It's All Relative

My mom and dad hosted a family reunion up at their cabin a few weeks ago. Since the cabin is so small, we were lucky that the owners of the neighboring cabins let us sleep in their cabins.

I think everyone had a great time. I know we all were busy. Somehow, I drew the 'cook dinner for everybody' straw. Actually I volunteered. I made dutch oven rice and chicken. We had 3 dutch oven's going with the main course, and 3 more dutch ovens cooking cobbler. I also had another dutch oven going because I wanted to experiment with a new corn bread recipe (which really wasn't very spectacular).

Lynette decided to make cobbler from the wild berries that were growing near the creek. I had only planned two batches of cobbler so I wasn't sure we needed another, but she 'made an executive decision' and the wild berry cobbler filled the last unused dutch oven. As she predicted, her cobbler was the highlight of the meal. It was surprisingly sweet even though we didn't add any sugar. I'm sure it was the most healthy choice and probably the most tasty. Thanks Lynette.

We played a lot of games, I tagged along on a snipe hunt with the boys, Lynette did a craft for 'girls night' and the adults all played games. The next day my dad hosted some outdoor games complete with a tug of war. Some people painted rocks for the 'rock garden'. We also had a nice devotional and Duane said some very well prepared and meaningful words. Like him, I wouldn't trade the experiences I have had with my family for anything.

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Lynette and I had a great time, and not just because we all got Andreasen Family Reunion t-shirts. It was really a great way to spend the weekend.

while I was cooking the kids were launching themselves out of the hammock.

The next day they were at it again, and got pretty good at it. Here is Samantha getting some awesome hang time.

This is a great picture of Haley.

Lynette painted a sumo wrestler for the rock garden. She loves sumo's.

Me, modeling the free t-shirt:

During this outdoor game we were all supposed to pull on the rope from the sitting position. Ideally this would end up pulling everyone else to their feet. I didn't get up right and Dad is calling me out on it. Oops.

This is how it was supposed to work:

The idea behind that activity was to show how easy it is to do certain things when we all work together as a family.

During one of the games, Damain totally scored on the candy:

Here is Taralynn with her first cousin once removed, Henry.

Look at Taralynn's smile...it's partly because she recently got engaged.

Back to the Swimming Hole

For our August scout outing we went back to the same place as last month. Because of gas prices we were asked to consider distance a little more when choosing a camping location. Our scheduled outing would have been around 100 miles more than if we returned here again.

It was up to the boys, and they decided they wanted to return, but to backpack in and not camp in the designated campsite. I happily agreed.

We didn't fish, but fisherman came up the creek Saturday morning and caught some right in front of us. When I saw that I really wished I had brought my fishing pole.

We mostly swam, played with the fire and ate.

Here are some pictures:

If I hadn't have been there, I would have thought someone photoshopped me into this picture.

One of the boys dads and the boys before the hike

Foil Dinners.

I instantly thought of the Norman Rockwell Boy Scout Paintings after I took this pic.

Throwing rocks never gets old.

It was a nice trip, as always.

Fun Trip

Back in July Lynette and I took a fun weekend trip up to the mountains. Since I'm posting about this trip so late my memories are mostly based on pictures. Here is a pictured summary of the trip (warning, it's long):

We left early in the day on Friday:

And went straight to a swimming hole that I've wanted to check out for a long time: I took a dip in the pool, but Lynette did not.

(I forgot to tell her we were going to a swimming hole)

Practicing my diving skills (yeah, I got skills):

Then we went back to Payson to check out the antique stores (one of our favorite things to do in Payson). As you can see, this is when it started to rain.

I didn't bring a tarp, so we piled up all the contents from the back of the truck on Lynette's lap until we could go to Walmart to buy a tarp. We also had dinner in Payson. Then we went to the cabin and waited for our friends. The next morning we got up early and headed to Fossil Springs and began our hike.
The hike was nice and downhill going in, but the weather was hot.
It was nice to get down to the creek and enjoy some more shade:

Dan and Kristin, our friends:

Fossil Creek is normally crystal clear, but the rain the day before muddied up the water a little bit. Still Lynette and I knew we should cool off in the water before the hike back out.

Me with one of the several rope swings in the area:

Of course, Lynette took a lot of pictures. Some of us, and some of other stuff: For someone who hates finding bugs at home, Lynette sure gets excited to see them in the outdoors.





I think this is one of my favorites. I like how the clouds clump together sort of like the agave in the foreground. It sort of reminds me of a shadow. We survived the hike out,
and grilled up some chicken back at the cabin. Yum.

On the way back home we stopped at the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.

Here is Kristin and Dan.

Lynette, climbing up one of the more precarious passes through the bridge.

Dan, doing a Peter Pan impression

(you had to be there to understand the randomness of this picture)

Another picture of me (it's my blog and I'll do what I want to)