Is It Naptime Yet

For Memorial Day weekend we went up to Pine Valley with Sam, Britta, Matilda, and Grandpa Gary. We decide Memorial Day weekend because I’ll be traveling a lot in the month of July, Jon will be staying home sadly, and June is off limits with the play. So August would have been the soonest we could go unless we went this past weekend. We didn’t have play practise due to the holiday, so we seized the weekend and went on a trip.

(It might be noted that I almost stayed home to sew, but Jon didn’t think that would be very nice since the girls were looking forward to our weekend in Pine Valley for weeks. So instead I sewed while up there, though I also sat around and chatted with Sam a lot, but I proved her wrong that I would only sit around and talk to her, and not sew.)

We went up Saturday Morning and mostly hung out and let the girls play. We had smores Saturday night, and I totally want smores again. Jon and I perfected how to make smores over an electric stove. I roasted the marshmallows on a fork over the hot coil, he melted the chocolate by placing the graham crackers and chocolate on a metal spatula and holding it over the hot coil. It was fun and they were delicious.

Sunday we attended church in Pine Valley, kinda. We all went to Sacrament meeting, but Grandpa Gary took the girls back to the house for Sunday School, and Sam and I came home after Sunday School because we didn’t want to strand Grandpa Gary for too long with three little girls and one baby.

Jon took a long hike Sunday so I dropped him off on his hike around 9:00, before we went to church, and then I picked him up a little after 3, though he was finished at 2:30, he read to occupy his time. Gary gave him a pistol to take with him on the hike in case he saw any cougars, just to shot in the air to scare them away. He showed me this before the hike and it did not make me any more easy to let him go off by himself. He was prepared with his GPS and a map, but I didn’t want him being attacked by come some crazy cougar! Luckily, it was a well traveled trail and Jon saw no cougars. Gary often goes off the beaten path for his hikes or less known ones, and so I think he runs into cougars a lot more often.

We enjoyed a nice Sunday afternoon and Sam baked up a storm in the kitchen while I sewed. She also entertained the girls a lot by playing games with them, or supervising games, and I sewed. We had birthday cake to celebrate my birthday, which I had last week, and we watched Ponyo that evening.

Sunday afternoon Gary also brought out some little kid bikes, that were around 35 years old, and gave them to Jon and I. I wasn’t too hot on this, but they were free. The bigger bike is still a little too small for Lilah, more Eden’s size, and the small bike is more a 3 year old size, but they work. The small one has training wells and the bigger one does not, so Lilah pushes herself along and tries to find her balance. Maybe we’ll get Lilah a bike that fits her better later this year if she learns. The one problem being we won’t let the girls ride them anywhere but the backyard or a park, and it’s getting them to the park so the have a wide open space that is my dilemma and why I didn’t want the bikes…. Jon packed them in the trunk to see how long it would take me to notice them, very quickly since I put something in the trunk before we left. I hadn’t decided to take them, but he wanted them.

Monday morning we went on a hike with Britta and the girls. It was a perfect day for the hike and the girls seemed to have fun. Our destination was a creek Jon had passed by on his hike the day before. They were tired before we got to the creek, but then wanted to go farther once there. I’m not sure how far we traveled, but the girls had fun following the creek and Lilah loved to get muddy, something I wasn’t too hot about.

We left Monday afternoon to come back home, then the girls and I went to a BBQ at my parents. Andrea, Brien, and Zarina were in town so it was nice to see them briefly Monday night. Jon stayed home since he had driven the whole way and was tired of being in the car.

Hopefully we can plan another trip for the Fall to lovely Pine Valley. The blackberries should be in season then and Gary said we could come pick some, that is if he hasn’t picked them all himself and the weather stabilizes so they can grow. I must say with the triple digits finally coming, I envy Sam and the time her and her family will be able to spend in the cooler mountain air this summer.

Yay for small weekend get-a-ways!