Christmas morning/ dec

at the Anderson's in Coppell Christmas Eve. 

We had a hilarious reenactment of the nativity with the children

We helped Dad make tomales!! at our house

Rowdy really had wanted a nutcracker and an I pad. He got an app instead

Dad was at our house Yaya was in Coppell with Locke n Katie

Rowdy was in love with the game war

The kids and I made a spinny tree for Dad

blankets from Grandma Walker

Dad posing in Yaya's Jonny Depp blanket

Grand Canyon Birthday Hike

For my Birthday my parents treated me to a grand Canyon hike w Phantom Ranch awaiting us at the bottom. We left late at night and got into the park a little before 6. Everything was so beautiful. Cody and family watched my littles.

Our early morning catching up to us. Waiting for the tram

Love those switchbacks

Going down is my least favorite part. It bonks my knees weird

Ohh Ahh Point

I know my Mom has better pictures. But..

Anyway . Wow. The Grand Canyon is still breathtaking. It is wild going down through so many layers of earth. We made it down, is it 7 miles?, pretty quickly and were able to sneak in to our cabins before we were supposed to. (My Dad has been down the Grand Canyon so many times, he knows all the loopholes.) Took a quick nap and then hiked 13 miles round trip to Ribbon Falls. It was really hot and a lot of it was exposed. Thankfully there was a cool creek we kept dipping ourselves in. We had fun w sing a longs and listening to my Dad singing Elton John. I had never been to ribbon falls. and to be honest the 13 mile hike exposed in the middle of the day, after already hiking 7 miles in 113 degrees was intimidating. It was amazing and I am so glad we had the guts to make it. I think that was part of the beauty of it too. It was pretty untouched and I was thinking, "how many people will even ever see this awesome spot?" ...right as my mom and I stumbled upon a couple taking a nap. The falls made it feel like an air conditioner was on. The wind would blow water sprinkles on us. It was brilliant. I got a pretty gnarly blister on the way back though. The lemonade at Phantom Ranch is the best in the world. mmmm. And the beef stew is also the best in the world. mmm. We also met a cute little amish family, we wont bring up what the cute little amish woman said to my mom's age. That night we went scorpion hunting with a ranger. They glow in black lights! It was wild! We saw 7 or 8 of them. It was so fun hanging out w my parents. I just love those 2. Felt like old times. The hike out was pretty ok. My blister the size of my thumb gave me fits a few times but. It was a good hike. Dad, ever the hero hiked out the last mile with my Mom and I's bakpacks! By the time we got out I was sweating lemonade gatorade. Even 2 months after this hike, the mere thought of gatorade makes me feel yucky. but the hike out is such a rush. We hiked 27 miles in pretty much 24 hours! My shoes started falling apart! I felt so good about myself.
Not only was the hike great but I also enjoyed preparing for it too. We hiked Little Mountain a bunch and went on a few bigger hikes to get ready for it. Thanks Mom and Dad for the adventure. It was just what I was hoping for this year. Thanks for doing all the leg work for me. It was an awesome birthday present. love your guts. And thanks to all the babysitters too!

The Mulberry bush

No really, it was!

There are a few mulberry bushes around San Bernardino. My Dad loves to take the boys to go pick berries...actually He just loves to go pick berries... and yeah SB is pretty urban so there is always a certain level of suspence hoping we won't get caught berry pickin'

Mt. Baldy

So for my birthday my parents were going to take me down the Grand Canyon. So as a preparation hike one Saturday my Dad took me hiking up Mt. Baldy. We woke up early because he doesn't like a ton of people on the trail. I hadn't been up that early in a long time. It was so beautiful to see the sunrise and have some good Daddy daughter time.

The temperature and the scenery was great. we were going past the peak on the right

 I felt like a golfer in my mom's hiking shirt and Cody's hat. and even though I don't love this picture of myself. and My Dad's probably not going to like it of him either. You just don't get moments like this everyday living out here in Texas. I had a great time with Dad.

 He looked back to make sure I didn't pass out every once in a while.  But in reality he was probably checking to see if we had any fast moving competition behind me :)

The view at the top was grand. It was 360 degrees. breathtaking

 Wow! Made my stomach drop a little.

So my Dad and I are not big fans of the downhill. This hike was great because after all our good exercise up we hiked over to the ski lift and got a ride down just .5 mile from the car. It was brilliant.
Thanks mom for watching the kids.

Scot fest 2012

What a lovely day for a Scottish fest. It was at the OC fairgrounds. My parents took us there just for a fun Saturday Activity. We do have a little Scottish, but we aren't all hardcore about it like some of the folks were

 My Mom and Elliot were both in heaven with each other

 Hagas! 

My dad's dream food. 

It was ok. It was very lamby. (I thought it would be worse)

 Trooper Cody

 The kids loved it

 Lil' miss independent

 I found the only black guy at the Scottish festival!

 The bagpipe and drum competitions were pretty amazing. There would be teenagers and old guys in the same troop. It seemed cool. Probably neat to see they weren't the only teenagers doing bagpipes. I secretly wanted someone to tip over so I could yell, "We have a Piper down! I repeat, A piper down!" in a thick Scottish accent

 There was a big cool farm on the fairgrounds. The lamas were nice but somewhere in the course of loving the animals and trying to let Elliot pet them, a cow headbutted Elliot. It freaked her out for a minute. But she snapped out of it and was squealing w delight at all of the animals in no time. She seems to really love them. They even had an Ox. That thing was Huge.

This is a....worm garden

 A nice guy let Rowdy sit in his old mini cooper

 He was so excited. And there were a bunch of ads there for Brave/ the Disney movie that would come out later int he summer, Rowdy was all excited to see that too. We had some lovely Scottish meat pies. and the kids loved some jump houses and sheep dog demonstrations, I missed the log throwing. Everyone had on their family tartans and at the end of summer cousin Missy who had been to Scotland the year before brought back a little key chain with a scrap of our Anderson tartan. That was super cool.

Thanks for the nice day Papa and Yaya. Always an adventure. and it was so lovely we were all able to sit in the same car together!