We'll be comin' 'round the mountain . . .

How many weeks does it take Mandy to report on one week's worth of activities?

Well anyway, here I am with the last bit of fun from our week of JC's vacation from work!
(Although I have to be honest...right now my back hurts and I wish I were lying down instead. Also, I joined the ranks of pathetic moms everywhere last night by having a dream somewhat involving the Twilight saga...so I kind of want to watch that movie right now...but I am forcing myself to accomplish the task at hand!!!)


SO, Saturday of said week, we drove up to "The Mountains." The kids know this as where daddy goes when he goes camping/hunting, and where we have talked about taking them someday to sleep in a tent, etc. But we decided to baby step it and take them up there for a day.
This probably would have happened sooner was I not terrified of the drive up to Payson. For some reason, this...well...terrifies me.

- - Side note - -
JC is making turkey jerky in the kitchen and just walked into the doorway of the office in which I reside, pointed the jerky gun (no doubt full of seasoned ground turkey) at me and said,
"Go ahead. Make my day."
If that's not worth documenting, what on earth are blogs for?

Moving along...
I had finally made peace with the idea of driving up to "The Mountains" and not having to be sedated to do so. (sort of)
So, we packed up and headed out with a van full of things to get us through the day. The plan was to leave mid morning, expecting Ben would probably get a nap in on the way up and we would all be chipper for the rest of the day, eat dinner, drive home and put the kids to bed.
Ben didn't want to play along and defied all logic by not falling asleep leaving me very anxious for what manner of boy we would have on our hands once we hit late afternoon.

Sometimes I think that my blog would be a lot more charming if I were to just leave out the details and use like, two pictures, just to give an idea of our adventures but not necessarily give a play by play.
(In fact I as a whole would probably be more charming if I could learn to do that...just ask my husband...)
But I just can't seem to do it.

Anyway, here is how our day unfolded! Our day in The Mountains!

The drive up went smoothly. I kept my cool and the kids chilled while watching a movie.
When we hit our turn off to find our little spot for the day, it was...
a little bumpy.
Which Ben thought was really funny.

JC pulled us in to a great spot to call our own for a few hours.
First matter of business:
Lunch.

Second matter of business: explore.
James took this seriously and really forged ahead on this little dirt road.
He was a man with a mission. I don't know what. Neither did he.

Ben pulled me aside at one point on our exploratory walk and very excitedly announced that he had found....DIRT!
"yook mama, yook mama, DUHT! DUHT!"
It was so endearing, I demanded that he remain two forever.

JC pointed out some squirrels along the way.
They are almost as hard to spot as the duht.

At one point, the trail we were following got just a bit of a downward slope.
Ben decided it was a slide.
This is not my goofy way of saying that he fell down. He actually sat down and tried to push himself down the "slide."

Meanwhile, Bethany searched for sticks. Her selections got bigger and bigger.

JC brought us to this watering hole. He hunts around here sometimes, so he knows it pretty darn well. Plus, this is the general area he camped a lot growing up. He was like our local guide. Except he lives with us. And brought a portable potty seat.

Bethany loved that she could find itty bitty flowers growing around the water if she looked hard enough.

I don't know what this would be called but it is what JC and his hunting buddy, our friend Ben, built to hide behind and watch activity near the water.
I feel like I could not be a commentator on a hunting show. I don't know the lingo well enough or how to make things sound super cool and manly.
Besides, I probably wouldn't want to hang around with the people who worked on the hunting show anyway.
I'm just saying.
But, good job boys. It looks super cool and manly.

Ben is cheering. Maybe the mountains will be his happy place like they are his daddy's happy place.

The kids on a big rock.
I don't know what else to say.
(So, for anyone who's keeping track, any kind of Man vs. Wild type show is out too.)

But I do think I look a little Sacajawea-like in this picture, as if I could be pointing out the way to...wherever the guys who were led by Sacajawea were going...yikes. Time to brush up on my history. Or watch "Night at the Museum."
What I'm actually doing is showing the kids that this big log is a tree that used to be standing up...pointing out toward the roots and asking Bethany if she can tell us what roots do for a plant. I know for a fact that she knows. But since she is four now she doesn't feel the need to bend to my every whim and she just looked at me and said something like, "Don't you know, Mom? Why don't you tell us?"
Oh, my sweet girl. I hope we stay friends through your teens. :)

A beautiful tree in the midst of all the pines.

Once we started back to our spot, Bethany decided she was too tired for the walk.
I would have obliged her in her request to be carried. But, see, both boys had already played that card and I had one on each hip.
Oh, JC would have helped. But, when those boys want mom, they want mom.
And when Bethany wants to sit down on the dirt road, she wants to sit down on the dirt road.

Eventually, James started walking again and Ben transferred to my back, giving me a reason to twirl around crazily.
You have to do that when you have a baby on your back.

Bethany further demonstrated her tiredness. She wasn't kidding.
I ended up carrying her and Ben much of the way back and felt good about my cardio for the day.

Everyone rested once we got back to our spot. Can I call it a camp site if it was just for the day and not actual camping was involved?

Bethany used the bag which usually holds the canopy as her "sleeping bag."
Innovative.

James found his way to JC's chair and took it over for a while.

We snacked on fruit leather and cashews.
Ben has the bowl containing the cashews because he decided that it was time to make his lack of nap manifest to all in the form of cashew possessiveness.
(That word has so many s's, yes?)

Then we made nature bracelets.
Masking tape sticky-side-out around your wrist, pieces of "nature" you pick up and stick on...you know...nature bracelets.
Here's mine.

Ben's.
(I think he just tore off his masking tape as soon as I put it on, it fell down on the ground, and JC picked it up as-is. That's another way to do it.)

About this time, James decided he was done and ready to go home.
He did this on and off for the next couple of hours.

Here's Bethany making her nature bracelet.
And Ben with his cashews.

James found JC reclining in the back of the van and attacked/joined him.

Ben just looked cute wandering around, stomping through the pine needles.

James, back at this again...

JC worked on getting the fire started so we could cook our dinner and, of course, dessert.
We quoted Cast Away a lot at this point.

The kids thought JC was the coolest, building a fire. They just watched.

And giggled.

I was taking pictures of Ben messing with all the pine needles and rocks around him when I snapped this one. It wasn't until right after I took the picture that I realized he has his hands square on this pile of old cow poo.
Awesome.

This was also an exciting picture. First, I'm taking a cute picture of Bethany and Ben walking along together, then it becomes a picture of them tripping over each other.
It's really great when you capture those special moments.

But this really is a cute special moment:

James thought the fire was pretty cool but wasn't sure about all that smoke!

Everyone got on board when it was time to roast hot dogs!
FYI - hot dogs, especially turkey dogs, turn BLACK when roasted over a fire like this.
It's like eating soot.
Soot with ketchup.
But look how cute they are, roasting away:

You know that way a campfire has of mesmerizing you and causing you to just stand there with your mouth slightly open, arms hanging at your sides, eyes glazed over?
Um, yeah, me neither.
But James does.

After dinner, marshmallows were roasted as well (FYI, no matter how hard you look, it appears to be impossible to find a marshmallow not laden with corn syrup and sugar.) and S'mores were made!!! (FYI, you can find a decent graham cracker at Trader Joe's. They are SO yummy and thick. And you can find a really yummy dark chocolate bar there too.)
I heart s'mores almost more than anything.
So good.
James investigated for a while before he actually ate. But he loved too.

Ben also investigated. I think they were wary of the marshmallows. I guess there is not much that they have had before that is gooey and sticky like this. I can understand why that would be cause for concern.
But he eventually liked them too.

See? Gooey.

Bethany practically worshiped hers as she ate it.
We have many of the same tastes.
She often tells me, "Mommy, what you like, I like." I think it is more of a bonding attempt, which is cute. But it actually does turn out to be true much of the time. :)

After the desserts, I got them cleaned up (practically hosed them all down) and changed into pajamas, then tucked into their car seats with blankets and stuffed animals, while JC got the fire put out and everything non-living packed up and ready for the ride home.

Before we were two minutes into the drive, Ben was out.
Before we were eight minutes into the drive, James was out too.
And Bethany?
She fell asleep about thirty minutes in but don't try telling her that. She claimed to be awake the whole ride home.

I am so glad we made this little trip! The kids got to experience something new and fun, JC got to share a place he loves with us, and I got to put one more check mark on my "I can do hard thing" checklist. :) But really, I had fun.
I even taught the kids how to play baseball using a few rocks as bases, an old fire pit as the pitcher's mound, a big stick as the bat and pinecones as the baseballs. Though, inevitably...someone got hurt. And...inevitably...the kids didn't really retain any of what I taught them but...ah well. We still had fun.
With that and all our other adventures up in The Mountains.
Thanks for taking us, JC!

P.S. Three weeks later, I am questioning introducing marshmallows. They ask for them EVERY DAY. And even though I had stashed them up in a cupboard for future random uses, James apparently got wise to me, climbed on the counter, got them out of the cupboard and I found him eating one under the kitchen table. I put them away, gave him a talking to and that was that. When, the next day, the same thing happened again, I threw them away. Whole bag in the garbage.
P.P.S. "Out of sight, out of mind" philosophy - - does not work for marshmallows.
P.P.P.S. It doesn't work for The Mountains either. We can't wait to go back!