Honeybee Canyon

Honeybee Canyon is one of our favorite places to visit. It's a short hike for little legs, plus there are rocks and sand EVERYWHERE. It's a kids' dream come true!

Elise scaled this mountain (mostly) by herself

Two big(gish) kids on a rock

One little Aaron on a rock

Seth scales the cliff face

...which meant Catherine and Adleigh HAD to scale it as well...

...which meant ALL the kids needed to scale it.

Bryan and Stephen did a great job preventing any kids from dying.

The parade of climbers: Catherine, Adleigh, Aaron, Russell...

...followed by Breydon and Elise.

Short legs are the worst. 

Not pictured: the part where Catherine was scaling another rock wall and accidentally knocked down some decent-sized rocks onto Breydon and Adleigh who were climbing behind her. There were many tears. 

Elise passed out on the walk back to the cars. 

Jon was thrilled to be participating in a family activity instead of working on seminary. 

That evening we had opened our first Christmas gifts: matching family pajamas! 

Some of the sizings were a bit...off: 

The grandpa look is always a good choice.

See? Grandpa Russell agrees! 

All of us in our Moose Pajama glory:

Seth is the worst...

This was the best picture of the grandkids. 

Too bad Russell's giant head is covering Breydon: 

Second best, this time with Breydon: 

Super attractive children.

No wonder Catherine wouldn't join them: 

The most adorable little lady bug ever: 

Then it was time for sister pictures.

We decided to replace Kenna with Elise.

No one seemed to care: 

Oh. There's Kenna: 

I don't know why they keep trying to take decent pictures of us: 

Seriously, Dad should just give up: 

Oh, look! One normal shot! 

Wouldn't want to start a trend, though: 

Aren't we just so precious? 

I think it may be just as hard to get a decent picture of us as it is the kids...

Ostrich Farm

We had so much fun last time we visited the ostrich farm that we decided to do it again!

First, we got the mid-sized boys all matchy-matchy:

Aaron was smiling in the other shots but they were blurry...

Practicing shooting things before we entered

Catherine hesitantly feeding a donkey: 

Elise LOVED feeding the birds! 

And the deer: 

Aaron was initially nervous, but quickly warmed up to the deer.  

Seth of the Hood fed some animals, too: 

Elise dropped her cup (or let some animal get it. Can't remember) and was given a new full cup of food by a random stranger who took pity on her. Didn't stop her from insisting on carrying the cup around herself, though: 

Aaron kissing a goat: 

Elise also kissed a goat. This was the best picture I got: 

Mostly she just put the food in her mouth, then put it in the goat's mouth. Gross.

Aaron feeding the ostrich: 

This was before he learned the hard way that ostriches are mean things and will give you a painful nip if you try to feed them from your hand. There were lots and lots of tears. 

Baby Elise feeding baby goats: 

The bunnies were new and also adorable: 

Look! I was there too! Acting as Elise's food distribution center: 

Uncle Bryan got to handle the duck feeding on Elise's behalf: 

Highlight of Catherine's life: holding a bird: 

Even better...two birds! 

Seth looks like a creepy mannequin holding a bird: 

No birds, but much less terrifying Seth: 

Aaron was a little bit afraid of the birds: 

Good thing Aunt Marah is awesome! 

Another new activity--petting and feeding sting rays! 

Catherine would have stayed here all day.

The whole crazy bunch at the entrance: 

I'm a bit suspicious of that "World Famous" claim...

The giant rocks outside the entrance were just begging to be conquered by all the kids: 

And then it was back to Grandma's for some general destruction (Aaron & Elise) 

and screen time (Seth): 

No matter how many times I tell him he's going to regret this...

My kids are going to be so disappointed when we go back home to real, boring life...