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During the brief hiatus from posting weekly, we have celebrated July 4th with breakfast in McBride Canyon, played on the beach, recelebrated July 4th on July 6th and spent several days in Red River. All in all, not a bad little break in our routine.
First, J, K, S & V spent three weeks with us, including the week we spent in Red River, only returning home last Sunday. Dave drove up for the July 6th congregation, arriving the evening of the 4th. There were lively times while they were here, as you can imagine with so many shorties in residence. They gave the recreational facilities on SA a good work-out. Since the get-together was planned for the 6th, that left the 4th open and we took advantage to arrive at McBride Canyon at dawn and whip up a campfire breakfast. Only we weren’t supposed to have a campfire because of the dry conditions. I had already started one by the time Joyce read the notice so we just let it die down. We had a camp stove for the cooking anyway so it was only the aesthetics that suffered.
It was still early by the time we finished breakfast and though the morning was cool, we drove down to the river crossing so the girls could play in the sand, mud and water. There was no one else around and the little girls had a high old time running nekky through the water and wallowing in the mud. Rain in the area had been recent enough so that there was a splendid muddy slough where the road crossed the river. There was some whimpering when the water and breeze combined to finally make it uncomfortably cool but when they got out of the water the sun soon warmed them up. Abigail joined in but clothed modestly as befitted her adolescence and Jill and Kari refrained altogether.
In Red River we mostly followed a routine of fishing in the morning, swimming in the afternoon and watching a movie while eating too much ice cream in the evening. Abigail is self-sufficient fishing now and Vivian is too small to attempt it. Really, Sophia is too small, but her mother was there to fish with her. Rebecca and Kaylee are old enough to give it a try. Rebecca caught a fish last year but they both are essentially just in the pole holder class of beginner, not quite bait chuckers. We got nowhere the first two days and had to suffer the insult of watching others catch fish while we didn’t. The pond is reserved for 12 and under, so these were other kids catching fish. We persisted, though, and finally on the last day Team Wylie-Zbinden began reeling them in. By lunch time, all four girls had caught (reeled in) at least one fish and we had enough for a pretty fair dinner that evening. The fish were delicious.
We enjoyed the cool temperature and occasional rain in Red River. It was hot and windy in the low lands that week. One afternoon we took a hike. The little ones played out eventually and returned to our quarters with their mothers. Abigail and I pressed ahead but got caught in the afternoon rain. The rain was light and not a problem, but it was accompanied by lightening, some of it uncomfortably close, so we had to retrace our steps before reaching the end of the trail. We were glad to get back inside where we could dry off and warm up. It was plenty warm when we got back to SA but Sunday it started cooling down and this week has been cool and damp. Not as damp as we really wanted and needed it to be, but very pleasant.