insta-friday 6.21.2013

It’s Friday…which doesn’t really mean anything during summer break. Who keeps track of what day it is?!?

This is actually 2 weeks worth of Instagram photos.

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I’ve been having sleep issues again. I am having trouble going to sleep, but even worse than that I wake up at stupid times in the morning and can’t get back to sleep.

Last Sunday I was awake at 3am, so stupid.

That night I told my kiddos I was going to bed…it was 7:30pm.

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While Aunt Niece was here Roo had her check-up but couldn’t get her vaccinations.

The day after Aunt Niece left Roo got to make a special trip to the Doctor just for shots.

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Speaking of doctors…

He hurt his wrist drumming, yep the same wrist that he had surgery on last year.

I called the surgeon to make an appointment and they couldn’t see him until August unless we went to the ER and then they could see us sooner. Thankfully we have good insurance…and can sit in the ER for 4 hours on a Friday. Gah…

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It’s summertime in Arizona. We haven’t had any frogs yet this year, but we have some awesome lizards living on our front patio.

Judging by the size of these guys we must have some pretty tasty bugs that used to live there too.

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For Father’s Day I went searching for a picture of my Dad and his 5 kiddos. The most recent I could find:

From my wedding. 17 years ago. and I am sticking my tongue out at someone. Because as the baby of the family I’m supposed to be the brat.

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Two boys getting ready for scout camp takes time and lots of gear.

They were both gone the same week, but not at the same place.

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The Man-Child was going to be roughing it where he was going and wanted his head shaved.

I usually cut their hair in my bathroom, but I didn’t want to deal with the clean up.

So we headed out to the back porch…in my bare feet.

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He likes it…

I think.

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While Einstein is a scout camp we have a tradition of gluten gluttony that always includes cinnamon rolls.

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Somebody special had a birthday!

I sure love my sister.

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I am amazed at how quiet my house is with only 3 kidlets.

And how much extra food I would have after dinner each night.

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The Man-Child made a canoe they were going to use at scout camp. I love my son, but seriously?!? He is going out in a lake in a canoe he made himself?!?

I trusted him on a river in a canoe built by Coleman in 2007. Mainly because I know Uncle Kirk was there to save him if anything went wrong.

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Thankfully he made it home safe and sound…

Now I just have to wait until tomorrow for Einstein to get home.

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I love my Suburban. I think I have made it clear that it’s not natural how much I love her.

But I sure hate filling her tank…and this wasn’t even completely full.

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Did you see that Instagram now has a video feature? I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Find me @embracethechaos

Tonto Natural Bridge

There had been a little too much time at home with everyone on the last week of our Fall Break and Big Daddy and I thought that maybe we needed to spend a little time enjoying our beautiful state.

We decided to take a day-trip to the Tonto Natural Bridge.

It was a beautiful day for a little hike.

Look how cute we are…

We spent a little time up at the overview to get a nice look at where we were headed.

This little stream doesn’t look like much…

But it sure makes a pretty waterfall.

I am so glad the rainbow from the mist showed up in the pictures.

They are checking out the trail we are going to hike down. Grandma Jo was smart and decided she would wait at the top for us.

The trail doesn’t look too bad…see the nice steps.

And off we go to the trailhead.

I didn’t take any pictures of the actual trail because I couldn’t focus the camera and breathe at the same time.

The actual trail was only 1/2 a mile, but to give you an idea of how far we hiked down into the canyon that’s the overview we were just at up on that rocky ledge.

My first sight of the underside of the Bridge. That’s the Man-Child standing at the top of the stairs.

Then you see the enormity of it. The pictures don’t even come close to capturing how big this arch is. Those little dots at the bottom of the picture are people.

As soon as we got to the bottom these two took off to explore.

Here is part of the stream that started on the top.

Big Daddy took the two Littles to explore.

Roo was going to wait at the bottom with me, but soon decided she wanted to explore with everyone else.

The rocks beyond this point were more than I thought my ankle could take, so while everyone else was hiking under the bridge I took pictures.

I finally spotted some people I recognized.

This girly was so proud of herself.

Man-Child and Einstein finally came back from where they had hiked to.

I love that Ham stopped and posed so I could take his picture.

Slowly but surely they were making their way back to where I was waiting.

Ham looks a little concerned about leading the way.

Finally they made it past the last rough patch.

My cute little hikers.

La familia de Chaos and the Tonto Natural Bridge.

Check out Ham striking a pose.

The hike out was breath-taking…literally.

At one point the Man-Child grabbed my arm and was pulling me up the trail. I was amazed at how much easier it was to climb when I had a 14 yr old boy dragging me!

We were very happy to see Grandma Jo waiting for us at the top.

This is the closest we came to finding fall colors while we were there.

Does it count if the trees are always that color?

We made a quick stop in Payson for some lunch then headed home.

On the way home Big Daddy spotted two birds in a tree.

We turned around to get a better look.

They weren’t just any birds.

There is a Bald Eagle nesting area along the Verde Valley River, but it’s pretty unusual to see them this far south.

As an added bonus on our drive home the fountain at Fountain Hills was going when we drove by there.

It was such a fun day that the kidlets decided we should go back once a month.

As long as the Man-Child is willing to pull me up the trail every time I’m game…