First Camping Trip

Well we finally made it! Last weekend we went to Picacho Peak State Park. We had so much fun! It was great. It is only about an hour away. We had planned on camping in Sedona, but heard they were expecting thunderstorms all weekend. So we almost had to scrap the whole plan (again), but found a vacancy at Picacho Peak. So I loaded everyone up and zoomed down there to get a space. Kresten worked a half-day and then came in the afternoon. It was really nice! They had very clean bathrooms and showers, which was great. This is a top priority in my book (I'm such a camper, aren't I?) The weather was perfect...sunny the whole time. It got cold at night, but our heater kept us nice and toasty. During the day it was in the mid 70's, but felt warmer. Maybe just because we were out in it the whole time. There wasn't much shade. Just our little awning that we tried to keep from blowing away and taking flight. We even got a little sunburned, wearing sunscreen.

Kresten took Chloe, Olivia, and Matt on a little climb. This is overlooking part of Picacho Peak and the campground. The kids did the Junior Ranger program while we were there. We found out that the translation of Picacho is "peak." So we were at Peak Peak. We had a pretty view from our campsite. We even saw a beautiful moonrise on our first night, and then lots of stars the following night.

They had a cute playground with these cool swings...they had these levers you pull with your arms. I have never seen swings like this before.

On the hike to Children's Cave. The distance for the hike was 0.2 miles. LOL! But it was uphill--maybe that's why it seemed longer?

Animal Adventures

Kresten took the kids to a Ostrich/Deer/Donkey/Lorikeet farm. It was right by Picacho Peak. They charge you to go in and feed the animals. Seems a little backwards...like THEY should be paying US to feed their animals, right? It was cute though and the kids had fun. They really liked the deer.

Matthew and an ostrich have a face-off.

This is a video clip from the lorikeet exhibit. The kids were a little freaked out as you can see!

Okay, so it wasn't that bad after all.

sick sick sick sick

This was a sad day. Last Tuesday, FOUR people in our family got sick. On the same day. Within an hour of each other. And sick they were. It went on for about 14 hours--non-stop. Suffice it to say we did not have enough throwup bowls in the house. At one point Kresten thought it made sense for all of them to stay together in the same room...a little sick ward. So here we have Matthew, Abby, Kresten, and Hannah (and Coconut--not sick, but wouldn't leave Hannah's side). I had just distributed cool washrags for their foreheads. It was the saddest thing ever. Cry, moan, throw up, repeat. We thought food poisoning, but had to rule out anything logical. Then the next day I felt sick. Not as bad, definitely, but something was not right. Could it have been witnessing and cleaning up about 40 episodes of throw up within a 14 hour period? Hmmm.