Memorial Weekend

It's been an incredibly cold spring.

The coldest spring on the books actually.

So when my sister invited us to Torrey for Memorial Weekend,

we jumped on the opportunity for warmer weather!

Grandma and Grandpa came too.
It was such a great time!

The weather was warm, but It was a little windy.
The kids had a blast on the three wheeler and motorcycle.

We spent most of our first day just hanging out,

 playing on the three wheeler and motorcycle and we

took a few short hikes.

We stopped at the river and told the kids they could get their feet wet.

That lasted for all of about five minutes.... Right after the group photo above

Nadya lost her balanced and grabbed Carter in a desperate attempt to stay dry

and pulled Carter in with her.  He was not happy to say the least.

So it was pretty much a free for all after that.

The kids moved on to sliding down the rock-

Which wasn't a great idea considering they all walked away with new holes on the bottom of their shorts.

Oh well.  They had fun!

The wind didn't let up at night,  so we didn't get to have any great fires outside.

But, that didn't stop us from making smores.

The next day we drove the 40 minutes or so to Boulder to hike Calf Creek Falls.

It's a six mile round trip hike to an amazing water fall.

The kids did awesome!

Hallie, our slow poke, was the first one in and the first one out.

Apparently, she no longer wants to be known as the slow one in the family.

Carter kept telling us along the way that when we finally got to the waterfall, he was going to dip his head in.

Which he did, more than once.

The waterfall was beautiful and I was so proud of the kids.

They hiked their little hearts out!

Boating turned Camping

Doug took  attempted to take Alex boating for Doug's birthday.

For some reason, the boat wouldn't start so they paid for a camping site 

and camped with the boat instead. 

They did do a little bit of fishing, but not nearly enough for Doug.

These are the pictures that Doug came home with. 

Alex was thrilled to be camping instead of boating! 

Summer Camp

It was quiet around the Johnson house last week.

It was strangely quiet because the kids were at camp.

The girls spent their week (Monday-Friday) in cabin number 7.

It stunk like skunk.

I took a quick picture before I left.

I signed the boys up for 1/2 day- Day Camp.

The theme for the week was wet-n-wild.

They spent an insane amount of time in the pool,

but they loved it.  They love the water.

Although on the last day when I pulled out my little camera,

they were playing in the gym.  

Alex is pictured with his best friend, Audran.
Audran's little brother Stefan (who is also Carter's good friend)

was suppose to come too, 

but he broke his arm a week before camp.

Carter missed having Stefan there, but still had fun.

I thought  the boys were too young for overnight camp,

but it turns out Alex was old enough.

Oh well.  Not sure how he would have done???

He seems to think he is ready,

so maybe I"ll try next year.

Could I really send them all to camp for five consecutive nights?

hummm.... Sounds tempting! LOL

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The night before the girls were to return

Doug and I took the boys out for a special night.

We went to Red Robins because the boys earned free kid meal

certificates from the library for their summer reading.

Carter stayed busy copying from the menu,

and Alex and I played a cheeseburger version of 

you sunk my battleship.

Alex discovered two lose teeth at dinner.

Finally!  

He has been waiting  a LONG time 

for the tooth fairy to visit.

After we went to see How To Train Your Dragon 

at the dollar movies.

I heart the dollar movies.

The boys loved, loved, loved the movie.

The girls returned Friday and Nadya had a souvenir.

Apparently, we forget to send her with lip-balm,

so she came home sporting FIVE cold sores!

I felt so bad!!!!

Moab

Last week my girlfriends and I were exchanging messages trying to figure out a time to get together. We ended up tentatively planning a night and then one of them canceled because she was going to Moab. One thing led to another and next thing I know we are all crashing Jill's weekend (thanks Jill) and we were headed to Moab. The kids were besides themselves with excitement. The night before we got there, Alex claimed he couldn't sleep because he was just too excited! So we left early Saturday morning. Could have left Friday, but I wanted to make sure there was enough room for us in the campground considering it was Memorial Day Weekend, and I wasn't quite ready anyway. (I guess I should have skipped seeing Sex and The City 2 the night before? Nah. That was much needed girl time.)  We gathered all of our supplies on Friday with plans to leave the next morning bright and early.  (I want to be the kid again.  The leg work of any trip for a mother is insane!) 

Bright and early was suppose to 6:00 AM, but we ended up leaving at 8:00 which put us in Moab around 10:00.  We proceeded to put up our tent for the first time ever.  Lame, I know.  We do plenty of camping just not the tent kind.  We do plenty of the boating kind, which doesn't require pitching a tent.  Anyway, we were able to put our tent up with out any problems. The kids loved it! 

We spent most of the time baking relaxing in the sun while everyone got situated and purchased last minute supplies.  The kids spent a good part of the day persistently trying to catch lizards with no luck.  Even the adults got into it, but the Moab lizards are too fast for us.  Next time, we'll be bringing nets for sure!

How Many People Does it Take To Catch A Lizard????

Apparently more than this!

We cooked dinner, made smores and 

chatted the night away by the fire. 

We were up early and decided to make our way over the Arches National Park.  What a beautiful place. It was pleasantly nice as it is about 1,000 feet higher than Moab and we had a nice breeze.  We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Balanced Rock

Windows

Delicate Arch

(The View for the wimpy hikers with children)

We left Arches and found a great park with plenty of shade for the kids (and I must say the adult loved it too!)  Alex wasn't feeling too great and we felt like we had seen everything we were going to see with small kids.  Hiking with kids definitely limits you to certain hikes even though the kiddos did great on the shorter hikes we participated in. 

We drove around Moab a little to find some of the tourist attractions. We took a peek at Lion's Back.  It is completely insane that they use to allow (and charge) people to drive their 4 wheel drive vehicles up this thing!  I didn't take a picture but there are plenty of them if you follow the link.

But, we did see an SUV on Hell's Revenge. 

The Boys really wanted to go, but being the practical mom that I am, I forbid it.

I think it was safe enough to say that we wore the boys out. 

In fact, they wouldn't even wake up for ice cream.  Poor Alex.  He  woke up after the ice cream trip and then prompty threw up in the bathroom sink of the visitor's center.  Whoops.  We made our way back to our campsite where Alex  sipped some powerade and went to bed.  Thankfully, he woke up feeling great the next day!

We left early the next day so that we could stop at the Prehistoric Museum on the way home.  But, Nadya snapped a picture to remember our first, (of many I hope) camping trips with friends.   

Prehistoric Musuem

We've been back for five days and I still haven't caught up on the laundry.  The dreaded last week of school has been crazy to say the least.  Woot Woot for 10 weeks off!!