Fishing at the Cabin

This year, Grandpa rented a boat slip for the pontoon boat, so we could easily go fishing whenever we wanted.  That was very helpful because Joe wasn't able to come out to the cabin since he went on the Philmont hike. Grandpa had all the kids bait their own hooks too, so that was a good learning experience for some of them.

 Ellie didn't like using the worm threader.

 Michael preferred to read a book, but if he had to, he could fish as well as anyone else.

 When we first went up, Juliana and Lucas went with us, and Ellie really enjoyed playing with them.

 Later, Adam came.  He really liked fishing.

This year, no one but Nate wanted to eat the fish, so we threw everything back except for one fish.

Philmont

The older boy scouts in our area go on a high adventure trip once every 4 years to Philmont Scout Ranch.  It is a Scout Ranch in New Mexico that has a lot of hiking trails up in the mountains.  Joe decided to go with Adam this year.  Since Joe really likes to be prepared and he wanted the hike to go as smoothly as possible, he spent months buying and testing equipment so he could have the best and lightest equipment.  Finally, the day of the hike arrived.  It was a 10 day hike, and they were scheduled to walk 90 miles, but since it was in New Mexico, with driving it would be 14 days.  This is them as they are getting ready to go meet everyone at the church.

At the church, ready to go:

 Here they are after they arrived at Philmont, before they started their hike.

 This is them as they walked back into camp:

 Notice they are both skinnier.  Also, Joe let me know they were super stinky.  In fact, he really wanted me to appreciate it, so he took his shirt he had worn for the entire trip, put in a Ziploc baggie and put it next to my bed.  After I got back from my trip a few weeks later, I found the bag and wondered what it was, so I opened it to look at it. I almost died gagging!!!

The report from the hike was that it was awful!  They expected too much from everyone with the super strenuous hiking every day.  They would get up super early, hike all day until like 4, set up and eat dinner and then pass out for the night.  Philmont has a lot of side hikes and activities that you can do as you hike, but they were too tired from the hiking to do any of that.  Every single person, except one, had a ton of blisters on the bottom of their feet.  Adam's knees started hurting and they bothered him so bad that after he came back he limped for 6 weeks.  We were about to go have him checked for permanent damage when they slowly stopped hurting.
They did say the views were beautiful, but it was too much work to really enjoy.

When we got back from our summer trip, Joe still hadn't shaved his beard.  He tormented Ellie and Nate with it, and they didn't love it!

For church the next day, he shaved it to look like this!

White Sands National Monument

 On the way back to Texas, we stopped at White Sands National Monument.  We had gone there a couple of years ago and had the best time.  This time, as we drove up, we started to see a storm coming in.  When we got there, the winds were blowing really hard.  It made it feel like we were being sandblasted, it was very painful, and made the day not as fun.  We still got a few fun pictures before we left.

Nate is Eight!

 Nate turned 8!  Its hard to believe that my baby is 8!  He is such a helpful boy, he loves to be needed and wanted when you are working.  He especially loves to help cook, but not to help set the table. He especially loves to help his dad with his projects in the garage or at the land.  He loves to play Minecraft. He would like to do this more than anything else, and if he's really lucky, he likes to play it with friends.

 He is very independant, he can do most things for himself, but only if he doesn't feel like he is being forced to do it.

 For his birthday, he had a pool party and invited his friends from church and the neighborhood.  He also had snow cones at his party.

 This next picture is what he really looks like most of the time.

He was baptized by his father on June 11.  He was confirmed by his grandpa Stratton.  He had his Uncle Austin give a talk and Grammie Stratton gave a talk too.

He is a very tenderhearted boy.  We are lucky to have him in our family.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

One day while we were at the cabin, we took all the 4 wheelers and Razors and went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes state park.  Its a park that has coral sand dunes that you can ride your 4-wheelers in.  At first it was scary sliding around, but over time it became more fun.

 After riding for a bit we went on a long ride nearby to where there was sandstone with "dinosaur" tracks in it.

 We did try sledding in the sand, but it didn't work so well.

 At the end, just the boys went back and rode the sand dunes for a while.  They absolutely loved it and wished they could do it longer.  We will definitely have to go back.

The Grand Canyon North Rim

I took the kids to the grand canyon, south rim a few years ago.  There were a lot of hikes to do, but we didn't have a ton of time, and they were a bit small for them.  I decided that since it wasn't terribly far out of our way, we would visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon on our way home this year.

 It was very beautiful, and the weather was just perfect.

 I had a hard time not freaking out about the kids and the steep ledges.  Nate wanted to climb up on everything, and I was worried he would fall, so I wouldn't let him climb around as much as he wanted to.

I keep telling him that someday he is going to look back at all these pictures where he is making a funny face and wish that he just smiled, but he doesn't believe me.

Frost biscuits

Joe didn't get to come to the cabin with us this year because he had taken too much time off work to go to Philmont with Adam.  While we were at the cabin, Michael wanted to make some of his Dad's biscuits.

 When Joe's grandpa was a teenager, he was a bit of a hellion.  His dad finally got fed up and sold him into indentured servitude as a sheepherder after he caught him smoking.  He spent a few years herding sheep in Arizona.  One of the things he learned to do was to dutch oven cook.  He especially got good at making scratch biscuits and for most of his life he would make large batches of biscuits for community and family events.  He taught his children, who taught their children to do it.  Joe is really good at making biscuits.  He has started having the kids help him.  When we were away, Michael felt confident enough to make them on his own.  He did it all himself, and they turned out great.

 Since then, he has made them every chance that he can.  He is getting quite fantastic at it. I love when the kids learn new skills and become great at them.