Sometimes burnout is on the fringes and there is such a thing as ‘too much of a good thing’. 🙂 When we feel the need to just get out of Dodge and have a little adventure, we are fortunately not held down by a set work schedule or a boss asking for the cover page on the TPS report (shameless reference to the classic comedy Office Space :). A couple weeks ago, we decided we needed to focus on our little family instead of work for a few days. We booked a quick hotel room in Payson, packed Temple and Wyatt up in the car, and told them we were going on an adventure. Temple kept saying ‘Daddy? Are we going on an adventure today?’ 🙂 And then when we were finished with the day’s adventure, she would thank us for taking her on an adventure and ask if we were going to go on another one tomorrow :).
I love how kids are entertained by very little; Wyatt just needs a ball or a stick, and Temple just needs to know ‘what’ we are going to do before we do it. I look at the kid’s toy collection and see that 75% of it never gets used. How much more efficient is God’s NATURE than Tyco or Mattel?! I put a stick in my son’s hand and set him loose in a forrest and he is entertained for days. They get a new toy and what happens? They play with it for 10 minutes and then it either 1) breaks (when Wyatt dashes it to pieces on the cement 🙂 or 2) they move on to something else.
There is also something about getting out of the desert and going into a place with less cars and more calm. I always welcome the sound of wind through the pine trees and the peace that it brings, especially when my head is usually focused on the next thing that needs to get done or planning for what’s ahead. Sometimes I get so focused on work that I don’t even realize time is getting away from me. Emily pointed something out to me (she’s so smart :). She said “We are never going to look back and say ‘Man, I just wish I wouldn’t have spent so much time with my family going on trips’.” She’s right. In a blink of an eye my kids will be all grown up and all that we have are the memories we made together (and our growing Shutterfly/Picaboo book collection sitting in the living room :).
So here are just a few photos that we took on our little mini-adventure to Payson. -A
Temple and Wyatt searched for over an hour looking for the biggest pinecone (which we ended up calling ‘baby corns’… no clue how that happened). Emily had a scary encounter with an elk, and thankfully it ran off into the woods instead of attacking in defense.
Matching shoes… I wasn’t wearing mine 🙂
If you live in Phoenix and have never been to The Natural Bridge Park just north of Payson, it is a MUST!
This tunnel in the rock is HUGE… check out how small the people are on the right side…
On our last day before we were heading home, we went up on the Mogollon Rim.
We went on an ‘adventure’ in search of the very place that we took photos of Emily when she was pregnant with Temple 3 1/2 years ago. It was such a cool feeling to get to experience that spot with our Temple Jade-girl in our arms, when not too long ago she was in her mommy’s tummy. We tossed ‘baby-corns’ over the edge and let the kids just run around and have fun.
Here is the same shot I took of Emily and Temple 3 1/2 years ago 🙂
And again, 3 1/2 years before…
2 very sleepy babies after a weekend packed with adventures…
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