Chase turns 7!!!

I know I say this every year, but WHERE does the time go?

I feel conflicted - as much as I want it to slow down and I have these awesome memories

of them being small and hilarious and cute, each year brings so many NEW

fun memories and I love my kids more each year. But still! AGH! So old!!!

Chase is hilarious. He's still into scary things and loves to draw and invent. 

He's getting to be quite the climber and will climb anything he can find.

He's got an awesome memory and an incredible vocabulary.

He loves hiking and being outside, and is suddenly interested in learning

to catch and throw and be more into sports like Grant.

We love him so much! Happy birthday buddy!

Chase got to stay home from school so we did his presents early.

 Grant made this and I thought it was so cute!

 

Donuts for breakfast!

One of his favorite gifts was odds and ends to invent with...and his own stash of gloves. 

Annual tradition at Chuck-e-Cheese! I love it that they still are so excited to go.

We picked up Grant at school and met Jason there. It was so cold this day!

 Chase requested store bought cupcakes that he saw that were bright blue with sprinkles.

I was a little hurt at first, but honestly? They were soooo good! 

 

His first pet! He wanted a goldfish so we went to pick two out. So fun!

Seminole Canyon State Park

Last minute, we saw a photo of Seminole Canyon State park pop up in our email as a cool

place to visit in Texas. The picture was of these amazing desert views and pictographs, 

some of the oldest in the US. So we decided on a whim to go hike and stay in 

Del Rio for New Years! It was a fun, quick trip before we had to get back to

school and work and normal life. 

We stayed in Del Rio and drove to the canyon each day. 

It was beautiful weather and so nice to be outside and be together.

We had a great time!

The first day we took a guided tour, since parts of the canyon you can only go in

if you are part of a guided tour. They don't want anyone messing with the pictographs.

This rock is cool, it's smooth from people using it to sharpen knives for centuries.

Watch out for this plant, it's really really spikey!

 

The next day we got up early to do the longest hike but with amazing canyon views.

We even went so far as to see Mexico! The boys did great. Claire was amazing, in fact I 

think she had the most fun! She loves to be carried around. Jason was a trooper carrying

her and all our water/food! He is amazing! I did help, but tired out quick. :)

It was fun to see these...we of course had to add our own rocks.

The views were incredible!

 

We stopped for a break and of course the boys found these huge sticks and had to sword

fight with them....unfortunately i think Chase is losing....  :)

You can see one of the pictographs here, the panther on the wall. 

This was crazy. Jason didn't see a part of the cactus on the ground and stepped on it and 

had like 3 of these in his shoes/foot. They were so tough! He didn't get too injured though. 

Guess we should have brought hiking boots!

The cutest and best hiker ever!

We made it to the end!!!

I love how creative these guys are...they decided during a break to make rock sculptures on

this plant that is super strong with huge spines. They had a blast doing this!

They were surprisingly good too!

The hike back was long and tiring and hot...but we did it! Yay!

Relaxing back at the hotel....we had an awesome New Year's weekend!