McCall September 24

Once again, we were in luck with our timing.  The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend.  It was sunny and warm.  Not quite as warm as it was two weeks prior, but stunning, nonetheless.

The kids played on the beach while daddy unloaded the car.  The best part about coming later and later in September is that there is nearly twice as much beach to play in as there was a month ago.

How far can you walk into the water?

James took a turn with the camera while dad made some super silly faces!

Jacob playing the pumper organ.

James had been wiggling a loose tooth for more than a month.  Finally, it fell out on Sunday morning, just before breakfast.  He was so happy!

Dams & Canyons Day 8 Robertson Reunion

After all the planning, the Robertson Reunion was finally here.  My cousin, Sarah, and I planned this year's festivities.  She planned the location and activities, I planned the food (fortunately, I didn't have to cook it!). We always have a good time with my extended family.  I always feel like you couldn't meet a nicer, more hospitable group anywhere.  The reunion took place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This is a kids' craft that I planned (ok, so I did one other thing besides plan the food).  We made paper plate tambourines.  The kids had fun decorating their plates and even more fun shaking them to make noise!

One thing we knew in advance of the reunion is that we would not have a full kitchen at our disposal.  So we planned meals using Dutch ovens, slow cookers and camp stoves.  Uncle Charlie was our resident Dutch oven master.  Here he is reheating dessert on Sunday morning.

Great Aunt Carole, aka Julia's substitute grandma.  Julia just seemed to adore my aunt Carole.  Every opportunity she got, Julia could be found in Carole's lap.  Here, you see Aunt Carole showing Julia pictures from her camera.

The teeter-totter airplane.

Dutch oven glory.

The view behind our cabin.

James learning how to play bocce ball with his third cousin.

Aw, throwing the cow poop into the bucket . . . what, doesn't everyone play that at their family reunion?  Say what you will, the kids LOVED this game.  My cousins made cow poop patties out of spray foam.  How clever is that?

Fishing for cans.

Each activity came with rewards in the way of candy and plastic dinosaurs.

Chilling outside our cabin on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning breakfast . . . pancakes cooked by Uncle Jim and Aunt Carole.

Fun times!!!!!!

Dams & Canyons Day 7

Do you really need me to tell you where we were today?

Bryce Canyon was the last national park on our dams and canyons trip (and a really spectacular canyon).  Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, I felt truly awful and knew I was going to be sick all day.  I honestly felt like I needed to toss my cookies all day long and really kind of wished that I had.  So, I did not get to enjoy this part of our vacation.  I spent most of our time in the car, moaning and groaning.

Bryce Canyon is so cool.  It was another one of those places that we felt we could have spent a day or two exploring.  What you don't see in most of these pics is the maze of trails that winds through each mountain side.  They lead through tunnels and into caves and around peaks.

You have to have at least one family pic everywhere, right?

One of the coolest features of Bryce Canyon is the statuesque "fingers" that appear throughout this national park.  They are really cool in pictures, but even more so in person.  

This one looks a little like a city.  You can sort of imagine some scenes from Star Wars being shot here.

I thought this one looked like a castle.

Trail leading into a cave.

The day ended with s'mores at the Robertson Family reunion in Torrey, UT, near Capitol Reef National Park.  Finally, the boys got to see a "whole bunch of Robertsons."  The road from Bryce to Torrey was pure torture for me, as I felt worse during this trek than at any other point during the day.  I felt a little better once we were out of the car, but not much.  I did eat some chicken soup and felt ok enough to take this picture.  All afternoon and evening, the boys kept asking when we were going to start the fire.  Matt kept putting them off and at one point said, "Go look for the fire starter switch" (we have a gas fireplace at home).  So the boys started looking in all the cabins for the magic "switch."  Finally they realized dad was pulling their leg and said, "no, you need to light it with a match!"  They were so happy when dad finally started the fire!

Gray Back Gulch Camping

Our August camping trip with the Wood family--Brandy, Brandon, Andrew and Aaron.

Julia just looks so cute!

Jacob pretending to be cutting logs.

James wanted to pump up the air mattresses.  Of course Julia had to try too.  She had a lot of fun pumping the handle on the pump.

All that work requires a nap!  Of course, the only one that even sort of went to sleep was dad--despite the massive amount of Julia's thumb sucking.  Oh well, it's always fun to swing in the hammock.

After the nap, we made popcorn!  Actually, we were a little surprised the popcorn actually popped.  We've had that pan of Jiffy Pop since 2005 (yes, that means it moved with us from our old house!).  Not only did it pop, but apparently it tasted delicious (I didn't have any, as I can't tolerate the partially hydrogenated soybean oil, but the kids loved it)!

Ahh, the long awaited campfire.  From the moment we got to the campground, the question that kept coming up (at least once every 15 minutes) was, "When can we start a fire?"  If you had seen the pile of logs Matt collected to burn, you would be wondering the same thing too.  Usually, the boys go collect "burnables" shortly after we set up camp.  That usually means they go scrounge around the campground and into the woods a little for sticks and small logs they can carry.  After surveying the grounds, Matt decided that they would need to drive to find wood.  Sure enough, just down the road was a whole pile of logs.  Apparently from an old logging operation (Score!).

Shortly after starting our campfire, the Woods arrived with their dog.  Jacob says he is afraid of dogs and I mostly believe that.  Although sometimes, he does kind of a fake whimper and cry when he sees a dog just to get attention.  This dog was so small and sweet.  Julia took to him right away.  And as you can see, it didn't take Jacob long to warm up to him either.

The Wood boys unloaded their wood.

Breakfast!!!  The Woods had pancakes and ham.  The Rheeses had pancakes and Little Smokies.

The river was close by (just down the hill near the highway).  The boys wanted to find cat tails.  Unfortunately, the only path we could find was too rocky for the cat tails.  Instead, they used their butterfly net to catch water skippers and threw rocks into the river.

Julia made a new best friend.  Every opportunity she got, she could be found in Brandon's lap.

All four boys were on the hammock for a while.  Amazingly enough, they managed to keep the hammock upright.  They were goofing around so much, we fully expected it to turn upside down more than once.  I don't know how they did it!

Aaron, James and Andrew.  Looks like they had a great time, doesn't it?  I think we all had a good time with the Woods--thanks for the idea, Brandy.

Sun Valley Summer Symphony

On Saturday, we went to Sun Valley for the day to hear the symphony concert which featured the percussion section.

 Jacob put an entire piece of fruit by the foot into his mouth at once while watching a video in the car!

They had an orchestra petting zoo set up before and after the concert for the kids.  The boys played a cello and violin (petite size of course) before moving onto the percussion.  After the concert they visited the winds and brass section. 

Some pre-concert photos in the pavilion.

Jacob blowing on a flute.

I don't even want to know what kind of germs the boys picked up!

But we had a fun day, regardless of the germs (Julia and I had a cold bug later a day later).  The orchestra was just incredible. 

I did get a short video of Jacob "conducting."  It appears that Jacob wasn't the only conductor in the audience today.  Can you name that tune?  Composer starts with an "H," title is two words . . . 

Symphonic _____________. . .

  In addition to hearing the symphony, we walked around the Sun Valley area a little and watched the ice skaters during an open skate time.  After that, we went to the Sun Valley art festival (much like art in the park here) and saw some interesting things.  The kids played on the playground for a while, then it was time for dinner.  We ate at a burger joint.  And what did Matt choose for dinner?  Lobster Bisque of course.  James had really gross looking mini corn dogs and Jacob and Julia shared a hamburger. I ate a garden burger, which was quite tasty.