Water Troughs and Hay Bales

 My friend Andrea and her family are visiting, and they had a special request to go down and see the equipment yard. The kids were in heaven as soon as they got there, quickly scampering over old equipment to test it out and drive to exotic locales. Then they found the old water troughs and started bouncing around.

 The sound was fun, as well as jumping from one to the next.

 Then it was into the back of an old truck for an impromptu dance. Desert Boy and Desert Girl were having a delightful time with their new friends.

 Desert Girl took time out to drive an old bathtub.

 Meanwhile, the older kids were looking for the next fun piece of equipment.

 Before long, they spotted some freshly stacked hay and couldn't resist scampering to the top of it.

 We made it!

 Even Desert Girl had to give it a try.

 Then back to a tractor.

The light was getting dim and it was time to head back. But before we made it to the vehicle, one more challenge remained:

 The stair step pile of hay. Who could resist?
(Okay, I could, but that's because I was wearing shorts and flip flops and knew the scratchy hay would make me itch!)

 Desert Boy saw his friends up on the hay and immediately thought that would be fun to do. The only problem was that he was a little too small to climb up by himself.

 So he enlisted some help. What great teamwork!

 Time to pose for a photo at the top.

 Then time to give a shout and head on down.

Ah, the simple pleasures of life!

Waterfalls

 High water has created waterfalls in lots of interesting places in the area. The one above is in a channel that is usually dry. In fact, we "canyoneered" it last summer during the Fourth of July weekend when one of my brothers was out visiting.

 This is a flood control structure on one of the creeks.

And a view of it from downstream. All this water is a little frightening, so we've been careful to keep the kids far away from the fast moving water.

A different flood control structure. These help prevent the creek from cutting the banks.

This roaring creek is in one of the nearby campgrounds. Some campsites are extra damp!

There's not much snow left to melt up top (although we went hiking over some five foot drifts at 10,000 feet today). Still, there's plenty to keep the water running high for a few more weeks.
Waterfalls in the desert seem like a special treat.

Clean and Dirty

 We've been spending a lot of time outside lately. I'll let the photos speak for themselves!

Lots Going On

There's been so much going on that I haven't been able to spend much time on this blog. Here's a little video to compensate until I have more time:

Snake Valley Festival-Ice Cream Social

We're gearing up for a busy weekend at the Snake Valley Festival! It started last night with they yummy ice cream social. They had my favorite ice cream--mint chocolate chip. Plus it was lots of fun to talk to people I haven't seen in awhile and meet some new folks. Here are a sampling of photos:

 Desert Boy just had to be in the photo.

 I love the look in Desert Girl's eyes.

 She's a real goof.

 Isaac was also enjoying his ice cream.

 There was a good turn out.

 The kids loved playing in the background. Tori challenged me to a chinup challenge. We tied.

 Even the big kids were liking the playground.

 The kids loved drawing with chalk on the old basketball/tennis court.

What a fun evening! We're looking forward to more fun today.