five men and a lady

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Red Rocks Day:1

For Memorial Day we decided to head up to the Red Rock Country in Northern Arizona. We made the kids skip the last day of school, but since it was an early release it wasn't that big of a deal. So we packed up and off we went.

Day One: We arrived at the campgrounds after another LOVELY drive with our four boys and the dog in a extended cab truck after a four and a half hour drive. Too much fun. We stayed at Dead Horse Ranch about 20 minutes outside of Sedona. The camp grounds were really nice, nothing remote about it, it even had hook ups! As much water and electricity as we could use (or hold in our tanks! :) ). That evening we just hung out and set up camp. Doug had packed the bikes so the boys were off riding around the camp grounds and loving it. I had a weird bought of dizzy/nausea that Doug thought was dehydration... he was probably right, after I drank a lot of water and laid down for a while I was ok. We had to get creative for cooking because there were no fires or charcoal grills allowed. Thankfully we brought a lasagna I had made previously and threw it in the oven for dinner. Having that oven is SOOOO nice!

That evening we headed up the hill across from our site and watched the sunset. Due to the wind there was a lot of haze, and I tell you what I have NEVER watched a slower sunset. We were pretty sure the sun stopped moving that evening! :)

Friday, January 6, 2012

Horse back riding with the GiGi's

While the Gigi's were here we were able to purchase and use a Groupon for horse back riding. We went to the stables at Colossal Cave and it was BEAUTIFUL!! We even got to experience fall at the end of November! Who would have thought!

Safely first!! Thankfully I didn't have to wear one though! :)

This is actually a picture of a fanned out saguaro cactus (they have a special name, but for the life of me I have no idea what it was). There are only a couple in existence, another one is at Roosevelt Lake oddly enough! :)

Good times.

Reddington Pass hike

While mom G and I went off on Black Friday and shopped till we dropped (literally!) Doug and Dad G went off and did "GUY THINGS". They took the kids to Reddington Pass and had a really great hike... so Doug said! He said it was beautiful and the boys all had a great time. I think Dad did too.

Conner, the eternal bug lover, caught yet another grasshopper and I think had a meltdown when he was told he could not bring it home with him. They are barely living by the time he has carried them all over the place, but that is one thing we do not need in our vehicles!

Cody

Doug's favorite things... His boys, his dog and his TRUCK!!

Father and son. I am so glad they had such a great day. Mom and I had a great day too. I just wish we had a picture of the van full of STUFF at the end of the day. It was crazy!

Sean and Conners 7th Birthday!!

Sean and Conner turned 7 in November! I can't believe how fast it has gone. The first four years were really a blur, but the last three have been a BLAST. They are just such fun kiddos. They do try us at times, but what kid doesn't. (Doug you weren't normal!) They do tend to talk their own language, or at least translate what they hear into their own language, for example: We say, "Boys go get dressed for school." They hear, "Boys go get naked and wrestle on the floor!" We say, "Clean your room." They hear, "Play in your room and build the biggest tent with all your blankets, EVER!" But that put aside they are really amazing kids. Sean is a very tender hearted child and is very in touch with his feelings. The boys feel as though a slug to their brother is warranted if they do not hear "I'm sorry" quickly enough... usually a millisecond is given to speak! :) Conner is still my sweety... at least to me. He was sent to the principals office several times lately b/c he was hitting kids at school. He just can't understand why they don't deal with things like the boys deal with them at home!! But don't let their age fool you, they are still little guys, they will quickly crawl into our laps when there is a scary part on a movie, love to be read to, and don't mind kissing mom in public.

For their birthday we went to the place they have been begging to go since arriving in Tucson, CHUCK E CHEESE!!! Grandma and Grandpa GiGi flew in that afternoon and were able to join us as well!! Clinton and Lana and family came too. It really was a great time.

Then it was back to the house for CAKE!! The boys both requested strawberry cake, so I got online and looked up a recipe. Unfortunatly the color of strawberry is a little pink when in a cake, so we tried to "man" up the cake, but it just turned it into a pink and purple cake... oh well, it sure did taste good!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet babies! I can't believe my babies are 7!!! It is going too fast!

Camping at Roosevelt Lake

During a long weekend in November we decided to pack up and go on one last camping trip of the year. This time we decided to try out the campers from out door rec at the base, and what a breeze that was! :) We were able to take whatever we wanted due to the extra space in the trailer! It was awesome! This momma likes to bring STUFF!! Doug loved the fact that we HAD to take the truck, but didn't enjoy the three hour drive with all the kiddos so close to our ears! :)

The temps were lower than they had been and since we have a dog that doesn't have much hair and even less body fat, we had to buy her a sweater so she didn't freeze while we were camping. It worked pretty well but didn't stay on very long! :)

This is from our campsite looking over the lake with the mountains in the background. The campgrounds were really nice and each one had it's own awning over the picnic tables.

The boys fishing...

Me watching them and playing Phase 10 on my iPod. :)

The campsite was across the highway an ancient cliff dwelling site. So we took one day and went over and toured that. Pretty cool and a nice hike too.

Just over my shoulder is where we were camping. I love my boys!!!

Cody in the cliff dwelling.

Thanks to the trailer I was able to not look as bad on this camping trip and even did my makeup a few days! :) As evidenced by the previous blogs about our camping... that is not always the case!

Our campground at Roosevelt Lake with Doug and (I think) Conner.

The sunset was really pretty one night but you could get a better view if you climbed up and over a hill just by our site. Doug and I in all our laziness offered the camera to Conner and told him he could take a picture if he went to the other side of the hill and did it! :) It worked great.