The Black Canyon

We went to the Black Canyon on Monday. It's really a beautiful and neat area, but really could have been better enjoyed if we had a little less whining with us. Oh well. Still worth it.

Jonas insisted on wearing the football helmet. It lasted for just a short while, though, because his head began to get "wet." Too cute.

Our timing was perfect and we were able to catch the Ranger's "lecture" on snakes and lizards at one of our stops. It was pretty fun. Here is Emmy checking out a photo of a snake. Cool. Luckily we did see one cool-looking lizard on our hike. Perfect.

The fam with the Black Canyon behind them. Can you spot the river?

Picnicking afterwards.

Posts and more

Just a fore-note: I just added like 10 posts or something. They are all of my sister and her family's trip out visiting us. There are a lot of posts and a lot of pictures - I could have done more. :) Fun times we had indeed.

Part: Just for fun

The 3 boys playing in the sandbox. Super fun.
What is Emmy doing???

Erin and I did this cute project of making sandwich wraps. If you don't know what a sandwich wrap is, check out this. I love them!

The four kids, getting ready to say bye. :(

Such a cute boy! We love you Rhett! And your mom and dad, too. Come back someday - maybe when you're older and won't cry for 1 1/2 hours on the flight home, k?

Part: Un-Birthdays for Everyone

So my sister had the brilliant and fun idea to re-create some of the year's holidays when we get together. Seeing as we see each other and our nieces and nephews but maybe once-a-year, we miss out on experiencing a lot of holidays together. Hence, we re-create them when we are together! Fun, eh? We definitely thought so.

We celebrated birthdays for everyone at the cabin. The kids all got super cool and fantastic books. I got 2 great hand-made necklaces, Ben got lights for his bike, Erin got a hand-made broken thing (I plan to fix it soon!), Chuck got a wallet, my Mom got some super cute hand-made magents, and my Dad got lottery tickets. Sweet.

Blowing out the candles on the cake.

Emmy opening her present.

Uncle Chuck even entertained us with his balloon creations. This one was a sword. Very cool.

Part: Halloween

Halloween was another holiday we decided to celebrate:

The four kids all dressed and ready!

Trick or Treat! Here they are at stop #1 - our front door. The rest of the stops were at various closet doors around our house. Totally fun.

Jonas (I forget the name of whoever he was?) was happy!

Miles (a ninja turtle) and his loot. Awesome.

Part: V-day Holiday

On Sunday we celebrated Valentine's Day. We made and decorated cookies. A very fun and very yummy day!

Everybody hard at work.

Even Emmy.

Aren't they beautiful?

Part: Town of Silverton

We had fun just hanging out in town, too:

We got to see the Silverton-Durango train come in to town. Impressive!

So neat.

We walked the shops, too. The kids got a dollar from grandpa and so we choose for Emmy a treat - a candy bracelet. Perfect for her. The boys got the same thing: a lot of 12 tiny sqiushy dinosaurs. They love them.

We went to the "shoot-out" in town as well. The BANGS were really loud (hence the CAPS). Miles went up to become a "deputy." Jonas didn't like it and kept saying that shooting is bad. Miles thought it was pretty neat, I think. I took Emmy in to a store towards the end - for her sake and mine. Again, it was LOUD.

Fun town.

Part: Hiking in Silverton

We went on a few hikes and had a great time. Our first hike was simply beautiful and full of amazing wild-flowers covering the moutain side. The kids loved it as well as the adults. We also saw 2 deer. We can't wait until we can do some "serious" backpacking someday with our kids.

We hiked to an old-mine on the first hike. The kids were always looking at the car window saying, "I see a mine!" It was neat to get up-close to one.

Sorry but my mom's camera has over-exposure problems (and we had run out of batteries), but the flowers were so beautiful! So are the children.

Grandpa Moses (G) and Jonas.

Me and Emmy. A hiking we will go.

Miles always had to be right with Grandma holding her hands whenever we were hiking. It was pretty sweet.

Part: Addie S Cabin

On Wednesday we (AuntE, Uncle Chuck, Rhett, me, Miles, Jonas, and Emmy) drove to our rental cabin in Silverton. After a crazy 45-minute detour on scary-t0-me 4-wheel-type roads, we found the cabin - right off the main road, about 1 minute away from our detour road. Ha now, not at the time.

Anyways, my parents drove down too and waited for Ben to get off work and then they all drove the rest of the way to Silverton. It was so nice to get away to the beautiful mountains. And cold mountains. We had a lot of rain and thunderstorms and it definitely cooled down the area. It was super nice. When we weren't out frolicking, we were at the cabin eating, sleeping, napping, playing. The adults got to enjoy child-free evenings (they were all sleeping upstairs) and played lots of fun board games.

We made some yummy "bird's nest" treats - we found the recipe while reading a magazine to the kids at the cabin.

The setting of the Addie S. High atop the mountains at 11,000 feet elevation.

A lot of time was spent playing on the deck and with the wood piles. Many trucks were being driven over the "bumpy roads" and "bridges. Later dinosaurs came to play and hide in the wood pile.

Snack time with the cuties.

AuntE, Uncle Chuck, and Cousin Rhett (Part: Ridgway)

So fun. All 3 of them flew out here and we just had a really great time. Rhett's a definite cutie and except for a couple of times, did an excellent job with napping and sleeping in strange places. He's a sweet little boy and it was fun to see him in person and get to know him a little more.

Of course I have tons of pictures and really don't even know where to begin. But begin somewhere I must. So I will begin with our outing to Ridgway:

Cute Rhett playing in the "little lake" we made for the kids. Rhett loved the water!

Jonas spent all his time in the water playing with his "motor boat." He's holding it in the picture - a log that would dive underwater and then pop up. Awesome.

Miles spent a lot of time out of the water just playing. And getting dirty. Of course.

Emmy loved the water. Aren't girls lucky to have dads?

The playground at Ridgway is pretty great, too. The tire swing is a delight.