North creek

 On Saturday we wanted to do something that we knew Solayna loved since her birthday was on Sunday, so we went on a 4wheeler ride, fishing and hiking.  A few of her favorite things.  We went up North Creek, which has a little stream, and some cool places to hike.  While Brooke and Spencer were fishing, the rest of us just played around.  Sam found some old pine needles and was making his own fish hook, with a dandelion, and a grasshopper on it.

 Solayna just loves being outside.  She loved to throw rocks and play in the sand, and check out the birds in the trees.  This morning she said, "mom, there a bird out there."  I said "where" and was looking out the window trying to see it, and she says, "see it?  little bird"  I finally found the bird and told her it was a robin.  she says, "Robin?"  I love this age where they are learning new things every day and pointing out the simple things in life to enjoy.

 

Spencer loves fishing, and Brooke is so good to appese him whenever we go anywhere.  Brooke loves to fish to, but Spencer is a die hard fisherman.  They fished this stream for a while, but didn't catch anything in this spot.

 

 Their hook got snagged, so Brooke jumped the creek and went to unhook it.

 Sometimes Brooke makes me so nervous, as he did here jumping over this creek.  I forget he is around water all the time, even sampling this stream a number of times a year.  I guess he's used to being around water, since he is a Hydrologist

 Shi and Solayna found a nice shady spot with sand.  Shianne would ask Solayna, "What do you want me to draw"  Of course Solayna would say "Cocoa" and Shi would draw her a dog. 

 Solayna loved the camelbacks, and drank a ton.  To bad Santa didn't bring her one, like the rest of the kids.

 Spencer finally caught a fish.  Brooke told me they were just going to fish for a little while in this new spot, and then Spencer caught one.  He was so excited, even if it was only as big as his hand.

 Our 4 wheelers.  We decided that having 6 of us on one 4wheeler didn't work so well so we bought us another one.  It is going to be so much fun to go for rides as a family now.

 CHEESE!

 We stopped to hike up this one canyon and found this cool rock formation.  Sam says it looks like all the 'petroglyphs' that people paint of the guys blowing a horn.  I agree.

 Sam, Spencer and I hiked up to it.  Brooke's ulcer started acting up thanks to his allergy medicine, so he was hurting so bad he puked, so he stayed behind with the girls, while I took the boys up. 

 I got a new Cannon Elph to take on trips like these so I don't have to take my big camera everywhere we go.  I love it.  You can turn it on timer and it will take 3 shots.  It was so nice to be able to stick it in a tree and get a picture of me and my boys.

 A beautiful desert flower

 The hike down was pretty steep with a lot of loose rocks, so we had to slide on our bums.  Spencer told me, "you better move mom, because" and stopped talking as rocks slipped from under him down onto me.

 As soon as we got home, Spencer ran and got his fish and asked Brooke if he could gut it. He came in got a sharp knife and went to work.  He gutted it, and filleted it.  He then came in and asked me to get a pan down, and where the lemon pepper was.  I got the frying pan down, and he cooked himself up a morsel of a fish.

 This was a dessert plate, so his fish really was only a mouthful, but he loved it and I was so proud of him for catching, gutting, cooking, and eating his fish.  He's such a true fisherman.