Father's Day Weekend 2017

We generally go to the cabin Father's Day weekend and this year was no exception. Dada planned to ride his bike there, but his spoke broke before he even got to Aba's house. Luckily he called Aba and she was able to come pick him up. Tia is taking a class and had to plan a field trip so we had planned to go to the Cat Haven and meet Dada at the cabin afterward. Needless to say, he ended up joining us which the kids were pretty excited about. It was already hot by the time our tour started at 10:30, but it was still fun to see the big cats. We saw bobcats, lynx, jaguars, leopards, lions, and tigers and you actually get pretty close to them! Emmett alternated between calling them kitty cats and dogs and was pretty excited when the lion roared at us. Both kids roared back! Emmett's favorite part may have been the bunny we saw outside of the tiger cage. He kept asking for more bunnies and talked about the "nejo" the rest of the weekend! By the end of the walk I think all three of the kids were pretty hot and ready to get out of the heat. We got a bonus in the gift shop and got to see a baby bobcat! He was adorable and playing with one of the workers through his cage!

We got to the cabin around noon and were relieved that it was not nearly as hot up there! We ate and then Emmett went down for a nap while Clara and I walked to the store for some drinks. She went down when we got back and Dada went for a bike ride while the abuelos helped set up for the black pot cook off. After naps we headed over to the cookoff and the kids had a blast playing on the hammock, swing, and in the dirt. We ate until we were stuffed (we all started with desserts in my normal tradition) and Abuela Sheri even won the main dish competition! Clara surprised me by striking up a conversation with some older girls and asking them if they wanted to play with her. She is normally shy in groups and around people she doesn't know so I was very impressed. She didn't even tell me she was leaving, just ran off into the meadow with them. I, of course, followed with Emmett and we watched as she danced and did gymnastics with the girls. She had so much fun and did not want to leave! Emmett had fun running around and getting dirty and scratched up!

Sunday, after some ninos woke up way too early, we headed out to hike to Weaver Lake at Clara's request. We told her ahead of time that I would be carrying Emmett in the backpack and she would have to walk. She tried to bargain that Dada could carry her, but reluctantly agreed to walk. I told her that if she walked the entire time and did not whine or complain she could have juice and a popsicle when we got back. Bribery works wonders and Clara walked the entire trip, over five miles! There were a couple of times when one of us carried her over a stream or fallen down tree and she always had to check first to make sure it was ok for her to be carried and that she could still have her treat! We hit patches of snow along the way and the entire mountain behind the lake was covered with snow! Both kids had a blast playing in the snow and also had to put their feet in the freezing lake! Clara basically ran half the way back down the mountain and Emmett sang, said, "Happy Father's Day Dada!" and told knock knock jokes. He doesn't really understand the concept of knock knock jokes and still can't pronounce words well so that made his jokes even better. Knock knock, who's there? potty, potty who? potty Clara! Knock knock, who's there? Emmett, Emmett who? Emmett Parkinson! (only much more difficult to understand)

Not sure how, but I managed to sleep
through this!

Fording the rio

Happy Father's Day Dada!

Enjoying Fafa's delicious fruit

Clara really wanted to carry her chair to Weaver Lake and asked
all day when we would be back at the car so she could sit in it.

We got back and took showers and I took Clara to the store to get her treats. She was so excited and scarfed her ice cream down and drank her juice in gulps! We had a delicious dinner, managed to get a group photo, and then headed back to the super hot valley and called Grandpa Bill along the way (Emmett slept the entire time). It was a fun weekend and a nice respite from the 110 degree weather!

Horsey Tree