Hiking and Mom of the Year

This past weekend we went on the annual camping trip with the tax committee from Doug's work. His boss has some property in Grover (pretty much Capitol Reef's backyard) and we every year he invites everyone down for a fun campout. It was fun and we had a blast laughing around the campfire. He is so lucky to be able to work with some pretty fun people (who happen to have some pretty awesome wives too!)

A few weeks ago I was at Walmart and saw this thing in their baby clearance section. I thought it was kind of weird and wondered who would use something like that. I came home and then thought about how awesome it would be to take camping. It's called a Nap Nest (or something like that) and I thought it would be great for Mabel to sleep in. She did pretty good in it but actually spent most of the night sleeping in her car seat. Oh well. Here she is playing in it before we left. The girls think it's pretty great to stick her in there and load her up with toys.

The next day we headed to Capitol Reef for some hiking. The hike they had planned as 10 miles round trip. We made it about 4. Pretty good for these little legs. It was a pretty hike that had some awesome slot canyons along the way.Here we are right before we turned around. Lilly was so happy to be there with us! This poor baby did pretty good. I promise I put sunscreen on her but as you'll see later, it didn't do much good.

Two little cuties taking a rest.

Lilly showing me this perfect rock she found to sit on.

Doug let Mabel borrow his hat for awhile to help protect her from the sun.

I promise we tried to cover you up baby! I'm sorry it didn't help!

Mabel had fun playing musical carrying methods on the hike. I had her in the front carrier most of the time and Doug brought the backpack for Lilly to ride in. She absolutely refused to get in (even when her legs were "so tired" and she would drop to the ground and refuse to move another inch). It was a little frustrating. We finally put Mabel in it and she did ok. For the last 1/4 mile I carried her while Doug literally carried the other two on his back so that we could hurry outta there. They were sooooo done.

We finally made it back to the car in time to snuggle with our stuffies.

I was so happy to have a bigger vehicle to take camping this year. It helped out a lot!

We stopped in Bicknell on the way home have one of their famous Sunglow burgers. We also decided to be adventurous and have a slice of their sweet pickle pie. It was kind of different but pretty much tasted like pumpkin pie. We were not daring enough to try the pinto bean pie. Maybe next time.

After we got home we quickly unloaded and showered and ran to a graduation party for one of Doug's young men.

When we got home the girls immediately decided to play dress ups (for some weird reason it was an absolute necessity) and watch a movie.

When we got Mabel out of her seat I was surprised at how red her face was. I really thought I had done a good job putting sunscreen on her. She's had a bad cold for the past few days and Doug wasn't feeling well yesterday so he stayed home from church with her. I called to check on them and he told me that Mabel had blisters on her face. I felt so bad! They're kind of hard to see but she has a few on her nose and cheek. I think it's safe to say she got her cute Daddy's skin. Poor Doug had the same thing happen to him when he was 5 months old. His was bad though and his mom said she had to keep gauze on his face. Poor babies.

So just in case that wasn't enough to make me mom of the year, I found this sweet note and picture on the back of my door when I was going to bed the other night. It says, "I love you. You are the best pereins in the hll in tiyre wrlld. Love Sophia and love Lilly." At least someone thinks so! Not Mabel though apparently and for good reason!