The Mighty Fine McBrayers: Vacation Presentation

Have you ever been forced to sit and look through someone’s photos or slide show of their recent vacation? Ever had to endure the stories and information shared with each and every photo they show you?? It can be torture……

Prepare to be tortured.

I present to you, our Summer Mountain Trip 2012.

I have told you many a time that my girl is definitely an outdoorsy girl. She looks forward to any trip that involves being out in the fresh air, and she loves our trips to the mountains because she not only fulfills her need for nature, she also gets to hang with her family.

Here we have some photos taken at Bluff Springs. We spent the afternoon hiking up the waterfalls (and a little of it hiding out from a huge thunderstorm in the car). I spent a great deal of time out in this area as a kid. The falls are not as grand as they used to be, but the kids had a great time taking in all the sights and sounds on the trails. They saw a few deer and turkey and lots of animal scat (that’s poo for you non-nature experts).

We had a little log racing competition going on up near the meadows. I had to take off my jacket. It got serious.

Seth was just dying to get in the water, but it was only about 65 degrees that day (and that was not a complaint), and the water was freezing cold. He settled for mock swimming above the creek. A raccoon passing through was kind enough to capture a few shots of our family. Actually, I used the timer. You didn’t really think a raccoon would take our picture, did you? Duh. They are nocturnal…..they were sleeping.

Kaelan has a real issue lately with giving me what my friend Jeana calls the “pooping face” when I ask her to smile. You know, the smile that actually looks like your child is constipated and in pain rather than happy and smiling. In this photo, Kaelan was on a scavenger hunt behind the cabin with her cousins. I asked her to not do the poopy smile. She gave me this serious gaze and then said, “I tried really hard to think about something other than pooping. Man, that is hard.” An A+ for effort, my girl!

Pretty much every afternoon, we hiked or biked down to the parks to play. It takes for freakin’ ever to go 1 mile with two little kids. Seth had to stop and pick up all the leaves and twigs he passed. He ate some dirt, and he may or may not have eaten a dead roly-poly. I saw him put something in his mouth and rushed to scoop it out. It appeared to be dirt, but he kept saying, “More Poly, PLEEEEEZZZE!!!”. So, if he did eat it. I think it tasted okay.

The cousins. I think I have told you how special these little toots are to us. Nothing makes Kaelan and Seth happier than hanging with this wild crew.

My sister is a cool mom. In the summer, she lets the kids do pretty much whatever they want to do with their hair and clothing style. They have to buckle back down when school comes, but it’s like Christmas in July waiting to see those hairdos. They never disappoint.

I wanted to be cool, too. I let Seth go crazy.

In this next photo, you can see the full moon rising over the mountain.

This kid is going to hate me.

All that cool weather was getting to us (yeah, right), so we took a break from it and headed to the dunes with our other cousins, Taylor and Izi.

The older kids ran and played and jumped and slid down the hills. Seth pretty much climbed hills and scooted back down them on his bum over and over and over.

He did stop to consume a little sand every now and again.