We spent Saturday, September 17 and Sunday September 18 in Flagstaff having fun. We packed up the car and headed to the bluegrass festival Pickin' In the Pines for the day before heading camping. We went to Pickin' In the Pines two years ago and had a great time. Last year I was on my deathbed pregnant with Tyler so it didn't happen. We spent the day playing on the grass, eating our delicious snacks and listening to great bluegrass music. The boys started out the day rolling down the hill and wrestling. Here they are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXJbAp2yTok
Chad spent most of the day in his camping chair enjoying the music.
Luckily, the festival sets up a children's art area to give the kids something to do. They had paper plate masks and music shakers to paint. Grant was able to manage the painting with relative ease. Cole dove in, in his typical two and three year old way. I worked so hard keeping paint off his clothing that I didn't pay attention to the paint that ended up on my clothing.
They also had people their doing face painting for the kids. The kids could pick what they wanted on them and where they wanted it. We decided to give Tyler his first face painting.
Towards the end of the day, we moved our chairs to the back, wooded area of the theater to get out of the sun. The boys discovered a herd of about 8-10 other boys playing in the woodsy area. They were picking up the giant sticks and building forts, fighting swords and doing other boy things with nature items.
During the festival, I took Cole and Tyler and went to pick out and pay for our campsite. At about 5 PM, we left the festival to start the camping part of our weekend at Lake View Campground at Upper Lake Mary.
Grant and Cole had a great time "helping" Chad put up the tent and start the fire. They collected the kindling and piled it up in the fire pit so Chad, our Eagle Scout leader, could get our dinner fire going.
We enjoyed hot dogs roasted on a stick, foil dinners and s'mores for dinner and dessert. The boys loved playing in the fire with the sticks and roasting the hot dogs. Chad set one rule for camping when he took Grant to fathers and sons and that is that you can do whatever you want and eat whatever you want. In the spirit of that rule, the boys ate an unknown number of marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate.
Tyler spent most of his camping experience bundled up in the carseat or in the Bjorn. He was a good boy though and seemed to enjoy the outing.
When I picked out the campsite the volunteer ranger warned me that they have been having a lot of unwanted campsite visits from pesky skunks looking for free food. He was right. Shortly after dark, a little skunk started tormenting the campsite next to us. Per the ranger's advice, they started throwing rocks at the skunk. He ran towards our campsite and Chad scared him away. The campsite across the way got a visit from the skunk while they went to the bathroom. When they returned there was a skunk right by their campfire. After we all went to bed, Chad stayed up for a bit to put the fire out. While doing that the little skunk made his way under our picnic table and scared the crap out of Chad. Thankfully, nobody was sprayed.
We all slept fairly well that night. We weren't cold but the ground was lumpy. Tyler slept in the sleeping bag with me. The boys were in their bags between me and Chad. We had down comforters under and over us. The morning was chilly though. This is our bundled up Tyler. He has about four layers on.
Grant was the first one out of the tent. He is peaking in on us all bundled up in his winter clothes.
Cole refused to put on his warm clothes for about an hour then broke into tears because his hands and face were so cold.
While Chad got the fire going and fixed us breakfast, the boys played bacci ball.
Chad made us shepherd's pie for breakfast. He threw in eggs, hashbrowns, cheese and onions and cooked it all in the dutch oven over the fire. It was delicious even if it doesn't look so great.
My favorite part of camping is making s'mores so I couldn't resist making a few for breakfast.
Once we got camp cleaned up and packed up, we took a drive up the lake so we could play in the water for a big. The boys had fun throwing things into the water.
After we played at the lake we drove home to celebrate Cole's third birthday that was actually the day before.
"I can wash the dishes"
(Grant with his display of work)
(Grant's self-portrait of himself as a knight)
(Grant's book of pictures of him drawn by each of his classmates)
(Grant's drawing of himself riding his bike)
(Grant's artwork of himself helping to wash the dishes - his "I can" statement)
(The contents of Grant's jar of unique things about him - love of bugs (bug), pet turtle (toy turtle), loves baseball (baseball picture), great at puzzles (puzzle piece), loves to color (crayon), loves apples (apple seed), loves to climb trees (leaf), thumbprint)
(Grant's heart that he gave to his dad - during the performance the children came down from the stage and gave their hearts to someone who came with them)
(My cute boys after the celebration presentation)
