Mini-Vacation

The past 4 days we have been in GP on a mini vacation. Craig had a 4 day weekend and we were planning our annual morel mushroom hunting trip. Friday we were informed that there was about 2 inches of snow where we intended on camping and hiking the mountain side searching for 'shrooms. After hearing this I panicked a little. There is nothing like camping in the snow, believe me, I have done it, and it really isn't something I wish to repeat. So, after much deliberation my sweet husband unpacked our trailer and we decided to head down for some time with Ama and Papa at their house, instead of in the 'great outdoors'.

We arrived Saturday morning and made it to the river for the boat races. It was the annual 'Boatnik' weekend, so we partook of some of those festivities and had a great time.

Here we are watching the boats whiz by....and below is a picture of Craig and 'bucky button'. (Papa's deer mount that he just got back). Isn't he a beaut!?!
After I took this picture I asked Craig why he was holding his arms like that. "So I could show how big it was" he replied. It really is a nice big one!

Below are the workers of Mento's Restaurant (their chosen name). Ama has these Pampered Chef kids aprons and hats and all three kiddos played restaurant for the majority of the time we spent inside.

Is she not the cutest chef you've ever seen??
And here is the menu. This is one of the things I absolutely LOVE about kids. I don't know why but it just makes me smile. I might actually be sad when he starts spelling words correctly :)
So, remember how I said we didn't go camping, like we'd planned? Well, we just couldn't resist a trip up to the mountains for the day to check out all this snow and see if perhaps we could round up a few yummy morels. So we get there and there is NO SNOW. It is actually really dry, and the sun is peeking through the clouds. At first we were so disappointed that we didn't just go in the first place. But we made the most of it, ate our lunches and then set off over the hill.

We hiked and hiked. Came back to the van. Drove down to the lake. Hiked some more. And found 2 mushrooms! We were actually glad it this piont. Guess the shroomin' wasn't at it's peak yet this year. Who knows. It was really cold, and as we left it started raining and thundering. So, all was good.
And I even got the annual picture of the kids on this mound of dirt. I have at least three years now and by the time they are teenagers I hope to have a bunch of years worth of pictures in this exact spot.

Below is one of Wyatt on a huge fallen tree. All in all it was a great time in the great outdoors. The kids loved it and were so in their element.

Glad to be home!