Valley of Fire (Super LATE!)

 So keep in mind that we went to the Valley of Fire back in March!  That's how behind I am with this post!  It was such a fun trip and I had TONS of pictures to go through so I kept putting it off but I finally sat down yesterday and got them organized.

 I won't post ALL the pictures or this would be VERY long but here are some highlight photos.

 This was our family's first overnight camping trip and we were so excited.  We went up last year but we didn't have a tent so we just went up for the day and didn't camp.   

 Our friends, the Davidson's, organized the trip again this year and we decided to partake in the whole event this time. 

 We borrowed a tent from Matt's parents and it was perfect.  (We've used the tent a couple times since then so we still need to return it - who knew we'd like this camping thing!)

 We went with a great group of friends and this is my friend Martha (Boyer) Birk and two of her girls.  She and I cheered in high school together and now her husband is working for a law firm down here in Henderson.

The Wirig's have turned into great friends.  Janae and I serve in primary together and both of our husbands (both named Matt) home teach each other's families.  He's also our orthodontist although we haven't had to visit him just yet.  :) 

The Valley of Fire has the most amazing rock formations and places to run and climb.  The kids absolutely LOVE it!

Unfortunately, Tate loved climbing too and we had to really keep an eye on him because he would get into some scary predicaments.  

Abi had so much fun spending time with her friends Taylor and Brooklyn.

Porter also had a ball with his friends Will and Carter.

We also had the Ellsworth family up there hanging out for the evening and Amy was just released as our primary president and Chad is a pediatric dentist to tons of the kids in the ward so they really know our children.  :)  (Cool side note too is that they have 7 adopted children and are the cutest family ever!)

I think our kids loved dinner time the most.  They loved roasting hot dogs and making s'mores.

I did some online research for fun "campfire foods" before coming up and found directions for these awesome "Hobo Eclairs".  You just wrap crescent rolls around the end of a thick dowel, stick them over the fire until the cook, squirt whip cream inside them, and drizzle them with chocolate syrup.  They were a hit with the kids!

I also made these Pineapple Upside down cakes.  You just place a slice of pineapple inside some tin foil, put a cake doughnut on tops and then put brown sugar and butter in the tin foil and throw it on the fire.  So yummy!

Here's a view of our campsite bright on early on day 2 of our trip.  (Ours is the gray/green tent.)

I had some more fun breakfast foods to try over the campfire and I made muffins that cooked inside orange peels but I forgot to get a picture of those.  The peanut butter chocolate chip roasted bananas were my favorite!!!  I had two - talk about sugar overload early in the morning!

My two youngest boys were very excited to go on this camping trip with their girlfriends.  Here is Tate holding Lyndsee's hand and walking her all around the camp.  Those two are so cute together and she is Tate's absolute FAVORITE person!  (She even let him give her a kiss with his disgusting face - brave girl!)

Bridger got to spend lots of time with Reagan, one of his favorite people too.  He tells us all the time that she's his girlfriend and he's going to marry her.  I know she's caught the eye of some other little boys so Bridger is going to have his work cut out for him.  Ha ha.

We had the cute Fortier family camping with us and their little girl Raynee celebrated her 1st birthday on this day!  It was so fun to celebrate with her. Jeremy, Kelly, & Raynee have since moved to New Mexico so it was so good to spend the time with them while they still lived here.

The Schroeder family have been such good friends since we first moved in.  They moved down from Utah right around the same time we did and Cydnee was the first person I got to know.  Eric's sisters went to Olympus with me and we used to live in the same ward and Cydnee's sister Mary so there were lots of connections.  Plus, we have kids all the same ages so they love playing together. 

Here we are on day 2 getting ready to do the Mouse Tank trail with the kids. 

We brought a leash for Tate so we wouldn't have to worry about his wandering off and climbing cliff edges today.  :) 

The kids all enjoyed seeing the native drawings on the rock.

Once we got down to the water hole, the kids played in all the little hiding spots and natural formations in the rock. 

Poor Tate got stuck and caused a bit of a traffic jam.  He's chunkier than he thought!

Abi and Taylor were the ultimate explorers and they probably climbed up EVERY rock in the area.

Tate was pretty tired at the end of it all so he had Daddy carry him back and he carried his monkey.  :)

Here's a mountain goat that the ranger said feeds on the side of the road all the time.  He was there both days we were and they call him "Old General".

It was finally time to pack up and get headed back home.  It was a fun trip and I'm sure we'll join in again next year!