Camping in Prescott!

Impromptu camping trip to kick off summer vacation! We decided to head up to Prescott as it is close to Phoenix (2 hour drive) and warmer than Flagstaff so its better to visit early in the summer. We couldn't decide what to pack so we brought everything, including the kayak, all the bikes, the industrial strength baby carrier (Kelty 2.0), the everyday baby carrier (Ergo), a soccor ball, and of course a couple of frisbees.

After a somewhat late start and bad traffic, we finally arrived at Lynx Lake at 4 pm. All the campgrounds were full. We ended up in a "primitive, dispersed" campground, which is basically a spot off an old forest service road where you are forbidden to have any fires, and there are no outhouses, water, or picnic tables. Ack! We weren't prepared for that. I had made up little tinfoil dinners to pop under the coals of our campfire, but since that was out, we needed plan B. No problem, we will just cook it on the campstove. Oh...whoops...we decided not bring that because we were trying to simplify after we had packed all the other gear! Doh! We didn't even have toilet paper. What can I say? We had planned for a regular campground. So, we found a little store that happened to also be a German Restaurant owned by actual Germans with accents, and bought some toilet paper. And since we couldn't cook the lovely dinner I had prepared ahead of time, we stayed for dinner. And what a dinner! The food was awesome!

So, campfires were out, even inside a metal fire ring, and we had brought marshmallows. Maggie was not too happy about no campfire, but she was adapting. We stopped at a little park next to Lynx Lake and they had bbq pits. Of course we didn't have any charcoal, but Glen found one that was still hot and being unused, so we toasted marshmallow over it.


Yes, she is toasting a marshmallow using a plastic fork. I did mention this was an "impropmtu" camping trip, didn't I? Glen remedied the situation, and Maggie eventually got a real stick.

Here we are on the docks at Lynx Lake. Its a small manmade lake (ok...what lake ISN'T manmade in Arizona?) and about half of it was closed because a bald eagle was nesting in a stag on one of the shores.

I know the following picture is probably pretty small on the blog, but if you look close, you may see Sean's first tooth on the bottom of his mouth. His second tooth is currently working its way out of the gums and is causing him all sorts of discomfort.

After the ranger kicked us out (it closed at 7pm and there were still probably 50 people there he had to boot) we headed to our primitive campground. We have a 4 man tent and Sean slept in my sleeping bag with me. It was a tight fit. I had to unzip the bag a bit which left the top half of me quite cold. Glen unzipped his bag and was trying to cover us as well. So he was cold too. Sean and Maggie were both quite toasty though. And how did we sleep? I think the next picture describes it well...

There is Glen and Sean in the early morning looking for coffee...well Glen is anyway. Who could have thought the ground would be so hard and the night so cold? Clearly we have gone soft. Nobody slept very well. Since we didn't have a stove to make coffee and we couldn't start a fire, we just packed everything up and headed into Prescott which is only 5 miles away. We feasted on gourmet coffee and decadent pastries. I must say we take camping to a whole new level. :)

So off we went to Watson lake now. Also about 5 miles from Prescott and houses the "granite dells". The rocks were absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got at the lake as Sean was extremely needy.

Maggie loved clamoring over all the boulders and would get quite high. She ended up tripping over a log on the way to the car when it was time to go home and cut her chin and scraped both hands and knees. Brave little girl didn't want any of the kids around to see her cry so she toughed it out as I cleaned her wounds and put bandaids on. Let out a few sobs and whimpers in the car after the fact.

The lake was gorgeous. We could not believe how cool it was. Just completely lined with rock boulders balancing on one another and some jutting out of the water. Glen kayaked first while Maggie, Sean and I hung out amongst the boulders. I had to cell phone him to remind him Maggie and I wanted a turn before it got too hot. He hustled on back. Then Maggie and I set out exploring all the inlets and steering between outdrops and jutting boulders. We will definately be back. It was awesome! Watson Lake is a no wake lake which means no motorboats. It was a kayakers dream. There were a lot of kayaks and a few canoes full of kids who didn't know how to paddle which I believe was a summer camp. ;)

After that, we stopped for lunch but both kids had fallen asleep in the car so we took our food to go and headed home. Our 24 hour mini-vacation was complete.

Swim pics!

Some pictures, as promised. I'm going to need to work on taking more action shots. These are the best of the bunch. Maybe a video clip would work better next time...

Swimming!

Gotta get some pictures, but we have been swimming almost daily at Grandma Nancy's house. We usually swoop in during the late afternoon and swoop out to get home for dinner. Sean is having cautious fun -- in other words, he has a lock grab onto my swimming suit strap, but is generally smiling. He is the first to get cold so I take him inside for a warm bath while Maggie and Glen have some rauctious fun. (I wont let them make too many waves while Sean is in the pool) Maggie is our little mermaid. She still remembers how to float front and back, dive to the bottom of the deep end, do a bit of the crawl and back stroke, summersaults, cannon balls, and she can swim the entire length of the pool underwater without taking a breath! We've got swimming lessons starting up on Monday and I signed her up for "Starfish Swim School Blue" which is where they start to seriously learn the stokes and do "real" swimming as opposed to concentrating on arms and legs separately. Its no longer a pre-school class. *sigh* I have a 6 year old now so she will be with other lower elementary kids! Yikes!

We also took Sean on his first bike ride. He loved it! He rode on the back of my bike with his little helmet and Maggie rode her own bike. The four of us rode around the neighborhood, over to the middle school baseball fields, and then over to Hallman Park, the desert area with the duck pond. This weekend we plan to load the bikes up and drive to Indian Bend Wash where there are some nice bike trails and go along there. Its not too far from the house, and we could easily bike there, but we don't want to be riding near traffic laden roads with Maggie on her own quite yet. She hasn't mastered the concept of "look before you leap" so we want to keep her on bike trails or sidewalks by streets with no traffic. ;)

Mud....Yum!

Uh-oh! We have mud in the backyard since its been raining here lately. I opened the sliding glass door to pop outside and throw the laundry in. Sean movesw at lightning speed now and scooted right on out and right to the mud. Ahhhh...what fun he was having. Maggie joined in too.

Went to the zoo today. We decided we had better get out while it was still relatively cool. Got up to the mid-80's today and will be back into the 100's tomorrow. So we went to the zoo. Maggie talked Glen into taking her onto the paddle boats -- something we have never done at the zoo before. Sean, alas, was too young and they wouldn't let him go so he and I stayed onshore.

Its currently 8:12 pm as I write this and Maggie is sound asleep. She has "school" tomorrow and for the next 2 half days. I'm sure it will be party central. Sean, on the otherhand, is wide awake. Glen is trying to lul him asleep. Gone are the days when Sean would just nurse peacefully off to sleep. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Time for a new bedtime routine...

Peach Pickin'

Drove out to Schnepf farms today to pick peaches. It was raining the entire drive (45 minutes)but stopped once we arrived. Left lots of mud though. Not a lot of people so Maggie was able to ride the rides without waiting in line and was often the only one on. Schnepf farms isn't just a farm, its an experience.

As you can see, Glen and I took lots of pictures, however we forgot to take one of the actual peach picking.... So I pulled out one from the last time we were there to give you an idea. Maggie had just turned 3 in this picture.

And I couldn't help myself. Here are a few more. Maggie at 3 and 6 on the farm.

Kindergarten Graduation!

Imagine 100 kindergarteners and 300+ parents and family crammed into the school cafeteria, everybody jockeying for a picture taking position. And then after the kids file in, you realize you are on the exact opposite side of the room from her and all you can see is your daughters blue pony tail holder. Yup, that was Maggie's graduation for us today. I managed to squish over and find a small hole for my camera. I had to sort of hold it off to the side because there was a lady in between me and my line of site for Maggie. The little video didn't turn out too bad though. Here they are singing one of my favorite songs from my camp counselor days at Hancock Field Station. :) What a suprise!

After singing a few songs, they filed out and then came back in wearing their purple graduation caps (their school colors) and holding their "diploma". This time, Glen fought his way into position to try and get a photo. Here is the best of the lot.

Ahhhh...sweet success...cupcakes at 8:30 in the morning! Maggie had the rest of the day off of school (to our suprise!) so she came home with us and hung out. Glen has been working on repairing his old model train set and the two of them worked for a bit on the back patio setting it up on a table our of Sean's reach. In the afternoon we went to the library and walked around the gardens nearby. It was rainy and cold! Very strange weather for Arizona in May, esoecially considering that it was 110 earlier this week.

Tomorrow we are going peach picking, rain or shine. So check back for more pix later this weekend.

Sean's first word??

So sean was sitting on Glen's lap and I held up a banana and Sean reached for it while saying "nana". I couldn't believe it! I might have put it off as coincidence, but Glen thought he said it very purposefully too, so we are considering "nana" to be Sean's first word. Yay Seanie!

Tomorrow is our last day of school! Yayayayayayyayayayayayyayayyaay!!!!!!!!!!

Pogo Sticking

Maggie is soooooo coordinated. It didn't take her but a few tries before she figured out the pogo stick.

Hmmmm...whoops! How do I rotate this video. I'm always rotating pictures, but I can't seem to figure video out. Darn windows media player...

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Maggie turned 6 years old today. I can't believe it! It sounds so... old! She loves her new pogo stick (Thanks Aunt Katrin!) and her fairy coloring book (Thanks grandma and grandpa!) and her musical jewelry box (yay me!). And she can't wait to try out all the new water gear she got...diving rings, inflatable row boat (pool size), wiggly sprinkler, and new noodles.

Oh...and here is a shot of Maggie picking purple beans in the garden from the other day. :)

String Cheese

It seems to be a real hit lately. Sean can't get enough of it. And Maggie, Glen and I all pack it in our lunch boxes. Yummmmm. ;) Sean is so super cute when he is eating. I couldn't resist taking a video of him. He is hungry all the time now days. Whenever he gets cranky, we pop him in the highchair and give him a snack.

Houston...we have a tooth!

Thats right! Sean cut his first tooth today at exactly 11 months old. Its on the bottom and I can see another right next to it in the wings.

Sean is also getting a lot better at crawling. He will mosey from room to room checking on everyone. However, he stops to eat EVERYTHING that is between him and his destination. Yikes! Glen swept and mopped for an hour last night, and still Sean can find some tiny speck to munch on. He tends to cruise around the highchair to find dropped food pieces from a previous meal.

Favorite foods of his right now are cheese, golden beets, purple carrots, and sauteed apples. However, he is having troubles with constipation, so apples, bananas, rice products (like pasta and cereal -- remember he can't eat wheat) and cheese are all rationed out to him or not given at all depending on the day. We've had to add pureed prunes to his diet as a daily maintainence issue with him.

Purple Carrots!

The purple carrots have finally arrived! Maggie is totally excited, although somewhat disappointed that they are orange on the inside. However, once cooked and cut into little cylinders, they are quite funky looking and she forgave their orange-ness and ate them up. Sean liked them too. They are VERY sweet. I packed some in his lunch for daycare today and everyone was wondering what the heck Sean was eating. The other day I had packed what I call "Zebra beets". They are white with pink stripes, and don't stain your hands. Perfect for Sean! They are getting used to his eclectic diet.

Well, Maggie's b-day is getting close....the big #6. We sent invitations out today. In some sort of delirious state I decided to invite ALL the girls in Maggie's class. Ummmm....thats 12 invites! Yikes! Lets hope for a 50% turn out. Maggie really wanted to have her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Yes...I know...gross. So we plan to be there next Saturday from 2:30 to 4 ish with tokens and cake for everyone. I'm actually starting to warm up to the idea as I just realized I won't have to clean the house, or think up a menu, or plan any games. It should be a fairly low stress party plan. Lets hope someone shows up!