vacation...

After my Dad's surgery, Karli and I had to leave Tucson while he was still waking up from anesthesia. Even though I had talked to him on the phone and knew that he was doing so much better, I still really wanted to see him for myself. So, when Brett and Holly invited our family and my parents up to the cabin in Greer, I was so excited. Not only was it so reassuring to see my Dad, it was also a fabulous vacation in the mountains!

Our first morning there, we all went on a walk. My Dad even joined us! He stopped to rest along the way and we caught up with him on the way back. At the end of the road, the kids all piled on a trailer for a picture:





After our walk, Holly and I sat on the porch with my Dad and just talked.





Then, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to the lake for some fishing.







Since the fish weren't biting, BJ and Brett used some bacon as bait and caught some crawfish.





The kids had so much fun watching the dads catch tons and tons of crawdads. Their job was to use their empty soda pop cans to collect water to add to the crawdad bucket.







Once it started raining, we all headed back to the cabin. But, BJ and Brett were not discouraged by the rain. As soon as they found a sturdier net, they headed right back out. Check out their haul...



Later, we went for a drive and saw so many elk and deer. It was amazing! Then, along with our dinner that night, we got to taste some crawfish. That was fun...too bad I didn't get a picture of the pot full of cooked crawdads.

The next morning, BJ and Brighton went into Springerville to get the flat tire fixed, while the rest of us went down to the Little Colorado River. You would think that the kids would be so happy and playful, but no...they were whining and crying about wanting to go back to the cabin. So, Brett told the kids that every whiner got to start walking back to the cabin with him. Look at this train of whiners...



But, once it was time for ice cream, all the kids were miraculously happy!





The next day was Sunday. After church, we stopped by the tin wall that Holly discovered on a previous trip and took a couple of pictures.









Later that day, we ventured out again to get some pictures in scenic Greer...







As we were getting ready to leave the cabin and make our journey home, Addy said, "I wish we could stay here for a thousand, million years!" Me too, Addy! It sure was fun!