June Outing - Hiking And A Picnic With Allen

I called up my cousin Allen to see if he had some upcoming free time and if he and his wife would be interested in getting our little families together. He was very interested and even chose the activity and location for what we would do. He decided on hiking which was great because our kids love it. When I say hiking I don't mean any rigorous steep hills. Our kids move at a slower pace and it's more like a stroll through nature. It's fun because Allen and I have kids who are all the same age. Addie and his oldest is only eleven days apart. Then Hudson and his second is a few months apart and same with both of our youngest. We both ended up with one girl and two boys but our girl is our oldest and their girl is their youngest. Everyone was born the same year and I love that we see each other a few times a year and that we have always been in each others' lives. 

Trying to get six kids to smile who are all age five and under is quite a task.

Their boys thought it would be really fun to bring little Pokemon toys to have my kids hunt for because they know how much my kids love Pokemon. I don't even know if Addie realized at first that it was them who were dropping these little toys off on the pathways. They all thought it was so cool though. Everyone had their own little nets as well and they started hunting for real creatures. Addie thought she'd be able to catch a squirrel but we quickly convinced her not to try. There was a river that ran through the canyon we were exploring and we all climbed down to play near it for a little bit before getting our picnic lunch all set up.

The coolest highlight for all the kids was when we found the rattlesnake. I'm not sure who saw it first. It might have been Allen but it was really neat to see one so close and yet still safely distanced enough. Addie and Hudson are really liking snakes these days so for them to see one out in nature made their entire day.

Eventually we had our fill and while heading back to the car Danny caught both a butterfly and a dragonfly. He caught both of them within a five minute timeframe and the others were impressed with how quick he was. We didn't realize until we had already left that the canyon we were in was a national monument and that you aren't supposed to take even a stick from there and here we had left with two live creatures. I guess we now know that for next time. Overall it was a great morning.