Arizona with Papa

I am currently sitting in my girls room blogging. I am doing this in hopes that it will convince them to stay in their room and go to sleep. You see we went to Arizona for the past couple of weeks and one of the many great things that happened there was my girls fell asleep IN their beds. The trick is Papa. You see Papa has a unique ability to lay on a tiny piece of the bed, tell a fascinating, but true story and then fall asleep for awhile. Then when he wakes up he is up for awhile then goes back to sleep for his nightly rest. This was such a treat for my girls, and Papa was such a sport to go lay by them every night. They loved his stories and company. I loved them as a girl, so I totally get where they are coming from. However, it makes it a little tough to bring them home and convince them to sleep in their beds. We have been working on it, and there have even been a couple times we haven't stayed with them and they feel asleep. It is so awesome.

In other awesome things with Papa, he took both his Friday's off work and played with us. The first Friday was a true Papa adventure. Papa, Kylee, Tia, and I got on the four-wheeler and rode back behind the house to what I call 'The Splice.' The Splice is a place where a long time ago a wash cut a a deep splice right through the foothill. It was pretty cool to see and I really wanted to hike through it, but the chances of rattlesnakes seemed to great, my girls were not interested, and even Papa seemed a little wary of following a path through a clay hill. Needless to say we didn't hike it, but if I was every there November-February I would be really tempted. Anyway, it was a fun ride, but part of it was in a pretty rocky wash bed, so Kylee was so done with bumpy four-wheeler rides.

A wide view of the splice.

Papa, Kylee, and Tia in the splice.

Tia, Papa, and me in the splice.

So, when we got home Papa asked if we wanted to go out on four-wheeler's again and Kylee said No, but when he offered a truck ride she was all for that. Kylee, Tia, Papa, and I climbed in the truck and we took the back roads to the Ft. Thomas bridge. Technically my Dad needed to look at it for work purposes, but it was still a great little place. The river was flowing but it was shallow there wasn't a lot of traffic. It was so great. Anyway, Papa had brought a few rods to try and figure out where the bottom of the bridge was so he was poking the long on in the girls took his short one to the other side and started hanging over it trying to touch the water with it. Sometimes I know where my kids get there ideas (like from me) and it doesn't actually make it any less scary. Anyway, we poked around from above for awhile, and then we decided to climb into the river bed and poke around from there. We did really good at staying dry until I let the girls put there feet in. Then you know how it goes--Tia squatted down instead of bending over, so her bum got wet. Then after watching the girls for a bit I had to put my feet in too. Then I had to see if I could wade across without getting wet. Which then Kylee followed and slipped on a rock and fell in. Then Tia wanted to come and crossed fine until the way back when she slipped and fell in. So, once the girls were wet like that it was pointless to not play, play in the river. I walked around more and enjoyed the water. The girls would jump up and land on their bums, or flop down on their bellies. They splashed. I helped them wade into some deeper spots. We had a blast. It was a great thing to do on such a hot morning. After we managed to barely keep the girls awake on the way home, we finally got home and went swimming in the pool to rinse all the sand off. I took a shower, so I could go to the temple later. Overall we made it sound like a great time because we Oma pretty jealous when we told her of our adventures when she got home from working at the temple.

Me, Tia, Kylee, and Papa driving along in the truck.

Tia hanging over the side trying to touch the water with the short stick. 

Papa, Tia, and Kylee 'playing' on the bridge.

Papa searching for the bottom of the bridge and Tia and Kylee playing.

Kylee and Tia in the river.

When your wet why not just sit?

Tired, dirty, wet Kylee and Tia in the truck.

The next Friday Papa had off we didn't get to go on quite the adventure because Papa needed to get to the temple and do an endowment session, so that we could seal a family together. However, being who he is he still took us out on four-wheelers. The girls really wanted to go 'shooting.' They asked Papa to get his 'gun' out for them. So, my dad decided that a pea shooter was probably as close as we need to get to using a gun at this age, and I agree. Anyway, we went to the dry spring and had the girls collect shotgun shells. They then lined them up on hay bale and tried to shoot them with the pea shooter. Kylee loved it! Tia had a hard time getting the coordination down for it, so she kind of lost interest. Papa and I also had a great time with it. I am not a good shot, but it was fun to try and shoot and then see where it ended up.

Papa showing the girls how this 'shooting' is done.

Papa and Tia 'shooting.'

Kylee 'shooting.'

The view on our way back.

My Dad is so great. I love going on what I call Papa Adventures. I love that it doesn't seem to matter how many times I go out with my Dad he manages to show me something else I never knew existed. I love how he loves the desert. I talk to a lot of people who think the desert is ugly, but to me it holds its own beauty and I love that my dad can show it to me. I also love that whining and heat doesn't really seem to bug my dad that much, so going on adventures with my kids in the summer is totally do able. I also love being able to just be with my dad. He is so wise and soft spoken it is awesome.