Mt. Charleston again

We took Aunt C to Mt. Charleston today. Deanna and I like any excuse to go there! It was wonderful - 73 degrees, beautiful, quiet. We loved it! Here are some pictures!
Mr. T wearing his sisters glasses

Miss O
Miss MAunt Nanny with In-N-Out stickers all over her shirt

Aunt C (who has now beaten me twice in Carcassonne!)Our first attempt at a group shot.. bad shadows and Miss O is taking notes

Our second attempt at a group shot... this time, Miss O has the tears

A little better... except you will notice our van in the background. I didn't realize it was there.

The kids looking for the "monkey" in the tree

Miss O being Miss O

Mr. T in upside down glasses.

The kids had so much fun just playing and "tiger hunting"

Our drive off the mountain. Isn't it so cool how mountains just shoot up out of the sand?

Boys Hiking Trip

Mr. J had an extremely busy week at work. In addition to getting everything ready for his "vacation," he also was preparing for a big inspection that was scheduled to start tomorrow and studying for his promotion test that is tomorrow at 1300. We worked late every evening and then as soon as he got home started studying. So he decided he needed some fresh air and went for a hike on Saturday with Mr. T and his friend JS. They had a fun time exploring some desert areas west of Vegas. I think he even got to practice shooting his new gun at cactuses. He said he let Mr. T pull the trigger once or twice, but he wasn't a fan cause it kind of hurt his finger. I had to laugh cause I had just read my friend Sam's post You may be a redneck if.. (you enlist the help of your 3 year old to make home brew) and thought our 18 month old having a sore finger could qualify as making us rednecks as well.

Mr. J tells me these pictures were taken near the end of the hike and Mr. T was "done" at that point, but I thought they were cute. You gotta love their matching Carhartts!

If you were wondering what we did for our special girl time while they were hiking, it was this....

• chew gum (a very special treat for them)
• paint robots with real paint on brown paper bags
• McDonalds Happy Meal
• finish our taxes at H&R Block (I had a great experience... I did the time saving drop-off packet the day before so it only took about 30 min of my time on Saturday... if any one wants a $15 coupon, I have a couple so leave me a comment)
• Cupcakes! We visited a new cupcake store called Just Cupcakes in NW Vegas and they were delicious. I have to say I think they were better than The Cupcakery! Miss O picked out the all pink strawberry flavor since we checked out the book Pinkalicious from the library this week. It is a cute book about a girl who eats one too many pink cupcakes and gets pinkitis! No worries though, Miss O didn't turn pink!

Spelunking

On the Saturday when the W's were here, the guys took 3 of the kids, Miss S, Miss M and Mr. T on a hike to a cave (near Red Rock) for Mr. J's squadron hike. Deanna and Tom also joined them. Deanna tells me it's probably a good thing I didn't go as there was some mild rock climbing involved. Here are some pictures from their fun day...

Walking the trail

Inside the graffiti'd cave. They say the camera really picked up more than they saw when they were there. Deanna said Miss M was so brave!Miss S with her flashlight

Mr. T taking a nap on daddys back

Mr. W and Miss S Mr. T, Mr. J, Miss M and Aunt Nanny

Miss M saw this rock and asked Mr. J if she could climb it. He said, "oh, maybe another time when we come and you are bigger." And she said, "no daddy, I would like to climb it today." And she did!

At the top!
She did it!

Hiking with Daddy

Mr. J took the kids hiking on Monday while I worked. They went to Red Rock, west of Las Vegas and hiked in Ice Box Canyon. Yes, I think if they had a daddy of the year award, he should win it. He dressed the kids, packed food and a diaper bag and off they went. They had to stop at Costco first (to get an external hard drive to copy files from our desk top.. we are having virus issues). That alone would be enough for me with the three kids, but from there he took them to Red Rock where they hiked about 3/4 miles up the trail and then back. Miss M told me that part of the way back, daddy carried them all and she said the other hikers were there thought that was really cool. He puts one in the front pack, one in the back pack and one on his shoulders. The kids said they had a great time and wanted to go again today. Below are some pics Mr. J took with the new camera. We have really learned to enjoy the beauty of the southwest. If you click on the pictures, they will get bigger and are quite beautiful.

Aren't the red rocks beautiful with the snow on them?

At the trail head

Sweet girls

Silly girls Mr. T ready to go, notice the Gonzaga hat. Like father, like son.

Going along the trail Lunch time!

Always a favorite part of the hike
Mr. J says these are juniper berries

Another pretty view of the rocks