Box Canyon Camping

Skeptically inflating our tent.

The babies of the families.

The view.

Tinfoil dinners and s'mores done right.

An intense round of Memory

Eating the chips the kids dropped in the dirt. Yummm

The weekend before Maisie started Kindergarten,we went camping with our good friends and their five kids. We decided that we would go for a more "real" camping experience and actually be further than 5 minutes from our houses. Sidenote: last year when we went camping we were literally a couple miles away from home, but I was 34 weeks pregnant, sooo yeah, better safe than sorry right? Anyway, we headed up to Island Park (about 45 minutes from Yellowstone) to find a camp site that could accommodate our large party. We ended up finding a nice spot in Box Canyon right above Henry's Fork river (world renowned for trout fishing and some of the best fly fishing in the states!) AKA hardcore bear territory-good thing we had bear spray! It turned out to be a great weekend to go because with all the forest fires plus wheat and hay harvest, the air where we live was thick with smoke and dust, so we got into the mountains just enough to get out of it. This trip we also decided to for-go our usual go-to camping food (hot dogs) and instead decided to do some tinfoil dinners and make use of some cast iron skillets and dutch ovens which was quite delicious. Breakfast turned out awesome too, we made pancakes and breakfast burritos. It turned out to be a really fun, albeit short, camping trip. Next year I want to camp at LEAST two nights. 

p.s don't trust an inflatable tent... ever! haha

Hiking "R mountain"

Ok, it's really called the Menan Volcanic Butte, but around these parts it's called "R mountain" because of the massive R painted on its side. People pretend it stands for Rexburg, but seeing how its not even located in Rexburg, no one really knows.

Anyway, we have always wanted to hike to the top, but there was always a reason it wouldn't work out. Maisie, seeing how she is still so physically little, gets tired easily and we didn't want to get stuck having to carry her. So we wanted to make sure she could tough out the duration of the hike before we planned it out. 

Our friends called us a couple weeks ago and asked if we wanted to go with them and their kids that afternoon. We thought Maisie being with other kids who were also hiking would motivate her to keep up and distract her from getting too tired. and we were right! Maisie was a champ and only getting a little uneasy on the slippery parts or when she had to climb up or down the steeper parts. There were parts of the hike that were REALLY steep, like have to put your hands down and climb steep, but that was mostly because of the route we took -we unintentionally took a more difficult path to the top, but live and learn right?

Seeing how we live in the desert it's not entirely uncommon to see a rattle snake so we were all kind of freaking ourselves out with the chance of stumbling upon one, but then Maisie said "Don't worry guys! I know an ancient song the puts the rattle snakes to sleep." Haha where did she come from?

I am excited to go back and hike it again, but we need to wait until all of these evening thunderstorms end (good for the farmers and crops, but bad for any outdoor activities). 

(I didn't bring my camera because we didn't want to carry it, so all these pictures are from our phones.)

Sledding @ The Dunes

Last month when we were still buried in snow and daily high temperatures rarely went above 32 degrees, we went to the sand dunes to sled with our friends. Sarah and I stayed in the car with the two babies while our husbands took the crazy kids up (and down) the hills. I managed to sneak out for a few minutes to snap some pictures, but it wasn't until after the sledding was done, that I realized that the setting I had my camera on wasn't suited to the speed of the sleds and the brightness of the snow (notice the top two pictures) but I'm glad I at least got a few right?

With the weather we've been having lately (55 degrees!) who knows if we will get enough snow again to go sledding so at least we went once this year... thats more than we did last year haha. Also, to be honest I wouldn't mind if spring started and the snow stayed away. This last week as been so nice and getting outside without bundling up has been amazing. This may be wishful thinking, but the forecast so far is looking good!

Flower Girl (continued)

Kelsey and Scott got their professional wedding pictures back and I had to share a few.

Flower Girl

A couple of weekends ago Maisie was the flower girl in our dear friend's wedding. Kelsey and Scott had such a beautiful wedding in the mountains just outside of Hood River and I was so honored that Maisie was asked to be apart of it- even if it was the most adorable and stressful moments of my life. I was worried Maisie was going to get scared, or melt down (she was going off a long car ride and no nap) but she did wonderfully. She performed her flower girl duties perfectly and even tried to share some paper hearts with the bride, groom and officiant in the middle of the ceremony (oy vey).

The stunning bride.

The paper heart fiasco. 

How cute is Scott looking at Kelsey looking at Maisie.

After the wedding, Maisie partied so hard that she ripped the whole first layer of her beautiful flower girl dress completely off. Oh well, it served its purpose right?

Thank you Kelsey and Scott! 

We were honored that you asked Maisie to be apart of your special day.

Fir Crest Park with Diz

Our newly engaged friend, Kelsey (and her dog, Diz too) came down from Vancouver for a quick visit. We were all coming down with colds, but we decided to walk to the near by park so Maisie and Diz could run around and get some fresh air. Maisie loved throwing sticks, pine needles and the occasional handful of dirt for Diz to fetch. Maisie thought Diz was so funny until Diz tried to steal some kisses and then not so much haha.