Our big cabin adventure!

Ben is OFFICIALLY done with his Intern year and is now a 2nd year Resident! We celebrated the occasion with a little vacation time and have spent the last 5 days in Pine, AZ (about 2 hours northeast) relaxing and exploring. We stayed at a nice cabin there with Ben's parents and had such a memorable time! We also got a much needed break from the sweltering Phoenix heat. We played games (mostly lots and lots of Qwirkle), ate an abundance of food, read books, relaxed in the hot tub, rode horses, explored Fossil Creek, watched the stars, went fishing, took a little night hike with the girls, antique shopped, and became a bit more familiar with the cute little town of Pine. What a wonderful week! (oh, and the week was so great that I almost forgot about our little mishap when we tried to leave our house to head out of town... we had our van loaded up and ready around noon with kids buckled in and lots of groceries packed in coolers... we went to start our car to pull out of the garage and the car wouldn't start! We assumed it was the battery and that maybe the kids left a light on in the car overnight or something, so we tried to jumpstart the car using our Cavalier, but as soon as we tried to do that the engine completely shut down trying to start because the alarm on the van started going off... we don't have a "clicker", as I call it, to shut off the alarm.... so in the end, we had to get a AAA guy out to the house to replace our battery, which ended up being completely fried, and then had to haggle with several people at the Nissan dealership to figure out how to manually shut off the alarm, so that our car would let the engine start... we ended up leaving a couple hours after our first attempt and Jake got an impromptu afternoon nap).

We started out our Pine adventures with a night out to eat at The Randall House. Ben had noticed that it was listed in the Top 25 Arizona Restaurants of 2010 in the Arizona Highways magazine a couple months back... and so we had to give it a try! It was delicious and very quaint and unique. While we waited for our food to come I took the kids to behind the restaurant where they had a little playhouse with kids books... small towns are so fun!






Sunday was Father's Day - we had a Father's Day breakfast of French toast with whipped cream and strawberries and then Ben and his dad opened up some cards and gifts. The cards I gave out this year (to Ben, his dad, and my dad) was a version of this cute idea I found online. Dad's are the best. I've always thought so, since my dad has always been so awesome... and my fondness for dad's has only been reinforced every day as I see Ben be such an amazing dad to Emma, Becca, and Jake.


We also got dressed up and headed to church that morning in the Pine Ward. Afterwards we took some pics...




A lot of our cabin time was spent playing games...




And playing with the camera... Becca wanted me to take a picture of her and then she wanted to take one of me. :)




And the kids spent LOTS of time outside... mostly hanging out in the little sandbox - who would have thought that such a tiny little square of sand would be so entertaining...


On Midsummer's Night Eve we floated a cake... in the hot tub. hahaha! We've been doing this tradition with Ben's family for as long as I've been married to him, and it's definitely becoming memorable - There's something about floating a cake now that elicits lovely summertime feelings. :) We took turns reciting poems and watching our flickering cake float around... then we ate it.




One of the most entertaining things we did this week was venture down to Fossil Creek to swim, picnic, and explore. The drive there was CRAZY. Once you get to the top of the canyon there, it's all dirt road to the bottom.... so we drove in our VAN on a very windy, slender, dirt road... and it drops about 1,300 feet in elevation in about 2.5 miles. I basically closed my eyes the entire way down (and back up). (It was at this point that I really noticed the blessing that it was to have had our battery die out on us at the beginning of the trip... can you imagine what an ordeal it would have been if our battery died at the bottom of the canyon?!) I breathed a sigh of relief when we got to the creek... and it was beautiful!! The water was completely clear, with fish swimming everywhere. Ben had brought his fishing supplies, only to find that they are trying to rebuild the fish population so they are currently not allowing fishing. But, despite that, we had a great time. We borrowed some snorkeling equipment from the Lee's, and we all took turns enjoying the close up view of the travertine river bed and big trout. There was also a rope swing hanging from a tree at the edge of the creek and Ben, Carol, and I all gave it a try. You'll see in the video below that my attempt was weak as I didn't really swing out on the rope like I intended... I kind of wussed out last second and just jumped off from the side. :) There was a small waterfall up the creek from where we were at that we all swam up to and then let the current push us back down... it was so fun! The girls enjoyed our time there, but were both nervous about the fish... Emma kept climbing on top of daddy so the fish wouldn't touch her. I think one of the best parts about our time at Fossil Creek was the privacy... we were the ONLY ones in the section that we were at. It was awesome!















Ben's dad swimming down the creek




Jake has recently entered a new phase... he's communicating like crazy with lots of new words, noises, and body language... and also lots of whining. In this video you can get a little taste of his new found personality and also see that this kid likes anything to do with eating...








We felt so lucky to get to visit some friends of Ben's parents that live about 20 minutes south of Pine in the town of Payson. They were so kind and let the girls each take a turn riding their horses! This was definitely a highlight of the trip... especially for Emma. Now she claims to be a cowgirl. After horse riding and getting a tour of their lovely home, we went out to dinner with them at a fun restaurant there in town.
















Since fishing didn't work out at Fossil Creek, we decided to give it a try at a stocked pond in Payson the next morning. We had never fished before, so this was a learning experience. We did NOT catch a fish, but we did have fun, and Emma got VERY good at casting her line out quite far. I was impressed. When I tried I got my line caught in a tree. Grandma Dangerfield helped the girls put bait on their hooks. (Sadly, Grandpa had to head back home just before our fishing outing for work meetings).












After our time at the cabin, I've decided that I want a hot tub on my back porch. I've also decided that I have the cutest girls. :)




On our last night, Ben and I took the girls on a little night hike with our flashlights. It was nice to be outside on a cool summer evening. We played many rounds of "I Spy" while on our walk... Every time it was Becca's turn, the answer was always a tree or the road.




The last morning before heading back home, we hit some unique antique shops, a little honey stand, and out for ice cream.








I definitely love summer adventures, and this was a great one. We love hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield and it was wonderful to get to share this vacation with them. Now I've got one more week till our next big summer trip... to Utah! I'm counting down the days till I see my family! :)