July Gettaway #3 Camping in Payson

We went to a beautiful campsite on the Mogollon Rim towards the end of July.  It was a really nice trip—my mom and step-dad came up for the day and that made it so nice as well. 

Jack was very proud of his accomplishment of getting all these bikes there—there were several bike trails around the campsite.

my cute goofy kids…

an impromptu see saw

This Elk kept hanging around our campsite.  At first, we were amazed.  And then it was like, “There’s the elk again.”  She let us get pretty close.

We camped right by a lake, so we borrowed some kayaks from our neighbors—Jennie, theses are the same ones we borrowed when we went with you guys to that lake long ago—remember that day? 

Yes, Savannah was there—see?  Just didn’t get that many pics of her—or me either for that matter.  Probably because she hung out with me a lot and we took pictures together! 

Whenever we go camping, I do everything I can to make cooking SUPER EASY because it is hard enough work to camp with six children.  Conner really enjoyed his premade foil dinner the first night we were there. 

This was one of our best camping trips—great to have grandparents there to help out.

More Chincoteague

See what I mean?   Just too cute not to take a bunch of pictures!

We took a little cruise around the island—I had to take a picture of Angie’s beautiful hairstyle before it got ruined after the first five minutes on the boat.

 

 

We saw these “wild” ponies on the cruise—not really super wild, but they do live on the island—they just control the population by penning and auctioning off most of the babies every year—other than that they are free to roam.

 

We also went to the top of the lighthouse on the island—which like a dork I didn’t get a picture of from the outside.  But the stairs inside were pretty cool.

  Angie made us count on the way down and there were 175 stairs total.  Here we are at the top.

Yup—we tried the crab,  and I can now say that I do NOT like crab…and I tried quite a bit of it.  Luckily Ang and Dad loved it so it wasn’t a total waste.  It was sort of fun cracking those suckers open though.

Then on the day Ang and I flew back to AZ we had some time to kill in Baltimore before our flight—so we went to the Inner Harbor there and the National Aquarium—they were neat to see—the aquarium was AWESOME—they had so much stuff in there—even a rainforest! 

   

Then we said good bye to Baltimore and headed home….

And that was the best part!  I REALLY was missing those kids man…this lady on the plane asked me about our family, and I started to tell her and then just started to cry..it was a little awkward actually, but oh well.  It was so nice to get home and hold them.  It was a nice trip, and it’s always good to come home.

July Gettaway #2—Chincoteague, Virginia

So, this second gettaway was kind of a crazy adventure.  Jack had to go out of town for work for almost two weeks.  He thought that it would be fun if I joined him out there for a few days because he just happened to be staying on this beautiful island off the coast of Virginia.  The only problem was that he would be working some of the time—so we talked about it and decided to let Angie come with me and Savannah so I would have a buddy while he was working.  So I got to take my oldest and youngest daughters on a gettaway for a few days while my super mom and sister helped with the other kids. 

Here they are hanging out in our hotel room together.  I just LOVE Savannah’s expression here. 

Here we are at the beach at night…rather windy but fun

Savannah kept being so darned cute in the hotel so we just kept taking pictures of her.

This island is GORGEOUS…beaches, green everywhere…and wild ponies live there.

Angie got to catch some crabs!  But we didn’t eat these ones:)

We found out that the best and least crowded beach on was only bike and hike accessible…so Jack had this idea to put Savannah’s car seat on a bike trailer—and it worked of course like all his crazy ideas do.  And it was so fun and so nice to go to this beautiful beach—so glad I married him.:)

We did more stuff too, but I have got fold some laundry so that’s all for now on this gettaway. 

July Gettaway #1—Eagar on the Fourth!

In case you haven’t noticed (those of you that live here) it is pretty HOT!  So, yeah, we tend to get out of this place in July every summer.  I find that I can handle the heat much better if I know that I am leaving it.  So, one tradition we have is to always go to Eagar for the 4th.

 

It’s a great place to relax…outside…and not have to be wet!

And it’s also an excuse to dress up cute babies in red, white and blue.

and all the rest of us as well…

Gettaway number one was definitely a success!

Oh What do you do in the Summertime?

I always try to have a loose schedule of sorts in the summer so that we aren’t getting up every morning and wondering how we are going to fill the hours.  Each day we generally do something, but of course we can change it if something else comes up.  All three older kids are in swim team in the morning, and then we do different stuff in the afternoons—we have library day, a swimming day, a movie theater day, and on Mondays we have a new thing—making and musical Mondays—which means we STAY HOME!! (This is generally my favorite day.)  We make or cook something and watch a musical.  Also, catch up on laundry and cleaning. 

Anyway, there is a point to this long description of my life presently.  This Monday we made salsa and watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  And for some reason I was much more laid back then usual—probably because we didn’t have to pack up and go anywhere at any specific time.  I found myself spending fun time with all my kids—especially Ella and Conner, who probably need that a lot more these days with Savannah around.  And wow, I really enjoyed my day—and I enjoyed my family.  And it felt so nice!  Then I thought to myself, this must be how Alayne Favereux feels every day!  She is my children’s amazing piano teacher and she seems to have it figured out ya know?  She knows how to ENJOY life and she ENJOYS people.  So, I decided, that’s how I want to be more and more. 

And THAT is what I want to do this summertime.

More of this…

and this…

and this…

and this…

and, uh, this was just a really cute picture.