we were able to spend a long weekend in payson with the johnson family. phil and lynn rented a beautiful cabin just past payson. the cabin (more like a house in the middle of the woods) was located in beautiful pines and next to a small creek.


the kids spent most of their time in the small creek that ran next to the cabin. grandma johnson threw in "magic rocks" (really, they were colored glass rocks) into the water for the kids to find.


the kids found all of the rocks within hours, filling their buckets full of "magic rocks" that, as abe put it, will help them make dragons and buy flying houses.


cole and otho in search for more magic rocks.


moms, babies, and grandpa watched from on high as the kids (big and little) played in the creek.


my strong, buff, handsome, wonderful husband!


there was horse shoes, badminton, and swing to entertain us.


ellie and grandma with the ball ellie clung to for hours at a time.


the creek had a bunch of blackberry bushes. jacque enjoyed picking around $40 worth of blackberries. then she made us a crepe breakfast and we were able to enjoy the blackberries that way. mmm good.

on saturday everyone (but me and my girls, it was nap time) took a hike. they were gone all morning and came back with 2 frogs, a lizard, a couple bugs, and a disgusting larva type worm. it took a lot of convincing to keep those bugs in payson and not come home with us.


if you look close enough, you will see two hidden monkies that happened to be hiding in the brush on the hike. amazing... how did those monkies find their way to the payson woods? a wonder we may never really fully understand.


my cute abe.


doug with the three musketeers.


cousin rory and jax on the hike. pretty flower rory!


abe, cousin cole, and otho on the hike.

we also enjoyed time inside the cabin watching michael phelps win his 8th gold, playing games, and making/eating wonderful food. abe told me that the cabin was the "family house" since all the family stayed there. he didn't want to leave, and asked if grandma and grandpa could move there. i told him that if they did, we wouldn't live so close to them. "that's okay," he responded. "they can come visit US."


daddy entertaining ellie with fire. and it's a wonder if my kids will become pyros. i bet they will.


otho became a checkers master with grandpa johnson as his teacher. otho loves playing games and is dang good at them too.


riley and marc resting on a sunday morning. unfortunately, riley didn't do well with the altitude and cried/didn't eat half the time.


the last night the kids enjoyed some glow sticks from grandma. ellie, personally, likes anything that just looks like jewelry.

thanks grandma and grandpa j for the fun weekend at the "family house." we enjoyed all of the family time and nature time.