Up The Canyon

It was HOT last weekend!  105* to be exact....so we headed up the mountains where its quite a bit cooler for some relief.  Austen had never been and he was beyond excited.  He packed all sorts of gear for himself, even a rubber mallet.  We found a good spot at a picnic area by a river.  It was still pretty hot, but Austen was in absolute heaven!

He was hitting everything with his mallet.

 Our setup

 My cute mountain man!

 It was really cool down by the river, so we played down there for quite a while.  Austen loved it of course.

 So did the baby.

 We even found this GIANT spider.

 And Austen built his first fire with kindling he found himself!

 Brian hiked up and found some firewood

 And whittled a spear for Austen

 Which he then used to eat beef jerky from.

 Archer loves to be outside and he loves looking at all the trees, so he was pretty happy the whole time too.

 Then it was time to roast some hot dogs.

 When it was time to go, Austen cried and cried.....he would have stayed up there for a week if we let him.  Luckily I have my very own Sherpa, so we made it back to the car with all of our stuff in only 1 trip.

 Austen was asleep in about 3 minutes....

 and he had dirt everywhere, even smudged on his face.

I think we'll be spending lots of time up the canyon!  It's perfect for a kid who likes to climb, get dirty, and go exploring!