Clothes Will Wash

We went to visit some sweet friends today and help gather firewood.  When we walked out of our home to get into the suburban this morning, a moose was standing about 20 feet away watching us.  We had a pleasant conversation with her until she started to trot rather quickly right at us.  I kind of squeaked and quickly jumped into the passenger's seat clutching Brandt.  Moose have exceptionally long legs and can make some fast tracks - have I mentioned this?

Anyway, we got to our friends' home and got a tour of their log home.  I also got a gander at this French crazy quilt.  It's over 200 years old.  I couldn't stop staring at it. 

Then we hopped onto some 4-wheelers and headed out to go cut firewood.  Brandt was tied to Doug with a handy harness that kept him on the 4-wheeler.  It looked kind of funny once Daddy stood up - hehe...

"Need...air..."

Doug and Del cut down a huge, dead Lodgepole Pine.  An enormous fire came through this area in 1988 and completely destroyed thousands upon thousands of acres.  The fire was so fast, it didn't consume many of the trees: just burned off their needles and killed them.  

Charissa, Brandt, Sheri and I all watched from a safe distance.  Isn't that a gorgeous place to cut wood?!

We were visited by a beautiful beetle.  Charissa was fascinated with all his colors.

Charissa shows off her driving skills.  Brandt looks a little concerned...

So...how do these things work? 

My studly husband heaves a log down the mountain side.  *swoon*

So, this is my parenting philosophy: childhood only comes once.  Clothes are washable.

Okay, that's not ALL my parenting philosophy but it's part of it.

They found a mud puddle.  They ran through it, sat in it, even wallowed a bit like happy piglets.

And...I guess you could say they got a bit muddy.

Really muddy.

And so, there was a creek just a bit down the road, and I pointed them in that direction.

Ohhhh yeahhhh!  They were thoroughly drenched, but not muddy!

Brandt can't walk a straight line across a carpeted floor much less a rocky creek bed, but with every splash on his rump (or face) he'd get right back up and run around like a maniac until he fell again.

We took off all their clothes and had to strap them to the bungees on the 4-wheeler.  After wrapping them in coats, we took them back to the house and strapped them in their car seats for the ride home.

It wasn't too long before they were both zonked.

What an absolutely wonderful day!  Remember, childhood only comes once and clothes will wash :-)