Rachel The Hiker

Rachel and I hiked to Red Pine Lake this week.  I have taken the other kids with me before and major whining ensues.  Rachel, however, always wants to push ahead, so I decided to take just her on a hike to see how she would do.  I planned on not making it to the lake as this is a 7 mile round trip hike and is very strenuous toward the top.  There is a picture of Rachel sitting by the river/stream that flows down the mountain and this is the 1 mile mark with about another 2 1/2 miles to go.  She made it to the river, no sweat!  She never complained and we laughed, talked and sang songs the whole way up.  I LOVE children. They notice things us grumpy adults don't, like the beautiful flowers and the view.  I tend to keep my head down and plow through my hikes and enjoy the view at the top, but not Rachel.  She would stop for a second and just sigh and say "Mom, this is just beautiful".  It would just make me smile.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing this with her.  As many of you know, I adore hiking!  I'm so excited I have a buddy to hike with!  Here are some fun pics of us along the way.

 This is the view from the trail down into the valley.  Kind of smokey this day, but still incredible.

 At Red Pine Lake

 Our pretty toes soaking in ice cold water.  It felt great!

 Rachel standing by a field of very beautiful blue flowers.  

 Rachel wanted to take pictures of all the different varieties of flowers on our way down the mountain and on this picture, I had it in focus and at the last second a huge bumble bee landed on this flower.  

 There were butterflies everywhere!  We finally caught a picture of this one.  Isn't it pretty?!

Joe and Sonic

Joe (age 7) has a hobby...well, many actually.  He LOVES to draw!  He is ALWAYS drawing.  For about a year it has been Link from Zelda.  Dan and I won't let him play very many video games because his mother (me) has a tendency to be seriously addicted :) So, I really do understand how much they can monopolize your life and kids just need to be kids before they even begin to understand how many things we can become addicted to in this life.  Instead of playing the games, Joe draws them.  We love to see his pictures posted all over our house.  He is getting quite good!  Just this week his friends have been talking Sonic video games, so instead of playing them, he is now begging me to look up pictures of Sonic on the computer so he can draw and color them.  I just love this kid.  I love that he makes the most of every situation!

Romeo and Juliet

Above is a super cute video of Abby performing as a narrator in her 6th grade Romeo and Juliet play.  She has been looking forward to this for months!  She is on the far left in turquoise. We were all so excited to go and watch her perform.  If you know anything about Abby, you'll know that she LOVES to perform!  She is constantly making up songs and performing them.  I love this about her!  We all had fun watching the kids play for a minute on the playground outside the school.  We went home afterwards for dessert.  We had Raw Brownies and homemade Banana Ice Cream.  I'm not sure I mentioned here on this blog that we changed the way we eat around our house.  We have been Vegan since February and are loving it!  Many things led us to this choice and if you want to read more, feel free to check out my new website called Go Plant Yourself!  I will post this dessert soon!

Zions and Bryce National Parks

In the middle of May, we took a family vacation! It was down to southern Utah. I had visited these National Parks in my teenage years, Dan and the kids have never been. We had such a fun time swimming in the hotel pool, taking bus tours through Zions and driving through Bryce. We barely scratched the surface of all the fun things you can do in these parks. I had no idea the number of trails that you could hike! If you know me at all, I LOVE to hike!!! I'm anxious to visit again. Here are some great pics of us enjoying our time together.