Kayaking and Eagles

We had a great day kayaking last weekend north of Payson at Woods Canyon Lake. There was an eagles nest on the bank of the lake and we were lucky enough to see both the adult eagles and the 10 week old eaglet. Here is one of the adults...


You can see the nest in the middle of the picture at the top of the tree.
There were a couple of game and fish workers at the lake with spotting scopes keeping track of the eagles and we were able to get a good close up look at the nest while one of the adults was delivering some food to the eaglet. The young eagle is all dark when it's born and won't get it's typical white head and adult coloring for a few years.
While we were watching the young eagle was hopping around the nest spreading his wings and testing them out. It will be another week or two before he can fly and leave the nest for the first time. We felt so lucky to have been there this week to get a good look at them!

Bill and Jon mastering the art of the chill-yaxs

Game and Fish workers monitoring the nest.....Just one more job that is cooler than mine......

Oh and I can't forget to mention that Bill made us a kickin' Lee Bros. fried chicken box lunch with cole slaw potato salad and a biscuit! YUM!

Sidewalk Chalk Cousins

the kids were drawing with sidewalk chalk the other night but I didn't see these cute chalk cousins until today and it made me smile!

Cousins

Yesterday afternoon the world's best uncle stopped by to borrow our car carrier for their trip to Creede over July 4th and fix Emily's bicycle tire (thanks Uncle Ryan!!). The kids were having such a good time playing together and had gotten out almost every toy in the house in a matter of about 20 minutes we decided he should call Aunt Cami and they should go to dinner while the kids kept playing. Aunt Cami picked up In-n-Out Burger for dinner and then it was time to play!!!

We haven't had much time to visit, play and get to know Joseph and Solange since they came home in April it was fun to have them all here to play! You can read about their adventures on their rocking blog!!

The girls had fun playing with the American Girls and the strollers, while Emily, Bryce and Joseph rode bikes and scooters.

I didn't know I had jungle gym in my front yard but the tree turned out to be a lot of fun!

Tempe Town Lake

I wanted to take the kayaks out again last weekend and decided to stay a little closer to home. Emily took a spill on her bike earlier in the week and wasn't up to paddling. We met Bill and Jon at Tempe Town lake and Bill and I took the kayaks out on the lake while Emily and Jon read, took pics and enjoyed the shade on the shore.

It was really neat to see Tempe from the lake love Frank Kush Stadium in the background GO DEVILS!!





Looking west toward Mill Ave you can see the old flour mill on the left.

Bill paddling

Happy Father's Day!

Hi Dad Happy Father's Day!
You've always been there for me right from the start.....











You taught me how to dress, how to be cool....











and how to have fun!


You are also the best pepaw any little girl or her mommy could ask for!






Hi Grandpa,
I appreciate everything you do for me, I love you, you are the best pepaw I could wish for!
Love, Emily

Thanks for everything you've taught me dad!

I love you!

-Christa

Summer Fun

We have been having so much fun with our new kayaks and wanted to go out again last weekend, so we decided last Friday night to take a quick camping trip up north to Blue Ridge Reservoir. We got up Saturday morning packed the car, made a quick trip to the grocery store and headed out!

We found a great camp spot and set up our tent and unpacked before heading down to the lake.

Emily takes a peek out of the tent....

We spent a little time paddling the lake and exploring. There were lots of boaters and kayakers camping along the shores lake, it looked like so much fun! We need to go back there soon, as the lake is huge and we barely made a dent in seeing any of it!

Emily enjoying the lake...

Emily made chili for us for dinner on Friday! Yum!

Sunday morning we just hung around our campsite and enjoyed the beautiful day before heading back home. We got in some reading

And decided that there is no rule against having smores for breakfast when you are camping.

Hope your summer is off to a good start!

Tonight....

I know where we will be tonight...

Sonic is giving away free root beef floats tonight from 8 to midnight!

Yummmmmy!