OurLittleMcFamily.com

Summer will quickly be upon us here in the desert. And you all know how cranky I get when summer comes. So I try and make the summer as busy as possible for myself so that I can endure the baking hot sun.

Here is what we are planning:

MAY
–Zion Nat’l Park, of course. Year six. We leave tomorrow.

JUNE
–Spring Mountain Ranch, Willy Wonka. Planning this outing for months now with friends. So excited to take the kids to their first official play.
–Camp Invent. Danny is going to his first invention camp with a buddy. He is totally stoked.
–Bear Lake. The kids and I are planning a week at the lake with my mom and sister. (Adam will be in China on business–boo, boo!)
–Swim lessons. Hopefully we can squeeze a couple of these in. :)

JULY
–Grandma Penning Visits. YAY!
–Relay for Life. We are going to Oregon to participate in Team Georgie this summer. So Excited!
–Washington. Oh how I love escaping the desert heat, trading it in for two weeks in Yakima. I can’t wait to hang with my family, scrap with Jes, camp at Rainier with cousins, and see old friends and their children.

AUGUST
–The Beach. Yes! Who love the Oregon Coast? We do. We do. We have been planning this vacation since Thanksgiving with my parents and siblings. One whole week in Seaside with my family. The kids are going to learn to body surf this time around. Can’t wait for vacation with my hubby and kiddos.

Here’s some awesome sledding video from our trip to Washington. Where it gets really interesting is at about 1:50. Adam’s true colors shine through. I love being married to this guy!!!

Adam uploaded all of our sledding videos here.

Tio Brian and I took Danny, Ezzy, and Brooklynn up to White Pass on our Christmas vacation. It was the first time for the whole McFamily. It was Brooky’s 2nd time and about the 10,000th time for Brian :) We had a blast. Danny was a natural - he went with Brian and Brooky on a longer, higher run, while Ezzy and I got lots of practice on the lower slope.

Brian got some pictures also that can be seen on the Hirschi’s blog. Stay tuned for more Christmas adventures!

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, I took Ezzy and Danny to one of my favorite places - the hike to Bridge Mountain in Red Rock. It’s far enough out of the way to have a little less travel than the more popular hikes that are closer to the loop. It was a little bit cold and windy, but the cooler weather was nice. We made it out to the sandstone and stopped for a lunch of Jetboil ramen and oranges, a true culinary delight!

Click here for more photos.

On Saturday, we got together with the Moore family for a trip up Icebox Canyon. Juan Pablo talked everyone’s ears off and everyone hiked, ducked, and scrambled their way to the top. Once again, temperatures were just right for hiking.

After our fun-filled week at Zion, we rushed home to wash clothes and sleep so we could be ready the next day to drive to L.A. Adam had a last-minute business meeting so we tagged along. I called my long-time friend, Marisa, and she graciously drove down from Ventura with her three girls so we could hang out. I was ecstatic that she came down. They got to our hotel first thing in the morning so we had all day, and the kids had a blast. First, we went swimming at the hotel, and then headed to the beach.

 The ninos “knew” where we were going, but when they first saw the ocean, as we approached the pier, they were in complete shock and awe. Each child piled out of the car and just stared out in front of them for a good couple of minutes. Once I assured them that it was okay to run across the sand and out to the water, they took off–screeching the whole way. Imagine the happy mayhem that soon followed. This trip was one of my favorite ‘firsts’ so far.

After Adam’s meeting, he came out to the beach and buried each nino in the sand. The kids thought that was quite possibly the coolest thing they had ever experienced. (Wait until you see the video…..Adorable!) I bought the children new water shoes and sunglasses before the trip. Nikki has yet to take her glasses off her head. And Wompy, well…he had his thrown in the garbage around San Bernardino!!!!!!!! But I have to give the kid props, he hadn’t been home for over a week, and that was his only meldown during that week (except for the very first night of camping, poor little dude). We are making major strides here. :)

What was my favorite part? Talking to my friend about nothing and everything, watching each kid squeal in delight as he or she ran away from the waves (like a thousand times, at least), and seeing how silly goofy happy Adam is when he is playing with his kids. Thanks for being my friend, Maris. Thanks for being an awesome daddy, Adam. And thanks for bringing my life even more joy, ninos!

Our little Brookie was baptized last month. Look how grown up she is. The ninos and I made our way up to Logan, UT for the festivities. That meant that Adam and I spent Valentine’s Day apart. But small sacrifices are worth the big difference it makes in a little girl’s life.

While we were in Logan the children were able to play in the snow. And play they did. In fact, I didn’t see them most of the weekend. Uncle Brian brought down snow clothes from the lake, which made their second snow experience much more enjoyable. They played from sun-up to sun-down, and then hottubbed with Sponge Bob until bed. For me, it was the easiest single parent weekend I could have asked for. I was able to play games with the adults most of the time. Yeah!

The best part of the kids’ snow play was watching Danny on the snowboard. Brian and Jaimee’s house is surrounded by massive hills so Danny got a lot of practice in. And since I am snowboard illiterate, Danny was left to teach himself. Here’s a video of his efforts:

There’s no holding this boy back. He totally has first child syndrome! Needless to say, we had a blast in Logan, as usual. We are super proud of Brookie and her decision to be baptized. We can’t wait for Danny’s baptism at the end of this month.

Yes, that is Juan P. in a pink coat. But it is the only one that fit him. I can’t wait to post this picture at his wedding reception. :)

Pine Nut Road is north of Las Vegas, inside the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. I gave mommy a break on Sunday afternoon and took the niños out for a drive with Jeremy. We have been wanting to explore this area because there are a few areas we have heard are good for camping in this area. I explored the other side of the mountain the week before with Dave, but we didn’t have any great success. The Refuge is a pretty lonely area - not a lot of traffic on these roads!

Though we didn’t make it all the way to the campground, we did make it almost all the way to the end of Pine Nut Road. From the end of the road, one can hike to Hayford Peak, the highest point in the Sheep Range. We hit snow at about the 6,500 foot level. We decided to have a little snow ball fight and head back for home since we were quickly losing the light.

Once the snow is gone, this will be a great place to head for cooler temps and camping in the trees (there ARE more than Joshua trees up there!). It’s a good thing that the kids like driving out on “la tierra” because they’re going to be doing it more. :)

One of our favorite friend traditions is our annual planning meeting. Aside from our monthly family night rotation, we have monthly car camping trips on the books. Our other excursions include:

April–four days in the Grand Gulch area, UT. This is the backpacking trip Adam and I did last March, but were unable to finish. This year we will be more prepared, and we will finish! 

May–5th annual Zion Nat’l Park Adventure, UT. We are camping this year to save money. Bye bye, Spa. Hello, kids. :)

August–Baker Lake/Johnson Lake Loop, Great Basin Nat’l Park, NV.This is a four day backpacking trip up in Northern Nevada. We will actually be hiking in trees and near a creek, yipee!

2009 will be a great year!!!

Adam took the ninos, Kavika, and Jordan up to the top of Rocky Gap road. It was super windy and super cold. You can’t tell that from their faces, can you? In fact, it was “so cold” that the teenagers wussed out and turned back from the hike to hide in the truck most of the time.

Whenever Rocky Gap road is involved, I stay behind!!! I hate driving it with a passion. My Sisters in Canyoneering who have driven up it understand what I mean. One time, one of the trucks got stuck and there were giant boulders flinging everywhere as the tires spun to gain traction. (Yeah, you can stop laughing now husband) I feared for my life, and have not returned since. To sum it up–the Four-Wheeling Club of Las Vegas maintains the road. They have to. Noone else has the equipment to do it.

Anyway, here’s a little video of the windiness at the top of the pass. And if you think they look cold here, wait until you see the pictures from our latest hike….

Okay, we’re playing a little catch up. And yes, the rumors are true–we did have snow here in Vegas. The last time we saw snow in the valley was Christmas Day 2003–but it was only a skiff and it did not last through the day. This time Las Vegans enjoyed a few days of it. Our home is located in one of the lower points of the valley so we did not get any actual snow on our street. But we did get lots of rain and slush. It tried snowing a few time, but turned quickly to rain. Adam’s parents and our friends, the Brummetts, had a lot of snow though. I am just happy that it rained for so many days in a row. We didn’t see blue skies for three or four days–and it was Glorious! I woke up every morning hoping for gray skies. I know, I know–I’m weird. But there are a lot of us transplants here in the desert that are happy to call ourselves precipitation loving weirdos.
Our own Mt. Charleston got pounded with snow so we decided to take advantage of it. We piled the four ninos in the truck, and took off. It wasn’t so bad going up, but by the time we reached the top we were in the middle of an actual snow storm…the kind of snow storm we usually only partake of in places like Utah and Washington. Anyway, by the time we were able to get down off the mountain conditions had worsened, and there were many many people driving who had no business being on the road.

As you can see, the poor little children had a mish-mash of our clothes and theirs to try and keep them warm. There were a couple of babies–big big babies–in the group. Oh yeah, they were all wimps except Danny!!! Even Ezzy melted down a couple of times. And only Danny would climb the “big” sledding hill with Adam. It was really funny. Here’s my hottie of a husband:

Daddy and the kids ended the day by having a snowball fight with the neighbor kids when we got home. Yummy hot chocolate and soggy shoes were welcomed additions to our desert oasis.

We were so happy that out of all the years we have lived here snow graced us in 2008. Our children have never seen snow, never experienced it. Snow was one of the things they were most excited about when moving to the States. They had a total blast freezing their tooshies off in our short-lived winter wonderland.