The Glove

All summer long, Detric was attached to one motorcycle glove.  It was on his hand day and night….and he took it everywhere with him.  People started to notice, comment and look for the glove!  We aren’t sure why or where he picked up this interesting fetish…but it was kinda fun while it lasted.  Detric, the one gloved Dude!  Look for it in all the summer pictures….it’s there!

Loosen their mouths

If you need your kids to talk to you...take them on a hike!  As their leg muscles loosen up....so do their mouths!!  CJ had some steller quotes this time around...our favorite was, "You know what is HOT?  Me.  Remember that!"  Haha.  This had us rolling!  So glad our 11 year old has a healthy bit of self esteem!!  But, ladies before you start taking dibs on this hunk of a mancub...let me share with you his next quotable hiking quote.... "I am never going to Prom.... EVER"  Emphasis on EVER.  Um...ok?  Where in heaven did that come from?  But, he vowed and he swore he was NOT going to go....and as much as Clay and Laura tried to convince him that his mind will probably change in the next 5-7 years - he was adament...OH NO... I will not change my mind.  EVER.  So sorry all you young maidens... This hunk of a Hot stud is not dancing at the Prom!

Our trail of choice on this camping trip was the Mexican Canyon Trestle Trail in Cloudcroft, NM!  We had a good time hiking, talking, laughing, praying the weather would hold (it looked like we were going to be really wet a few times...but luckily we never got a drop while on the trail...yeah that would have been fun!) and eating our lunch at the end of the trail.  Always an adventure with this crew!

Motorcycling in Camp

Camp Cooking Perfected

Despite the evening showers....the food was excellent!  Clay perfected his method on cooking bacon - he now prefers to cook it directly over the fire.  We got the dutch ovens to work magic with cinnamon rolls and potato cheese soup.  It was delicious!  And of course the kids devoured the smores!

A Tight Squeeze

Now that we are a family of 7, there were some concerns voiced about whether or not we had a proper vehicle in which to take our summer camping trips....some doubted we would fit in our current truck and stated we needed to purchase a newer BIGGER truck....but we did it... We ALL fit (ALL 7 of us!), nice and snuggly into the Dodge Dakota Sport!  And look...we even still have smiles on our faces!!!  Hopefully they last the next 4 hours!!  To help the trip along, we stopped and got our traditional camping donuts!  Now our trip can officially begin!  Onward.

Camping with Cows

Clay and the boys found the perfect spot to camp when they came to Cloudcroft in the spring for the father and sons campout.  So we decided to try it out!  It was a beautiful spot...open valley and trees to play cops and robbers in, clearing to ride motorcycles, and hiking close by.  We had thunderstorms every night that made things interesting... it freaked the kids out and rained cats and dogs!  But, we can't fault the kids too much...Laura also got freaked out on this trip... she heard a grunting noise outside her tent and she laid frozen in bed trying to muster up the courage to look outside the tent to see if it was a bear....thank goodness it was just a cow grunting his way through his morning breakfast of grass....whew.  Yes, we shared our camping spot with a herd of cattle they would join us every morning and every evening to get their daily water and a salt lick.  Needless to say, this camping trip was quite the adventure....and probably the last for a while... or until Erica sleeps through the night.  Sleeping with a baby (or not sleeping with a baby) in a tent is pretty awful....so after 2 days of high adventure with the cows, storms, and a sleepless baby we were ALL ready to go back home!

 
 Erica got her first skateboard lesson from Preston and Detric.

 

Preston and CJ staked out a chipmunk in a log and got out their big guns to try and take it out...unfortunately the little rodent outsmarted them on this trip...next time boys...next time!