Chiricahua National Monument

Robb immediately got to work making dinner in the dutch ovens which left me in charge of the tent. Thanks to two solid weeks of camping every other night, I'm pretty familiar with the whole set up process.  but Ashley came over to help and together we got it up. Then I put Claire down for nap, when I came out I found Colby, Alice, and Elliot running as fast as they could from "the troll" aka Aaron who was guarding his bridge.

Robb made us pulled chicken sandwiches with peach-blueberry cobbler for dessert. He's pretty amazing. The sun set really early, so even though we got everything finished on time we were eating in the dark. Alexandra and Chris entertained us with their "camp fire riddles" or logic puzzles you use yes or no questions to solve. Trent decided to add his own, "A man goes into the woods. Bang, bang, he's dead. What happened?" I'm still trying to decide if he made that one up on the spot or not.

The mountains right behind our campsite

Then started my best night of camping:

:: All three kids were in bed by 8:00 without much of a fight 

:: I won our round of Bohnaza  

:: Our neighbors and the campground in general were quiet...in fact, we were probably the loud ones until we went to bed around 9:15  (and I didn't hear a single note of mariachi music)

:: All three kids slept in until almost 6:00 

We bundled up our Arizona babies good

The next morning Robb split our logs and kindling to fit in our tiny camp stove so we could have a ranger-approved fire. We ate breakfast, broke camp, and were just driving off for our hike when the Wiscomb's car stopped shifting gears...so sadly they left to get that fixed.

The loop was 3 miles and we weren't sure the kids would make it (we even did some small practice hikes around our neighborhood to get them ready). We had to turn back after 1.2 miles because Elliot and Claire were getting tired, but Colby and Alice walked the entire way by themselves. Proud parent moment.

Alice was our little fearless mountain goat. Once we reached the Grottos she insisted on climbing through the rock formations

Colby wasn't sure he wanted to join her after he saw the giant boulder above, but he came after we promised it wasn't going anywhere. Alice keeps us adventurous and Colby keeps us safe.

"Wall Street"