The Perfect Weekend

We went up to Chino Valley (or Cheetah Valley, as Eli calls it) to visit Grandma and Grandpa Romeny and we really had a perfect weekend. Aside from it being General Conference weekend, which is always wonderful, and being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa for a few days, and enjoying the lovely weather and scenery, we managed to fit a few more perfect activities into the our family weekend getaway. 

Grandma and Grandpa's neighbor called and said she had a lot of ripe tomatoes that needed picking, so we scurried right over. I think the kids had more fun eating them than picking them (Mom and Dad did too!). It doesn't hurt that this neighbor also has friendly dogs, a horse, sheet, goats, and chickens for the kids to see, too! What a great start to our fun!

Daddy, Grandma Romney, Isaac, Eli and the neighbor (Linda)

Mommy and Olivia were there too. See the sheep!

Eating the tomatoes!

Olivia checking out the animals.

Grandpa's legs, Isaac and Olivia checking out the animals. 

Walking--or running--back to Grandma's house.

After watching General Conference on Sunday we had to go feed the deer down the street!

The kids found a giant grasshopper on the other side of that fence. 

Angels

Happy family, happy deer right behind them nibbling on all the carrots we dropped.

Olivia, Eli, and Isaac waaaay down at the end.

Walking back to Grandma's again.

This was a sign outside our home when I grew up. When Julie was born the 9 got crossed out to make 10. Grandpa Romney changed it to 40 after the many grandkids, but it's even more now!

Beautiful scene, beautiful family.

The boys saw the basketball hoop and Eli immediately asked to "shoot some hoops." We didn't even know he knew that phrase. They loved shooting hoops every chance they had this weekend.

Shooting hoops at night. Blurry, but cute.

All the family is in on the game!

You can't have a perfect weekend with fall weather without Grandma's cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate!

We stayed until Tuesday so we could play in the beautiful country on Monday. We took the kids to a simple, beautiful hike around Lynx Lake. Turns out a simple 2.3 mile hike is a little taxing for these tiny legs, especially with all the stops along the way to pick up rocks and look at the lake. The boys were troopers and walked almost the entire way. Olivia walked a lot for a one year old, and got carried a lot too, and cried a lot when Daddy carried her instead of Mommy. 

Daddy teaching the boys to skip rocks.

Snack break in the forest!

The boys finally saw some fish in the water! They stayed here for a while watching the little trout swim right in front of them.

They may have fed the fish some graham crackers too!

Olivia sitting at the water's edge like her brothers did.

The coolest part of the trail!Well, getting to cross a creek by jumping from rock to rock was pretty cool too. But we don't have a picture of that one. 

After we got back from the hike the boys were anxious to shoot hoops with Daddy again. Mommy was tired! Olivia and I took naps, and when we woke up the boys were out driving their monster trucks. Grandma's house is perfect for monster truck driving too!

Isaac is really focused on driving that truck!

Eli playing basketball with Olivia. He's teaching her how to pass and catch the ball.

He made it! 

Olivia's turn with the monster truck!

Slam dunk for Isaac!

Another favorite activity for the kids this weekend was finding beetles! Isaac is saving a beetle from Olivia, who is about to stomp on it! And there is Mr. Cow in the background. The kids loved seeing him every day too!

Don't tell Grandma, but we finally got a picture of her! Didn't get one of Grandpa though. :(

One of Mommy's favorite things: the view. The sunsets are amazing up here.

Two little cuties out exploring the land.

I packed this dress for Olivia; it was a hand-me-down from Nora. Then we found this picture up at Grandma's. It's Olivia's first time wearing it at 20 months old...and Nora is wearing it at 9 months old in that pic!

Did we mention how much they like beetles? Eli came to the door and said, "Mommy! I have a beetle on me!" He was so proud of that. 

Isaac really wanted to hold it too and kept saying, "Awww....he's so cute!"

Another fun activity Grandma did with the boys. She made a bird house with them. She even let them pick the colors and help spray paint it. They boys were so excited to hang it up at our house!