Happy 60th Dad!!

Last weekend(Memorial Day) my sisters and I took my parents camping for my Dad's 60th Birthday.(It was on the 11th) We decided on Escalante(Bryce Canyon area-ish) because he likes it there and we camped there a few times growing up. He worked there years ago, before I was born(yes I know, that was FOREVER ago). Anyway, we had so much fun. It rained pretty much the whole time and we are tent campers, so that made it interesting. After church on Sunday some people had a pet baby raccoon, I'm not really sure what they were doing with it at church but we were in Escalante so that's kind of like Wallsburg, so we understand a little. They let the kids hold it for a minute. It was really cute. Then we went on a 6 mile hike. What troopers those little kids were. None of us realized how long it was. Well, Dad did, but he didn't tell us. We have done the hike a few times in the past, but none of us remembered it being so long. I thought my knee was going to fall of by the end. I was worried I wasn't going to make it. On Saturday I had gone with my Dad to the Petrified Forest which is what the State Park is where we were camping. That was a 3 mile hike and a HARD one. Being that my activity level is a 0, I impressed myself at how well I did. I actually enjoyed myself. I was pretty miserable on the drive home Monday. Every time we would stop to get out, I couldn't move. Literally. Court was laughing cause I looked weird.
Hayden on the drive there. It was only supposed to be an 8 hour drive and it took us almost 11 because it was raining so hard and when you pass Page it's all one lane through small towns for about 4 hours, except in the rain with slow cars it takes 6 1/2. It was a long day.
The first morning it rained so hard, the kids sat in the car and watched movies.
I had to post this picture as pay back for the "two dudes" picture on Shi's blog. As well as all the others where I was sporting a super cool head wrap.
Hayden and Natalee slept with Grandma and Papa and had so much fun.

The kids taking a break while hiking 6 miles.
Family Picture at the beginning of the hike. Don't we look so happy? I'm glad we took the picture at the beginning because by the end, we were exhausted and had been rained on several times. We were not as happy at the end.
The middle of the hike. You go back into a canyon to this waterfall. It was to cold to play in, though some people(Natalee) were.
The baby raccoon
Bennett is so funny. He's got the cutest smile. He was so excited when he saw the raccoon.

We took a few pictures after church when we got back to camp since we looked all fancy. It was about the only time it wasn't raining.
Sitting on the big gray rock with Grandma. I remember playing on this rock, even in this little hole when I was little.
Next generation rock crawlers!
We had so much fun. The drive home was better. We made it in 8 hours like our GPS said we would. Hayden keeps asking when we are going camping again. All this past week when we would go swimming Hayden would say, "but I don't want to go to the waterfall swimming pool" When I ask him why he said "It was a really long walk" I just realized that I didn't get any pictures of my Dad. Funny huh? His trip and there are no pictures. We took a family one at the waterfall but it's on his camera. I will have to wait to get it. I had fun on my hike with him. No one else wanted to go because it was raining. PARTY POOPERS!! We had fun without you. Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!