Just like last year we spent the first week of the summer up at the cabin on the Blue. This year my parents were there with us as well, which made it that much easier for me to work in the mornings from the cabin. Despite some internet issues I was actually able to accomplish quite a bit... I think this may very well become a tradition. Patrick had work down in Tucson, so he joined us on Wednesday.
Main activities included hanging out streamside, playing on the bag swing, a few Blue River happy hours, smores, and a fabulous day of hiking/bushwhacking just Patrick and I for our anniversary. Inspired by some friends staying upstream Patrick and Evie spent one afternoon at the stream catching crayfish. They managed to catch over a dozen, the plan was to cook them (ewwe), but fortunately (for me at least) they all died in the bucket before Patrick got a chance. We also had a fair number of rubber ducky races, courtesy of our neighbor Peggy loaning a whole slew of rubber ducks to the girls. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to catch a little fish to look at it, and ultimately failed.
The other big event(s) were nightly campfires and smores. We had bought the makings of smores, but the girls were told they couldn't partake until he arrived. So, no great surprise, the first thing that Izzy asked when Patrick arrived was if we could have smores.... Once Patrick was there though we had smores every night, which I think more than makes up for the two nights of "torture" where no smores were had. Izzy, although excited about the idea of smores, actually only made it up late enough once to partake. Patrick though made sure that she had a toasted marshmallow or a full on smore waiting for her the next morning. It was interesting to me that she was willing to go to bed even though she had not had her sugary treat. Almost every night around 8 pm she just proclaimed her sleepiness and after a story went to bed. On the last night Evie decided that we should do closing campfire and put together a pretty elaborate show with Izzy. Izzy, of course, decided to go to bed before the show, making it a mostly one-woman show. At one point she was doing a skit about a girl and her dog, trying to play the part of both the girl and the dog, and stopped to let us know "It is much better when Izzy is here to be the dog." Awesome. Other skits included a pretty darn good rendition of the beginning and end of Wizard of Oz, which was called Saidie of Oz, Funny Lord of the Rings, the great reveal of the Chocolate Thief (there had been some funny business during the week involving missing chocolate bars), and the Surprise Ending, which entailed us all throwing water balloons at the fire to put it out.
On Friday afternoon we decided to leave the cabin and go canoeing on Luna Lake. This turned out to be a least favorite activity for Ms. Isadora, who spent the entire hour on the boat clinging to Patrick's neck for dear life and commanding us to row, row, row because she was convinced that if we stopped the boat would sink. Despite her displeasure, after we were off the boat, she indicated that the canoe ride was "only a little bit of fun." She (and Evie) were rewarded for their tolerance of our aquatic activities by a trip to the Alpine candy shop. Back on the Blue that night we went to the second of our stream side happy hours, both were a lot of fun.
 |
| New aspens emerging |
On Saturday Patrick and I celebrated our anniversary early with a hike up Escudilla, lunch at the Tal Wiwi and a bushwhack up the ridge at my parent's Alpine place. Escudilla is fascinating right now as it recovers from the 2011 fire. There are now areas where the new aspen are 7 feet tall and just a sea of vibrant green. The very top is still quite barren, but we made up for it with fudge we had bought the day before (Patrick had jalapeno fudge, which was quite tasty, but ultimately not for me). As seems to happen whenever we hike Escudilla, it started to rain just a bit as we were leaving and it was quite chilly as we sat down to a late lunch at the Tal Wiwi. After a big lunch we went over to the "homestead" and did a little hike there. On that hike we saw about 20 deer, 6 elk and some turkey... no wonder this is Patrick's favorite place to go hunting!
Sunday came all to quick and it was time to go home. Just before leaving the girls got in one last swing by the spring....
No comments:
Post a Comment