Haigler Creek

We drove to Arizona for a family reunion on the Russell side. We rented a minivan and drove out there starting at 3:40am. We drove for 16 hours on the first day. We weren't planning on doing that but the kids were happy and so we decided to keep going. The kids read books, played with trucks, stickers, animals, sang songs and all sorts of things for 14 hours. When we stopped at gas stations, Emma begrudgingly went to the bathroom and hopped back in the car. We walked John around the parking lot to stretch his legs but he just wanted to play in the minivan driver seat. After 14 hours, John lost it, understandably so. And just as a note of "we aren't crazy", we weren't planning on driving 16 hours. We got to Los Cruces, NM where we were planing on staying the night and the kids were totally happy. We got there earlier than planned so we decided to keep on driving. The next place that we could stop was Tucson so we kept going. So John slept for 1 hour of his melt down and then cried for an hour. We got to the hotel and took the kids swimming.

The next day we drove to Mesa where we visited Dave and Judy, Grandma Lofgreen, Grandma Russell, Rory, and Darrin. We had a great time visiting family. The next day we drove up to Haigler Creek with Marsha and throughout the day most of the family arrived.

The kids had a great time. Haigler Creek is a magical place where kids can just go and play. It reminds me of my Mom's childhood in Monticello, UT where she played and was free to roam about. I say that and Emma and John didn't roam with wild abandonment but they sure did have fun. The kids played on the fire truck. At one point Dale drove the fire truck around with the siren on and the kids on the back. Elation! John wouldn't get off of the back of that thing for quite a while.

 

We took the kids down the zip line. Emma loved it. John not so much. I think the sound scared him. He was too little to take down the full thing so I just sat with him on it and had someone pull us up a little and let go. That was too much to take.

Emma and I caught crawfish in the creek. They are an invasive species. The locals want to crawfish gone. We tied bacon and a rock to a string and dangled it from a stick and a finshin' we went. They would pinch the bacon and we would pull them out of the creek. Emma caught about 3 of them. I think the older boys got more of a thrill out of it than Emma. In a few years, John will probably love it.

Kerrie and Todd brought up Dray's go cart and Dray took the kids around for a ride. Emma loved it. John loved sitting in the driver seat.

We also rented quads and rangers. Everyone loved them. Aaron and I took a quad out so I could drive one. During the day I would have to pry it out of a kid's hand and that didn't seem right so we went out at night. We drove up to a hill and watched the stars. The sky was so dark up there. It seemed like it had been forever since I had seen such a beautiful night sky. Driving a quad has been a dream of mine for a long time. As a kid we would go to Monticello and Papa (my grandpa) had quads. He took us all around the area. I was too little to drive one then but always wanted to. So 25 years later I got to do it.

We took the kids to a place called Pine Creek. There are these huge boulders to climb on and explore. When we got there we found a baby snake. There was some debate about what kind of snake it was. So naturally everyone got close to check it out. Sure it looked like it had a rattle on the end of its tail but that was inconclusive until Regan took a close look. Sure enough it was a baby rattle snake. I don't ever need to get that close to a rattle snake ever again. After that we were  a little freaked out that mama snake would be close by but we never saw anything. The kids rode around on the quads and we had a great time.

A bunch of people also went to Spring Creek. Last time we went there was a deep watering hole and we were able to do cliff jumping and diving into the water. I didn't go this year, but apparently the water was too shallow to do diving. And the water was cold. So Emma has my blood when it comes to cold water. She scrambled up Aaron's back to get out of the water. However, even on his back that left her still in the water, so naturally the only logical choice was to sit on his head to get totally out of the water. The problem was Aaron was carrying the camera and trying to keep it out of the water in one hand and swim, and have Emma on his climb on his head all at once. Apparently it came a little close to sinking them all.

At night the kids played and the adults played games or visited. I don't think I have laughed so hard for so long in a while.

Regan and Michelle brought their blood hound Sadie. Emma and John LOVED this dog. And Sofie was kind and let them love on her. Emma spent a lot of time outside rolling a ball to Sofie and sometimes chastising Sadie when Sofie hadn't done anything. John would just squeal with delight and chase Sofie and run away out of fear all at the same time.

We also did a family kickball game. I played chase with John to keep him off the field but as near as I can tell it was a fun time for all.

The kids also played on the tire swing down by the creek. The Lofgreen family has put a lot of work into making the cabin a fun place.

Aaron helped the kids with a bug collection. Marsha even caught a tarantula to add to the collection. The kids caught grasshoppers in the field to feed to the spider.

We had a birthday party for those that had birthdays in July and August. Emma was introduced to lolly pops. She fell in love. She would sneak into my suit case and get a lolly pop. It is one of the only times I have ever seen her sneak and get anything.

As part of the birthday party, we did a pinata. When it was Emma's turn to hit it, she wouldn't do it. I don't know if she thought she would get in trouble for hitting something or if it was too much for her non confrontational spirit to hit something with a bat. I had to hold the bat with her and hit it and even then, it was me, and only me that really hit the pinata.

On the trip home, we decided to drive through the night. This was not one of our wiser decisions. We left about 6pm and Emma was so tired from the week that she fell asleep about 7pm and was out for the night until about 10am the next morning with a few moments of being awake. John on the other hand slept for  6 hours and cried for what felt like 13. It turns out that John isn't great at sleeping in his car seat. So that meant that whoever was supposed to be sleeping was trying to pacify John. So we were pretty tired by the time we got home. Fortunately we only had to last a couple of hours before putting the kids to bed and then we went to bed as well.