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).

Spring Break 2014

This past week the kids have been out of school for Spring Break.  Jeremy had a pretty busy work load, so wasn't able to take off, so I decided to do some things with the kids.  The first thing we did was visit the World Wild Life Zoo.  

 



Jackson feeding the birds.  One of the kids' favorite exhibits.

The kids got to see these penguins being fed a breakfast of fish.

Alora about held a meltdown because no bird would land on her.  Finally, right as we were leaving, this bird jumped onto her arm.



Another favorite exhibit... feeding the giraffes!



Jackson feeding shrimp to the sting rays.  Alora kept trying but would chicken out as soon as the sting ray swam up.

The cutest baby otters ever!

We also decided to go camping with our friends, the Wrays and the Hobbs.  Close to midnight the winds started to pick-up, and it was decided that we would just pack up and return home.  The kids were all upset, but they still got to do all the fun camping stuff.

Lake Pleasant Camping

 

Our little secluded home away from home campsite.  Dusty, but otherwise perfect!

This past week our kids had their school Fall Break.  I personally think it's kind of pointless and would rather start school a week later, but it is what it is.  We didn't really get to do anything real exciting until Thursday.  That was when we went camping with a bunch of friends.  Due to the government shutdown, most of the good camping areas were closed.  Plus, all of our schedules and availabilities kept changing, so we just decided to camp in Lake Pleasant. 

After a slight campsite mix-up with out RV camping friends, the rest of us finally found an area that was perfect for our crew of 5 families and 21 kids, two of which were under 5 months.  Although it was quite dusty and had no running water or toilets, it was secluded and next to the water.  The kids were in heaven. 

Once the tents were all set-up I helped the kids try and fish, but with only 5 poles and lots of inexperienced kids fishing, the poles didn't work long.  The next day, Jackson and Hone W. did catch a crayfish, but that was the only success.  No stripees for us.  The kids were all surprisingly good and we didn't have any incidents with any of them.  It was so nice for them to just to be able to play with friends and enjoy everything around them.  Our friends, the Wrays, had brought their boat with them and we were all able to ride on it.  Jackson tried to water ski and Alora tried to knee-board.  Neither were too successful, but it was cool that they tried.  The kids all loved playing in the water and collecting shells.  (On a side-note, Jeremy was a bum and didn't come camping.  He claims he doesn't like camping anymore and had too much work to do.  Oh well, his loss.  Maybe next time!)

Overall, I think this short little campout was fantastic.  It will definitely be something all the kids will remember and it was a great way to end Fall Break!

Noah and Will W. with a crayfish Jackson caught.

Jackson and Hone W. (Mud Buds)

Max in swim trunks early in the chilly morning.  Notice the other boys are all bundled up?

Jackson's first attempt at water-skiing.  He did manage to almost get all the way up.

Alora on the boat.  She did try to knee board, but wasn't quite big enough.

 

Nothing like an early morning swim with the sunrise.  Even though everyone was chilled, Jack apparently liked the freezing water!