This morning Lou was talking about a friend of hers that she wants to marry.  I suggested that she needed to wait until she is older to get married and so we began discussing the appropriate age.  First she said that when she is a big sister who is 17, she could get married.  I told her she needed to be at least 21.  Then she asked "Mom, how old is Ariel?"

I said, "She is sixteen."  Then thought, "Oh dear!"  It had never occurred to me that Ariel is sixteen and gets married!  That's it! NO more of "The Little Mermaid" at our house!

There is something about camping.  

You live simply.  

You are surrounded by natural beauty and quiet.  

You leave the hectic pace of life and the only thing you have to worry about is 

how to cook your next meal.  

It is very refreshing.  

Our original plan to really rough it in the wild changed at the last minute when a fire restriction was pronounced, banning any fires except in established campgrounds.  So we headed for the hills, so to speak, and went camping in Prescott National Forest.  The drive should have taken 90 minutes, but our GPS decided the best route was through a back country dirt road... we almost made it to our destination before meeting a hill that the minivan could not conquer (it almost conquered us).  So we turned from the road less traveled and returned to the road more traveled.  We finally made it into camp after dark.

Friday was spent exploring, hiking, eating food, playing cards, taking care of "Catty" (more to come on her) and just being together.  The cool thing about camping is that the fun is in the work.  You set up camp and get it organized, it's work, but its fun!.  You cook meals in or over coals, it's work, but its fun!  We all thoroughly enjoyed it and the girls have decided that we should go camping every weekend.  If we had a maid to do the preparation and the clean up, I would be all for that :)   

S'mores!  This fire had the best marshmallow
roasting coals I have every experienced.  Yum!

Bubba liked to go for rides in
her camp chair/stroller.

Bouldering behind the tent

The little stream that ran right behind our tent.

Getting to the stream

Bubba just enjoying the scenery

Curly and Lou liked to "collect" things in their explorations

The infamous "Catty" the caterpillar, shortly after her discovery.
It was love at first sight.

Lou and Catty.  We cleaned out a
baby food jar for Catty to live in.
She made it home with us
before being loved to death.

Curly and Catty

On a hike.  It was so dry in camp.
Keeping anything clean was a lost cause.

Stopping for a snack

  

Gathering kindling

Being cute while mom practices photography

Curly practicing her photography

Eating breakfast on the rocks with Catty

We've been hit!

By a meteorite!  Who knew that Arizona is home to one of the best preserved craters from a meteorite impact.  On Memorial day, we and our good friends, the Rollins decided to go check it out.  We drove North to Flagstaff, then east to ... the middle of no where.  That meteorite chose a perfect location - it was already desolate!  Once we arrived, we saw... a big whole in the ground (a mile wide) and lots of dirt and rocks.  It was actually interesting to learn a bit of geology and natural history and the kids all had lots of fun.

On the way home we stopped at the Anthem outlets to do little playing on the Splash pad and some shopping too (Fisher's idea - I am not joking).  It was a fun day!

Curly and a few of the Rollins crew.

Curly pondering on the size of the crater and taking notes
(seriously)

Lou that we love

A much anticipated and asked about picnic lunch.