chris worked saturday and got home at around 5. wanting to take advantage of what time we had with him i packed the cooler and had everything ready to go for a dinner picnic up in the canyon. we drove up into Settlement Canyon where there is a reservoir. the water was down quite a bit and the shoreline was rocky. not much to be desired, but the view from that elevation was pretty.
driving in there are campsites all along the sides and a creek that runs the course of the canyon. in many places the creek is down a steep ravine and all of the better spots were already taken. eventually we found an open field with a play ground along the creek. it was a nice evening, not too hot, with a nice breeze. thanks heavens for the breeze because apparently they don't mow the grass in the field and instead opt to free-range cattle there. a few too many cow pies lay about (some fresh!) you really had to watch your step!
the {beware of rattlesnakes} and {watch for cougars} signs also were a bit unsettling, however; there were plenty of other people all around so i felt confident we would be ok!
luckily there was one last fire pit available next to a picnic table so we set up our spot and chris and the kids ran off to collect firewood. chris made an excellent "log cabin" style fire and showed brady how to build the fire and add wood in as the fire got going. he explained how a fire needs air to "breathe" and grow.
next up....hot dogs! who doesn't love roasting a hot dog over the fire?
the kids and their cheesy grins-
i took quite a few pictures of zach as he ate. he was pretty funny about it. i had packed everything we needed and was quite proud that i hadn't missed anything...until we realized we didn't have any paper towels!
zach is showing me his very messy fingers
no paper towels? got to lick them off!
usually zach eats his hot dog like a piece of corn. i was encouraging him to eat it from the end to try and not get so messy
apparently eating a hot dog like "normal people" is funny
what's a summer "BBQ" without rootbeer floats?!
and now the face is REALLY messy! watching a 2 year old eat a rootbeer float can be very entertaining!
and a toothless girl too!
we cleaned up from dinner and packed stuff to the car, then sat in our camp chairs and watched the kids play. they made some quick friends and had a game of tag.
olivia climbed all the way across the monkey bars for the first time
and we were there too!
on the way home we stopped at a house that had a full apricot tree. the owner was in the front yard painting and since it didn't look like they were using the apricots i got out and asked if they would mind if we picked some (offering to pay for some of course). she was more than happy to let us pick what we wanted off the tree.
in about 15 minutes the five of us picked enough apricots to fill half of my sink. we would have stayed longer and picked more, but this little guy who is newly potty-trained "had to go!"
we'll see how much jam we can get out of this and maybe go back for more.
