There's A River?

Saturday we had a great evening with some of our favorite friends. They took us to what we later learned was the Salt River. I didn't even know there was a river so close to where we live. Don't ask me why, but when Heather was explaining it, I was picturing a little river next to a meadow. Needless to say, we weren't really the best dressed for a desert mountain area with an actual good sized river running, and lots of trees and bushes, huge ants and ant hills, and snake holes. Yeah, the four of us had on shorts and flip flops.... We still had a lot of fun, and are learning a lot about what's in Arizona.

We all stopped at an asian restaurant and got some food to go. Heather and Mike's boys and her brother and sister decided Taco Bell sounded better, so after a quick stop there, we headed down the street to a national forest Ben and I had no idea was there. The kids loved being by the river, and there was even a herd of cows right across it. Baylee and Trey also had a blast collecting sticks.

We did a little trail walking, and thought this log provided a perfect photo-op for a picture of the kids. Of course, Baylee is doing her trademark pose.

So, the kids had bikes and scooters, and since Ben and I were expecting a meadow or something, we had two kites for Baylee and Trey. Since the parking lot was the only place for the kids to really play (it was blocked off though), we decided to head to a nearby park to play at instead.

Even though Mike was skeptic, Ben broke out Baylee's kite and was able to get it to fly. It took a little while, and the string being put on the right side of the kite, but it worked! It was funny to see him running around with a Toy Story kite, and even cuter when Baylee and Trey started chasing him.

Eventually Baylee and Trey were flying the kites on their own. Baylee seemed to think that she needed to run to the opposite end of the huge park, though. We finally got her to she stay with us, and everyone had a fun time hanging out and playing soccer. The kids got to ride their bikes and scooters and also play on the playground. Payton loved his first time on the swings. We ended the night with ice cream at Sonic. We didn't do anything crazy or elaborate or anything, but we had such a great night!