Alora is Double Digits!

Dead Horse State Park

This past weekend the kids and I joined my parents, Christopher, Kenya and her girls camping up at Dead Horse State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona.  The kids had a blast exploring, metal detecting, fishing, and making campfires. 

The kids hiking one of the many trails.

One of the few bridges left standing on the Arroyo Nature Trail after monsoon rains.

Max and Jackson found a crawfish in one of the creeks.

Emorsyn and Noah searching for buried treasure.

 

Emorsyn and Alora made quite the bug collection while hiking.  Here, they collected 11 cicada shells (only Alora would touch them).

Jackson just HAD to swim in the creek, even thought it looked like an alligator swamp.  He did find a couple of random "treasures."

Max found a bunch of what he thought were oysters, so he tried to crack them open to find pearls.

Emorsyn caught the first fish.

Grandpa caught the smallest fish,

Jackson and Max proved that you didn't need a fishing pole to catch fish.  They actually caught 2 tiny bluegills in their water bottle contraption.

Grandpa teaching Alora how to fix tangle fishing line.

Grandpa teaching Noah how to hook a worm (Noah felt too bad for the worm to actually do it).

First Day of School 2016-2017

L to R: Noah (9th grade), Jackson (7th grade), Alora (5th grade), Max (1st grade)

Today was  the kids' first day back at school.  It's crazy how they start the third day of August!  It's also crazy that I now have a HIGH SCHOOLER!!!