Spring Break

We had planned on starting our Spring Break with a mad dash to drive up to Manti in time to go through the temple with my cousin Donny as he got his endowment on Saturday and then hear him speak on Sunday before he left on his mission to Seattle Washington. A few days before we were supposed to leave I started to have doubts- we'd been feeling really stressed out and needed some relaxing time and a long, rushed trip with four kids is not so relaxing, the girls were still getting over colds and Sophie was still having a fever off and on, and I would have to miss my Monday night class and take a B instead of the A that I'd worked so hard for, then there was my mom's feelings of foreboding and worry about the icy, snowy roads. That was pretty much the clincher- who can go against their mother's sincerely worried wishes? So sadly, we ended up canceling the trip. We were all pretty bummed, especially Shazer (when he found out there might be snow) but us parents were also a lot relieved and we took the first four days of Spring Break to just relax, chill out, and catch up on some cleaning and organizing. We also took the kids swimming for the first time this season on Tuesday. The pool is heated and it was a beautiful warm day in the low 80s but there was a wind that made it a little chilly so we didn't make it a long swim.

Wednesday we packed all our camping gear up, adorned ourselves in green and drove down to Tucson to have corned beef and cabbage with the Hendersons, spend the night, visit the Thwaits in the morning and then drive back up to Picacho Peak and camp out on Thursday night. We made a deal with my mom that if she would make her labor intensive yet delightfully yummy ten layered rainbow Jello for dessert then we would make the corned beef and cabbage for dinner. I'd planned on buying the ingredients once we got to Tucson but I hadn't realized how popular that dinner would be on St. Patrick's day. We went to three different grocery stores until we finally found corned beef at Sunflower Market.

Dinner and dessert were super yummy and then we watched the Princess and the Frog (which would have been more theme appropriate for Mardi Gras...but frogs are green, right?) Here are all the kids getting cozy for the movie- you can see Sally's wooden dagger that she painted pink and decorated with fringe/lace and plastic jewels.

Sally taking her new sleeping bag/air mattress for a spin at Nana's before camping outdoors. As you can see, it worked like a charm.

Playdough at Grandma Linda's

Playing at Aunt Anne's

Setting up camp

Shazer's favorite part of camping was chopping wood. He said "camp chores are actually fun"- I'm sure we'll definitely be using that one against him in the future ;)

Hanging out with cousins (I finally had to ban the DSs to the car for the rest of the camp out-at first Shule didn't know what to do with himself but he figured it out eventually)

We had to keep a close watch on Sophie because she kept trying to take off and explore the campgrounds on her own.

 

She totally loved camping.

We had a nice visit with Lorin and Brenda's family over chicken, potato, and carrot tin foil dinners. As I look at this picture I took of their family I'm realizing we missed an opportunity for them to take a similar picture of our family. Oh well, maybe I'll think of it next time. After Lorin's family left, Shazer had a scary experience. He went to use the bathroom which was a stone's throw from where we were, but it had gotten dark and he got turned around when he came out of the bathroom and started heading in the opposite direction. He ran into some guys that teased him about being careful not to stumble upon a trip wire and he ran back to the bathroom and shouted "Help! Someone! Please! I'm Lost!" We heard a kid yelling but couldn't make out what he was saying and we realized that Shazer was taking a while so Shule, Sally and I headed over to check on him. As we approached the bathrooms two flashlights pointed at us and I heard Shazer say "It's my mom!" One of the forest rangers had come to his rescue :) He was pretty shaken up about the experience and  we had to say a special prayer to calm him down so he could get to sleep. I think this is the first time he's ever been lost. 

Boys on the difficult hike up Picacho Peak

Girls on an easier children's hike

the "cave" at the end of the trail

Riding skunks on the playground

I was really impressed with how nice the camping grounds were. They had really nice bathrooms with private showers that you didn't have to pay extra for, really nice campsites with picnic tables and fire pits with grills. It was a great time to go because everything was really green (as far as deserts go) and there were lots of pretty wildflowers- Sally was in heaven. The weather was really lovely, not too cold at all. The only thing that was a bit of a bother was that the winds really picked up until about 1am and then calmed down so we could get some sleep. My favorite part was the star gazing. I always forget how gorgeous the night sky is away from the city lights- it is so intense. Jon was awesome with making hot cocoa at night and again in the morning, making Sally a new fan of the stuff (she's been asking for it more than juice since we've come home- and if you know her, that's really saying a lot). 

We'd already packed up camp before our hikes, so when we were done hiking we drove across the freeway to the DQ and had some burgers and ice cream. Great way to end our Spring Break :)