Timpooneke

Last Thursday through Saturday we spent camping at Timpooneke with almost my whole family. Not everyone could get out of work on Friday but the evenings and Saturday were a blast with everyone there. Lucky for Gabe and I, we got to spend every day up in the mountains with my parents and Mel's older boys. The nights were a different matter...after our nightmarish experience with Gabe screaming all night last weekend, we opted out of the sleeping part of camping and drove home each night. Luckily it's only a 20 minute drive home - perfect! (Eric actually chose to sleep over with Denali on Friday night - what a diehard camper!) Mom came home with us to sleep each night too since she is recovering from yet another surgery. She is such a FUN mom and such a good sport to want to camp after all she's been through! Dad set up a screen tent for a shady, relatively clean spot for the babies to play and the adults to read and hang out...it was great!

*Here is a pic of the girls relaxing in the screen "playground"! Then Mel, Cannon, Gabe and Bridger. Then two of just the little guys: Wesley, Gabe and Cannon - the second pic in their smaller, yet even cleaner "playground"! :) The last is Mom relaxing in the tent trailer with Gabe and Bridger.

Timpooneke equestrian campground is awesome. Matt brought the four horses again and we had so much fun riding...I had forgotten how much I love the feeling of riding through the mountains horseback. It's exhilarating! I hadn't been for over a year since being pregnant and having a newborn aren't very conducive to horseback riding! I'm happy to be back in the saddle this year! :) The trails there are breathtaking...literally! One ride was along the ridge back of a mountain so you are pretty much riding along this narrow trail that feels like you are on top of the world! There were extremely steep, wooded slopes on either side and the views were gorgeous... Mount Timp towering over you and mountains as far as you can see in every direction. It is impossible to explain how beautiful it was...and how nerve racking to be up so high! As long as I didn't look down the slopes on each side, I was fine though!

Gabe loves the horses too...he points as soon as he sees them (pic with Connor) and wants to go pet them. He was doing great as we went down the row letting him point and pet each horse until we went past Chief... Chief is very affectionate and kept nuzzling the back of Gabe's head as he was trying to see Coal Train and Rio. Or maybe he just loves Gabe because when Gabe would move on, he would strain his neck as far as he could to get to Gabe! Either way, Gabe did not appreciate it! :)

...and here are two more cute pictures of our weekend adventures...