Hiking and such.

The kids and I had been cooped up inside for a week or so and Russ was leaving the next day to go to Kansas City for a week for work, so despite the certainty that we were going to get rained on, we set out for a hike at Piedra Lisa Canyon.

This is the start of the trail head.  You can see the boulders up in the left corner.

The view of the city from the bottom.

The biker in the above picture came up to us and said, "You know, I have a bunch of photos from when I was a kid with only one parent in them, would you like me to take a family photo?"  So sweet!
(And although I was glad to have my puffy coat, I hate photos of me in it.  I wore it when I was super pregnant with Sam and now always feel like I look pregnant when I wear it, ha!)

My happy boulder-ers.

It started sprinkling a bit here...they were determining the best way to get up, talking about which is less slippery in the rain--rock or dirt.

It started really raining soon!  I love what rain does to the color of rocks.

Up, up, up!

Same tree, but photo taken from above.
There's something about the contrast of the spiky tree branches against the smooth rocks that I like.

Mmmm, love those textures and colors.
The red rock, the green from the moss that somehow seems to thrive in the desert, the dampness from the rain...

A couple of hikers going down the other side, which we would be doing shortly but didn't realize how treacherous it would be in the rain and with people who have legs have the length of our own...

We found shelter!
Brook and I have been reading the first book in the Horrible Histories series.  The one about Neanderthals and we were talking about how we could use this as a shelter--there was a back door so we could escape if we needed, and a place where some rain leaked in, that could be our shower...

The view from our shelter.

Oh Sam.  He loves his shoes.  There is a gaping hole in the toe of the one on the right, so his sock is wet and muddy inside, but he just can't bear to part with them.

The view from the top!
I didn't notice the look of "hurry up and take this dang photo" on Russ and Brook's faces until I went to edit it, ha.  It's a pretty steep drop off that rock.

After we shuffled down the other side, much of it on our butts, we headed back to the car.

Apparently we were on a different trail because we kept seeing what looked like animal shapes made from rocks.  First there was a snake, then a lizard, and then a turtle.
This was the end of our hike--we shuffled to the car, stripped off as much wet clothing as possible and went back to our nice, warm home to eat some chili I'd started that morning.  Mmm.

Other stuff we've been up to:
I have always loved the kid circuit kits.  Luckily, Sam loves doing them with me as well.

We were bored one day and somehow got on the subject of ribbon twirlers.  After watching a couple of amazing YouTube videos, I remembered I had some streamers!  These have to be THE easiest toys to make and they have given us hours of entertainment!

Laser pointers + long exposure = awesomeness.

A game Sam and I came up with while playing with our whatchamacallits...ugh, forgot their name, ha.
So one person puts a piece down, and then the other person adds to that piece.  That's it.  But you get some cool art out of it!

Hopscotch!

Brooklyn explaining the wonders of Hopscotch to Sam, who preferred to just jump around.

Aaaaand this about sums it up.
My little sleeper creeper.  :)

Next up, our trip to Texas!

...just need to sift through the bajillion photos of some really cute kids...oy.