Weekend Update

Yay for a fun weekend. Boo for a stupid camera that I can't get to upload to my computer. As I fiddled with it I "formatted" my memory card. Evidently "format" means "completely and irrevocably erase every single photo". Fortunately there were only a few that I didn't have on my computer, but there were some really cute ones of Abby's soccer team on their final day and the kids up at a resort where we were visiting Brennan's parents. Grrr. I finally managed to upload a few photos from a little walk to our river in our mountains yesterday.

It was so beautiful yesterday so we took the opportunity to wander up through our mountains. It was so much fun and so good to be together in such amazing surroundings.

Anna always totally gets the beauty. She loves to find a little scenic spot and just sit and soak it in. She also gets a huge kick out of the littler kids and was giggling at their antics. Brennan, Anna and I were all throwing rocks trying to hit a specific rock across the river. She is really coordinated and loves to compete and do well. She's so growing up. We love Anna.

Abby was cracking us up. She is such a funny unpredictable whirl-wind of contradictions. Of all the kids she gets the most worked up and anxious about things we would never anticipate being scary, but then sometimes she just gets in these reckless wild moods and will do anything without a hesitation. She was the first to attempt to cross the freezing cold river. The current was pretty strong in one spot and really slippery so she didn't make it all the way. She was by far the wettest of us all. She was throwing rocks and it was giving me a heart attack because when she threw you never knew if it was going to go behind her, to either side or actually go some distance in front of her. She needs to work on her aim! We love Abby.

Nate has shed some of his cautiousness, but I would never call him reckless. He did agree to our traditional head-in-the-river. The last photo shows that ritual being carried out on Abby. For some reason that's what we do each time we go up there. Nate mostly loves throwing rocks into the water. On the way back home he literally could not take more than 2 steps without stopping to pick up a rock or twig to throw. He's such a boy. We love Nate.

Ben would not talk to, look at or just generally be bothered by anyone. He was so totally focused on throwing rocks into the river. Unlike Abby, he always managed to get his into the water. He was so incredibly zoned in to his occupation we had to keep a large radius around him clear because he wasn't about to let a sibling standing in his way stop him from throwing. We love Ben.

On our way home we saw a little dead bird. We, of course, had to mourn the loss of this bird that we never knew. After a proper amount of remorse we were finally able to journey on back home. Such a great day with all my favorite people. We are so lucky to be able to walk to that kind of setting.