deter us.  The horseback riders came back, we ate lunch, and played some more. . .

 

 

 

When we'd finally had enough of the weather's erratic behavior, we packed up and changed into warm clothes.   We gave our allergic-to-horses-kids a heavy dose of drugs and headed out for a family horseback ride.  Even though I don't love big animals (or any animals for that matter), this was our first time riding all together, and I have to say it was quite fun.  Plus, we were up in the mountains, not in the pasture, and it was beautiful!

(But of course, I don't have a picture of us all together, that would have been too perfect.)

And about Cody's sad face . . . the allergy medicine was not cutting it for him and he was having a horrible time breathing.  Poor guy.  So Russ tried to grab him off Corbin's horse and throw him on behind him, but Russ' horse didn't like that and they both got tossed off.  Luckily, Russ mostly kept Cody from falling to the ground and getting stomped on.  But since he was already crying and upset, we didn't notice until later that the horse had actually knicked him in the ear with his hoof.  I think it's a good thing he had his hoodie on.

(This was the next day, but you can kind of see how purple & black his ear is)

So we had dinner back at camp and made s'more s'mores.  But since Cody was still wheezing and Colton was starting in too, I decided to take the little two home at about 10pm.  (Yes, we had two cars, so Russ could stay and hunt on the last day.) Turns out it was a good thing I did.  One, Colton needed a breathing treatment in the middle of the night, and two, Russ and Corbin got POURED on.  They were soaked!  But that's ok.  They're big and there was only two of them.  They can handle it.

All in all, it was a good trip.  We LOVE being outdoors, and I love spending time with my boys.

Why do we celebrate Labor Day?

I don't know, but it sure is fun!!

On Saturday: Payson Onion Days Children's Fest

On Monday:  BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa's . . .

we start with the hAyRidEs!

  sHuCkiNg the CoRn and FeEdInG the cOwS

Grandpa's "Door to AdvEnTuRe!"

CaTcHiNg CrAwDadS

And Colton wakes up from his nap and sees that everyone is...

RiDiNg HoRseS!  HOORAY! (And Corbin went for the first time without being led!  Way to go, bud!  And thank you Zyrtec!)

Oh, and we ate lots of yummy food, but I guess I was too hungry to take any pictures.  Just use your imagination.

My Short Term Identity Crisis (aka. My week in the Swagger Wagon) cont'd.

In case you missed the first post, you can click here.  And I'm not kidding about the identity crisis, I just know that every where I went people ere looking at me and thinking "Oh my gosh, she's one of those moms with five little kids who doesn't know how to park her van."  Serious.  Every where I went people were looking at me and I know they were when I was driving.  I could feel it.  (Sorry to all of you who have a mini-van, and I know that most of you love them, but I'm a Jeep girl and this was a really difficult transition for me.)

But enough of my wallowing in self pity or whatever it is.  I was actually really grateful that I got to have my neice and nephew for a week and that we had a car we could all fit in so we could go and do super fun things every day.  So onto the happy stuff..

Day Four (Tuesday)

Horseback riding, Ziplining, and Swimming in our underwear (the kids, not me).

Colton's first time on the horse by himself.  He liked it, but lasted about 20 seconds once they actually started moving before starting to slip to the side.  He rode with mom after that.

I was very proud of Corbin.  He doesn't ride very often because he is allergic to horses and because of that has developed a slight fear of them.  But he did great and I think he had fun too.

Lexi LOVED riding the horses and was very happy that she got an extra turn at the end and her and Uncle Russ got to ride fast.  She is a natural with those horses!

Levi was a little bit more timid, but they had fun riding together.  Aren't they cute?!

Cody still doesn't like to do it, but everyone else had a great time doing it over and over - even Colton!

[Sorry, not going to post the underwear pics, there are some weirdos out there.  But those boys sure had fun in Grandma Sharee's little plastic pool!]

That afternoon, after "quiet time", we all went to see Toy Story 3.  It was good, the kids loved it, Colton was almost entertained, but I'm still not convinced it was worth the $60 we dished out.  Maybe next time we'll just stick with movies at home.

Day Five

Hiking the Grotto Trail and a Service Project.

(Why are my sisters kids smiling and all my kids are grumpy pants?)

We made it to the waterfall!

And of course you have to have shaved ice after working so hard on the hike.

You can read more about our service project on my other blog (which is quite sad at the moment and woefully behind on our Summer of Service), but the long and the short of it is we went to a park, had a picnic and picked up trash.  We noticed last time we went to this park that it was in serious need of a clean up, and we were right.  We filled our trash bag and could have done more.  Of course we did plenty of playing while we were there too, but every time they brought me a piece of trash, they got a jelly bean.  It worked out great!

Day Six

Swimming!  (We did clean the house in the morning too, but who wants to blog about that.)  Russ and Colton stayed home and took naps and Grandma Sharee went with me and the four kids, and we had a great time!  It was such a hot day, I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Cody jumped in the pool about a thousand times, right in the same spot, over and over.

Everyone loved the lazy river.

Corbin went down the fast slide!  What a brave kid!

And now for the real truth, obviously (or not) this is a back post, and right now we are actually on vacation in Oregon.  And now it is 11:15pm, which is really past midnight our time, so I am getting quite sleepy . . . so much to your sadness, I'm sure, this post is once again . . .

To Be Continued . . .