Labor Day Weekend @ Big Lake

Just spent a relaxing 5 days in the high country. We took a trip up north to Big Lake. It is in far Eastern Arizona and about a 6 hour drive from my house. The kids had such a great time. I think we all did. The only negative was that it rained a little more than we all would have liked. The thunder was wonderful to listen to, but the mud and puddles were too much for Zeke to resist. He had to jump in feet first and slop around like a little piggy. Thank goodness Fred had put some watersealant on his new boots. They look amazingly good for having been through all that mud. And my girl Caris was quite the fisherwoman; she caught a pretty large trout and the biggest fish in the whole group. She was so proud. The food we cooked was amazing. Fajitas, tortillas, rib-eye steaks with 'secret sauce', breakfast FEASTS. We are truly blessed not only to be able to enjoy the beauty of nature and to get out of the sweltering desert heat but to have all the little luxuries that make a camping trip great.

Creative Escape 2009

Hello out there in blogland! I'm so excited. I am headed across town next Wednesday to the Wild Horse Pass Resort for Heidi Swapp's Creative Escape 2009 event. I am super excited. I can't wait to have class with Tim Holtz, Carol Wingert and all the fabulous people in the Scrap World. Not to mention all the great and exciting women from all over the planet who will be in attendance. This is going to be a ton of fun. My roommate will be my scrappy co-worker Karen Engelder. She and I met several years back at a CK convention and since we knew each other from working in the same area, we made a connection. Since then, we've met up for various classes over the years and although she invited me to join her at CE last year, I had just come back from the Memory Works convention in Layton, UT and I couldn't afford to go to CE right after that. It was a huge bummer but I'm super ready to go this year. I have been picking up my supplies from the class lists but now I have to figure out what to wear and pack. There's so much to prepare. I did the Yahoo charm swap and got all the cute and fun charms and I've been working on that necklace the past few nights. It's so cool. my husband thinks I'm a little nuts with my 'old lady' activites as he calls it. But I love to scrapbook and he's the first one to show off my stuff. My kids are hopefully going to treasure what I make for them (they already love their disney books). This is a hobby I have been in love with for quite a number of years. I only wish I had more time to devote to it.
Here's a photo of me and Heidi Swapp.

Desert Heat Retreat

We headed up to Arizona's high country for a 3 day retreat from the heat. We met up with our great friends Brian and Lindy Francom for 3 days of camping along the Mogollon Rim. On Friday afternoon when we arrived, we were met with a thunderous sprinkling rain which was an awesome way to cool our heels. We set up camp and had a dinner of fajitas, fresh tortillas and fixings, then afterwards a campfire with plenty of SMORES! The kids (and Lindy) were in heaven! Thanks to Brian for cutting all that wood. I don't think Caris would have let him rest if he hadn't gone out and got that wood chopped right away. She was just dying to get that fire going so she could toast her 'smarshmallows'.



The next day, Zeke woke up at the break of dawn and we were up early, ate some yummy breakfast burritos and then Brian used his Arizona map and GPS to find us a hatchery to visit. We were off on a new adventure to God's Country. We found out that we made a wrong turn on a forest service road, but ended up at a beautiful stream called Clear Creek Ranch. It was truly a beautiful place. You could still see the remains of the fire that burned all around the rim a few years back. That ranch was completely encircled by burned trees as far as the eye could see. We then back-tracked and made it up to the fish hatchery. The kids loved it. Thanks to the kindness of strangers who gave me a couple quarters to buy some pellet food for the kids to feed the fish. We had a great time, then after a morning of driving around the forest, went back to camp for some rest.


We then made steaks for dinner and an ominous monsoon storm looked like it might hit us at any minute, but was uneventful. After a delicious dinner, we enjoyed our campfire and Brian and Lindy surprised me with a birthday cobbler in their dutch oven by the campfire. They even brought along ice cream. It was so yummy! I think that with all the relaxation and eating, I'm going to have to go on a serious diet.
It was such a great way to spend a weekend.



On our way home, we took a detour by Saguaro Lake and ended up deciding to pull in and hop in the lake with all our clothes on for a dip! The hot desert had already gotten to us so a cool-off in the lake was just what we needed. I wish we could do it all over again this coming weekend!