escaping the heat

It’s Labor day, so no school! We took Lucy to Mt. Lemmon today. I love that we only have to drive 30 minutes from our house to enjoy cooler weather.

blooming flowers-

I’ve been wanting to go on the ski lift for a long time now, so I was excited to finally get the chance. The boys are testing out a ski lift chair.

Before the ride Porter made friends with the local cat.

The ski lift ride is 15 minutes each way. We took it up and then got off to walk around before taking it down. Marlee wanted to sit by her dad of course.

Clayton and Porter switched off riding with Grandma Lucy and I.

It is a beautiful view.

Clayton and Lucy

Laun and Marlee

Getting off the ski lift.

Walking around on top.

cool bug

It was a little chilly up top.

Heading down on the ski lift.

Way in the back you can see Marlee and Laun and up close is Lucy and Porter.

This tree was struck by lighting…it’s cool how the bark is open in a twist around the tree.

I love these pictures of Lucy and Porter…

I love how relaxed (or bored…not sure which)  Marlee and Laun look in this picture.

I love when Porter and Marlee get along and I actually catch it on camera.

The kids were way excited to pick out a treat in the candy shop.

I quickly snagged up some chewy sweet tarts, man I love those things.

Marlee had her eye on popcorn, since she watched many others go by on the ski lift eating popcorn. The boys picked out rock candy.

Then we drove on further and did some grape picking. 

The kids were pretty pumped to catch a butterfly.

And a cute little horny toad.

We stopped for some lunch.

I love these watermelon faces.

The kids had fun wandering.

Laun took the sweet “microwave” he welded to grill us some steak.

Clayton was crazy excited to catch an alligator lizard, which he mistook for a snake at first. They run with their feet hidden under their body, so they look like a snake. 

Then we picked more grapes.

We shoved our way into this grape plant and balanced on the weight of the plant. Yup, that is a camping chair Marlee is sitting on, which is just on top of a bunch of grape vines.

Porter got as high as he could on the grape vines.

I love all the memories these kids are making.

Then we went into Pepper Sauce Cave. It was so cool and our kids loved it. It’s really dark, so you have to use a flashlight the whole time. I wish we had pictures inside, but there’s some pretty small places to fit through and I was afraid of smashing the camera. Next time I’ll have to take in my cheap little camera. All these pictures are near the entrance.

This is where you enter the cave.

That night the grape juice process began again. Lucy brought this nifty juice pot to use and luckily she’s taking home all of this batch because we certainly have plenty already.