A Little Trip (with Lots of Pictures)

This will be the week of many posts, I guess.  Maren's birthday is tomorrow, so I knew there would be more posts coming soon, so I wanted to post these photos now.  Lucky you, I guess.

The kids and I have spent the last 24 hours with my sister and her family.  It's always fun to get away for awhile, and I honestly didn't even hear much from my kids, they were so happy playing with cousins and their toys.  Okay, on to the photos.

We visited a cave:

 Because that 'hike' wasn't much of a hike, we found another.  And boy howdy, it was a hike.  First we dipped our feet and threw a few rocks in a pond:

 Maren chatting with her cousin while we waited for my sister to rescue Ellie (It was so steep.  Ellie sat down at one point and refused to go any further.  Thankfully my sister has more sway than I do and convinced Ellie that she could do it):

 We made it to the "castle"!:

 Once upon a time (like a hundred years ago), this place was used in the mining process of lead and silver.  Now, it is a big pile of falling rock where people come to practice their spray can art. 

 And we made it back down without any injuries (a serious accomplishment)!  By the way, the babe stayed with Grandma (thank goodness).

 After a good rest, and lots of water and popsicles, we played on the farm:

 Think that is a lot of kids on a four-wheeler?  You should've seen it when Lainey and I got on too!

The kids loved being on the farm and we got a proper tour.

We collected eggs:

 Ellie was properly initiated:

 We fed the pigs, watched the cows being milk, took a sneak peek inside the milk tank...

 played with the barn kitties, Everett got to "ride tractor", and fed the baby calves.

 And after all that (not to mention playing in the sand and water for several hours) these kids were in desperate need of a bath:

I've never seen the bath water so dirty before.