{Conference weekend Prt.1}

 This past weekend we kept the children home from school on Friday so that we could meet up with friends at a cabin in Flagstaff Arizona. These friends are our oldest friends. They type of friends you can go forever not talking to, but pick up right where you left off. Now that the Keys only live 35 minutes down the road & the Crosbys only 4 hours we have been seeing a lot more of each other. The children play & have made quick friends of each other. The first day their we really just played & went for a short walk to the lake. The kids skipped stones & pretended to fish. The air smelled on pine & the temperature was 75 degrees. It was just right for us dessert dwellers. In total we had 12 kids (& a baby bump) & 6 adults. It was wild & crazy but so fun to see the kids exploring outside like I did growing up in New Hampshire by pine trees. I loved hearing them scare themselves pretending to hear a bear at sunset. They would scream & all run inside just to go right back out to spook themselves again. This is the type of moments I want our babies to have in their childhood. These are the type of people I want my children to have in their lives. The children took one big bath in the hot tub while sweet sweet Kim read spooky (age appropriate) stories. When everyone was toasty in pajamas Kim pulled out a super fun craft for the children to make. They were little Halloween lanterns out of cups. It was a hit. They played games & stayed up past bedtime. No one slept particularly well that first night because the littlest ones, Sophia, CJ & Cooper were not sure about sleeping in a new place. But we made it through & had a good time despite it.