UPDATE

we're still here.....we've just had a ton going on and blogging has had to take a back seat. :)

we spent Memorial Day Weekend hanging out at home, swimming, and getting ready for our 1st ever family camping trip.

John had Monday off, and he gets every other Friday off so he only had to take 3 vacation days in order to have the whole week as a vacation!

We left Tuesday morning and headed up north about 2.5/3 hours to our "rim country".

It was beautiful -such a nice change of scenery and weather. We left our desert home of 100 degrees and were lucky to hit 70 during our days....low 40's at night!
CHILLY for us! :)

we borrowed a friend's trailer for our adventure-such a blessing!
(and I had to borrow John's flannel-I completely forgot to pack warm clothes for me! Thank God John had brought his warm flannel and a jacket!)

the extent of the wildlife we saw. :) squirrels and chipmunks...no deer this time, but I'm sure we'll get to see them sooner or later.

Bible stories around the campfire our first night there.

our first real "hike" on our first morning there (Wednesday).... .7 miles each way. Andrew was a trooper -he was our trail blazer. :) The girls were good hikers on the way there, but got a bit whiny and wanted to be carried on the way back....we didn't carry them -I wanted them good and tuckered out for naps. :)

I LOVE this pic!

Andrew was so sweet -he let Becca "lead" with him even though she insisted on holding his hand.

-and I didn't get a pic of it, but at one point when Elizabeth was whining and didn't want to walk, Andrew picked her up and tried to carry her. He is such a sweet little boy-I love seeing his kind heart emerge as he grows older. :) -

stopping for a water break

thought this tree looked cool with the one-sided foliage

dead tree in the middle of the living ones

between 10 and 12 all 3 days, the storm clouds gathered and we had a rain shower/thunder storm that lasted 2-3 hours.

and Andrew loved trying to drink the rain. :)

we visited the fish hatchery for something fun to do Wednesday afternoon

literally just a bunch of fish segregated by their sizes in various "pools" but the kids got the biggest kick out of it!

we had squirrels all over our campground....while we were out and about on Wednesday, we stopped at a convenience store and picked up some peanuts.

Thursday morning we woke up to 5 squirrels hanging around our site....so we let the kids throw peanuts to them. The squirrels got fat and happy and the kids had a blast!

We left after breakfast Thursday morning and got home right around noon.
I don't like the heat we returned home to, but I sure did love being home....cooking in my own kitchen, sleeping in my own bed with my husband (I slept with the girls both nights-well, "slept" isn't really the right word...laid in between them for 9 hours better suits what I did. :) ), etc etc.

It was ALOT of work to get ready to go and of course work to unpack us when we got home...but the kids had a blast and that's what counts. I know they'll remember this for a long time, if not forever. :)