What a fun weekend!

This weekend was so much fun!! 
On Friday afternoon I left the house and headed to the Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs for some girl time!  It was such a treat :)  There were 7 of us ladies and we lounged in the pool, ate dinner at Tutti Santi's and spent the evening lounging in the pool some more!  The visiting went well into the night and I think I finally fell asleep on a few of the girls around 4a.m.!  Wow....it's been a while since I've been that foolish!  That's just a half an hour before I have been waking up lately to go hiking!  But the visiting was good, and worth the lack of sleep:) 
On Saturday morning after checking out of our room, I went to pick up my girls from home and we went to the Hilton Squaw Peak and spent the day at the waterpark there.  The girls had so much fun running between the water slide and the lazy river!  Frans joined us at about 4:00 and we didn't leave for home until around 6!  It was a great time, and felt like a little mini vacation:) 
The best part of the whole deal was the price!  Would you guess it cost only $10.00?!  We got the room for $70 and that was split between 7 of us...!  Can't wait to do it again! 
Love these pictures of Adeline and Taryn....Taryn was loving the water but insisted on playing on the step without us holding her!
Good friends....good visiting!  Thanks to Lindsey for arranging it all....and for not letting me stay home!

Even us "big" kids enjoyed the slide!

Trina got so tired after not having a nap!  while on the lazy river I told her "just lay your head down and go to sleep..."  she was out in about 30 seconds!




The kids were all zonked out early on saturday night after spending the whole day in the sun!  Sure beats a Saturday spent at home cleaning!
Sunday started out with an early morning hike with the hubby, then off to church, then an afternoon of lazing around reading, and we ended the weekend with some friends over for visiting and swimming!  Now to play catch up around here....:)
How did you spend your weekend?

ahhh...summertime....

Calls for ice cream! 
and Swimming
and reading
and being lazy
and sleeping in
and playing in the hose
and staying in PJ's all day
and building forts
and trips to the library....
I make it sound so lovely don't I?  :)  I won't mention all the begging, and fighting, and restlessness, and eating, and eating some more, and digging in cupboards to eat some more...etc! 

No really, it's been fun!  When they start getting bored, just send them outside with ice cream!!  That usually does the trick :)

The hike was awesome!

Pretty much the best way to describe hiking to the top of Humphrey's Peak, is WOW.

We started hiking at 8:40 and got to the top at about noon.  It was an awesome experience,and I am so glad that I went.  Despite being sick all week, and behind on sleep, I made it all the way!  
My hubby and I....so fun to do this together!  :)

There were times that I definately thought about turning around and heading down tho, but I kept truckin along...The views were fantastic, and the trail was actually pretty nice most of the way.

I only got a few pictures of the others that were with us....
there were 8 girls that took off about a half hour before us...a few girls each from Flagstaff, Prescott, CO and one from Phoenix.
In our group there were 11 of us that hiked up together.  We had a good time!





The winds at the top were probably between 60-70 mph, and the temp was about 50 degrees!!  Can you say bitterly cold??!  It wouldn't have been so bad if I was better dressed for the weather.  What I wore was fine until we got to the last mile of the hike!  The winds were the strongest winds that I have ever been in, they were just about enough to knock you over!  Yikes!  There is a wall built out of rocks on top to make a little shelter from the wind....so we huddled in there for a while before heading back down!  I believe this next picture is looking down at Locket Meadow....so pretty!  The views from on top were absolutely amazing!
 

So much snow still on top!




throwing snowballs!


My first time ever being above the tree line.....no trees growing this high, but I did find a few flowers!

 

Heading back down.  I didn't enjoy the trip down so much....I had a massive headache from the elevation, and It lasted most of the way down.

We ended our day with pizza and visiting at Oregano's in Flagstaff.  What a day....now I need to catch some zzzzzz''s!

random ramblings...

I'll start off with the weather....:)  It has been awesome this last week here in Phoenix!  It is warming up again now, but we have had some cool days this last week, and the evenings and mornings have been wonderful!  Especially Saturday when it was overcast and 75-80 and we even had a few sprinkles :)  I got to turn the A/C down and open the doors, and oh it felt so good!
Girls are keeping busy with birthday parties, swimming, playing school....Lindsey and Kierstyn even got to go on a bow shoot at Mormon Lake with Dad last Saturday!  We gave Kierstyn a bow as an early birthday gift, (her bday is in a month) and so she has been having fun with Target practice in the backyard.  Now Lindsey has found that she actually enjoys it too...so Frans has a couple of 'boys' to hunt with this year :)  Here is a picture of the three of them at the bowshoot...(thanks for the picture Logan!)


We are getting ready for our big hike on Saturday to this monstrous hill!  Getting pretty excited about it too!  This is Humphrey's Peak in Flagstaff...I have been hiking Squaw Peak just about every day, but this baby is almost 11,000 feet higher!!  I'm actually not nervous about the 'hiking' part of it, just about the breathing part!  The air is so much thinner....It is 4.5 miles and is 12,633 feet, and is said to be the "best hike in Arizona".  I'll have my hiking shoes on, my camera around my neck, and be ready to go come 10:00 Saturday morning!!  Anyone else want to join us?  The more the merrier!

And I can't end this post with a picture of the sweetest little baby around!  Taryn is wanting so bad to start walking, and she is almost there!  If she would just quit giggling and get going! :)

and a few pictures from a hike I went on on Saturday with Trina and Taryn.  The girls loved it!  It was  a paved trail, but it was pretty steep, so coming down was fun!



Summer is just cruising right on by! What are some ways you are spending your summer days?

Play

This weeks Theme at I heart faces is "Play".  My husband would "play" this all the time if it was possible!
 
 

feels so good....

to just laze around and do nothing every once in a while!  I went hiking early this morning, then ran a few errands, but since I've been home, I haven't gotten much accomplished!  But like Frans said....Don't worry about it, it's ok to have a down day every now and then!  Unlike me, he actually got a lot done, like the dreaded run to the dump, mowed the grass etc...and he even had the girls clean the house while I was napping!!  Does it get any better than that? 
What did you spend your Saturday doing?  

and swim lesson time for Trina!

summer is here!

And is in full swing around here!  So far we have been camping, slept in, had some late nights, lazed around, had sleepovers, done lots of swimming....and we have loved that we don't have a schedule!  The girls are asking to go swimming by 9:00 a.m. most days!  During the winter months, I often wish we didn't have a pool, and just had a bigger yard for the girls to run in.  But come summertime...I am sure glad we have it! 
We don't have any big summer plans....but to just hang around here and have fun!  Any ideas on how to (cheaply) entertain a bunch of girls??  I've also got a girl turning 9 next week, and a girl turning 8 next month....What are some fun birthday activity ideas for that?  I gotta start brainstorming!
 In the meantime, here are some fun pictures of our camping trip last weekend, and of the girls having fun outside...
Have a great weekend everyone!
We camped just past snowball...I couldn't believe that Humphrey's Peak still had snow up on top!  We are hiking that mountain in a few weeks, and I'm thinking that it's going to be cold up there!!


Loved how relaxing of a weekend it was!  Took a couple walks, got a few pages of my book read, sat around and visited....good times!  And I hope we are able to go a few more times this summer! 

The girls have spent most of their days so far this summer in the pool!  I put Taryn in the baby pool today, but she was NOT impressed!!  Poor baby...will have to let the water warm up some more before she goes again!


Being in the sun all day makes for some tired girls!!  hmmmm...need to get better about remembering the sunscreen!


And a fun shot of Kierstyn now that I'm here!  This is my girl who loves to have her picture taken!  She was all dressed up the other day, and when I pulled out the camera, she was just thrilled!  Love her!