Dog Meat

I promise the title to this post will eventually make sense.

So last Friday we went on a little adventure. No specific plans in mind, just driving, friends and family and food. It started at about 10am as we drove west to a desert I have never been to before so that we could go hunting for geodes. It was about a 100 mile drive from our house but we made a few stops along the way.

We were waiting for our friends so we waited at this look out point. I laughed when I saw the picture Marc had taken of the lookout sign. I think it should have said "Lookout for Birds!!"

Brother was having fun just exploring and getting his picture taken.

Our friends met up with us and then we were off again on the old Pony Express Trail. Along the way we saw a very small herd of wild mustangs. They were very far away so I didn't get any pictures, but, I think that Brother will always have a picture of it in his mind. He was so excited he couldn't stop talking about the rest of the day. It was really amazing seeing those horses run uphill without slowing down in the slightest. Wow!

Then we stopped for lunch at the Pony Express Station (replica).

Baby, Sister and Brother were happy to be out of the car and walking around and exploring the landscape and the building. In fact, Baby was having so much fun running around she didn't want to stop to eat.

After lunch we decided to venture out to the Geode Beds........................... holy cow! That was a long drive. It is amazing when you are in a desert with only mountains to mark the way how long the drive seems. Yet, it was quite beautiful all at the same time.

Brother was so excited to dig for geodes. Sister didn't mind diving right in herself.

We didn't find anything, but we hope to go back again and take more time to look. We were ready to move on to our next adventure.

We said goodbye to our friends and headed out.

On our way out we saw a family with a flat tire. We stopped and asked if they needed help and they said that they were good to go, so we drove on. Then a few miles and antelope later...

we saw another family along the side of the road with a flat tire. It was a mom with 5 kids and she was so thankful to have the help. She had called her brother, though, who wasn't far behind us and he was on his way to help. When they approached we recognized the family as the other ones who were on the side of the road with a flat tire. The lady was surprised to see us again and said thank you for stopping twice. What are the odds that two people travelling in the same caravan end up with flat tires.

Then, we were on our way, again.

We met up with my aunts, uncles and cousins on the far opposite side of the desert at the sand dunes.

We didn't know how we were going to find them but, miraculously, we did! We had fun playing in the sand, eating food, singing songs, building humongous campfires and teasing my uncle Brad.

The funniest part was when we were eating dinner.

There were three dogs there that were the family's dogs. There was BBQ beef in several containers on the table for our sandwiches. My cousin's husband, Jed, saw that one of the dogs had taken down one of the containers of meat and was eating it. We were all whooping and hollering and laughing and Jed saved the container from the dog and then set it back on the table...

What?

"Jed, get it off the table!" we all exclaim. We all laughed. He just wasn't thinking. He took it into the trailer to be washed.

Then a little bit later I look over and Baby has grabbed another container of meat and is chowing down on it, sitting on the sand just eating away. She must have learned from the dogs. (I'm just hoping that Jed really did put that container in the trailer or my daughter may have been eating dog meat. Ew.)

I didn't get a picture of her until I had set her in a camp chair but it was still funny. And she ate the whole thing.

I brought stuff for dutch oven peach cobbler and made that for everyone.

I had to laugh though that while I was using one side of the fire pit to cook the dutch oven my uncle kept stoking up a big bonfire just on the other side of the fire pit. But, hey, the dutch oven still turned out great.

And to top the night off, my Aunt Aleesa gave Brother a ride on the four-wheeler around the campground. My aunt said he was screaming "woo hoo!" in her ear the whole time!

Man, I wish I had the enthusiasm he has! So cute! I also wish that I would have gotten a picture of him but I was busy changing a diaper when they drove past.

We got home that night around 10:30pm. (and the kids actually did really well considering their change in bed time routine)

Wew! 12 hours of adventure.

Can't wait for the next one!