Thursday, August 27, 2015

Pinedale

Hunter's family has been in Arizona for generations.  
In fact, some of them settled the White Mountains in northern AZ years and years ago.  
There is land in Pinedale that the family still owns.  

Since we've been married, Hunter has told me countless stories about going up to their family cabin in Pinedale during the Summer.  Or for Father/ Sons campout weekends.  Or anytime they wanted!
I've heard about the weeks they'd spend up there in the Summer running around barefoot playing with cousins from sun-up till sun-down.  How instead of going on ward campouts they'd sneak away as a family to the cabin.  Or when his dad took just the boys and they didn't let his dad out of the outhouse because they were shooting BBs at him! 

Then the horrible 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire took their beloved cabin to the ground. 
Hunter says they went up weeks after the fire to find only tiny pieces of their cabin left.  
He and his siblings and cousins still have dreams and plans to build again on the land.  
I hope we can someday. 

Coming home from Lakeside on Sunday night, Hunter finally took me to the cabin's spot in Pinedale.

Henry was sleeping in the car so we got out and explored for a few minutes.

The 80 foot pines are still gone but the area looked incredibly green. 

The air was so fresh and tasted of the mountains.  

As we finished up our quiet visit, a huge thunder struck and rain started to fall. 

We'll be back. 






Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Mother Nature's Son

We spent the weekend up in Lakeside-Pinetop, AZ or as we like to call it Lake-Top.  Hunter has had a brother living up there with his family for about five years and just this month Benson and Sarah moved up as well.  It's pretty sad.  The only ONLY good part about family moving away is getting to go visit them.  I'm especially sad because sweet baby Whit (three weeks younger than Henry) is now hours away for play dates.  But we'll still make them happen.

This was our favorite trip up to the White Mountains!  We spent Saturday at Fools Hollow Lake.  Wow.  Super gorgeous.  And perfect weather.  Sarah and I kept commenting to each other about how perfect the weather was! Right when Hunter and I got on the lake (me on the paddle board-first time ever! and Hunter on a Kayak) there was a warm overcast and tiny drops of rain were lightly falling on the water.  It was so perfect.  Nature was welcoming me to adventure.

I've been thinking with a baby now and looking forward to more children and thinking of them as older children- that nature is good for families.   Family trips should be more outdoorsy for young children- and then we'll visit all those cities again when our babies get older.  So I'm figuring out how to get my self ready for hikes, camping, road trips, national parks- all the outdoors stuff.   And it's hard because I naturally don't like this rugged stuff.

But- This day at the lake helped me get pretty excited about it all.

And Henry just fits in great.


Started the day with on a nature walk with these two:



Hunter exploring: 





My face:


The girls down the road looking at the "pink polar bear".  Abby has a fabulous imagination.  
Also Henry and Whit were napping inside with Sarah.  


The boys both woke up and took a look at each other:




Henry's not so sure who this baby is. 


Abby was so helpful helping them bond. ;-) 




Driving out to the lake:



 Please understand how proud I am that I stood on the paddle board my first time out.  I did fall twice.  But that water was so cool and worth it.  


My man:


Henry sleeps:




Heidi, Ben and Whit:


Our little Nature Boy:










The ladies:


Oh so good:







Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Hot August Swim

Carli invited us over to swim last Saturday.  Hunter and his Dad had already planned weeks ago to do some projects the same day! Sad.  So Henry and I packed up and went over together.  This was the longest he'd been outside in the Arizona heat and I did get a little nervous about how his sweet little body would handle it.  But he ate a lot (keep him hydrated) and stayed wet the whole time.  After a quick nap as I held him in the pool he woke up and was happy happy happy.   

Later that night, Hunter and I took him swimming again at a neighbor's pool.  Henry honestly kicked his legs the whole time, smiled and cooed and floated on his back (we held his head of course).  At one point he even pushed his face in the water.  Like on his own. We both were pretty startled, but Henry came up with a cough and was totally fine.  And then we all laughed.  

We are taking open invitations to swim ANYWHERE the rest of the Summer!






Monday, August 10, 2015

weekdays

Henry and I love to hang around the house during the weekdays.  Sometimes we go out.  Maybe a lunch here or there.  Or a shopping date on Fridays.  But mostly, we stay in and do home stuff.  And sleep.

Henry lets me take pictures all day long.  Here are some of my favorites from the last couple weeks.