Saturday adventure with Dad

At noon, we drove to a site in Northern Arizona. We took the kids on a hike (appx. 2 1/2 miles each way.) Matt and I switched off holding Beauchene and sometimes Safia and sometimes the backpack. We hiked back into a sandy canyon to a spring that Matt and his brothers and cousins used to hike to when they were young boys. We hiked for a while and then Matt would show them things on the ground like broken pieces of pottery or flint chippings. We were pretty exhausted by the time we made it there. I rested for a while with the little kids and the older kids explored more of the canyon with Matt. He showed them some indian pictographs. Heading back, Safia actually walked most of the way. She had found a larvae and happily walked along holding it in her hand. When we were about 3/4ths way back to the car, she dropped it and got really upset. The 3 older kids thought we were right behind them but we had stopped to deal with Safia's little fit. There were several horse trails through the trees and the kids went off course a ways. They found their way back pretty easily by yelling for us and following our voices. We turned our experience into a lesson in life. They all were quite the troopers. I think I was more exhausted than anyone else afterwards. We drove back to Matt's mom's house to change and then went to his cousin's (Margaret) reception for a few minutes then returned to Matt's mom's house. She had dinner ready for us of sloppy joes and salad. We made it back home at 11:30 that night. We all slept very well.