Topaz Mountain

First I have to thank Brenda for the pictures. I kind of stole these off your blog. I realized that I didn't use my camera I used Fay's camera...hence the thievery.

This weekend we took a trip to Topaz Mountain in search of Topaz Crystals. The kids had a great time. We arrived at the base of Topaz Mountain on Friday night about 6 pm, and the kids immediately saw the spot where they would spend ALL of their free time...

Yep, on the top of this mountain. My kids played all day and would have played all night if the thought of them falling to their deaths in the dark was something I could have handled that weekend. So when the sun would set they had to get off the mountain. I climbed up that mountain a couple of times, but I realized that adults (namely me) understand and can imagine the pain of falling, so I was a little nervous about having my kids all over that mountain, so I did what any mother of 5 would do...I couldn't watch when they were on the mountain. Kylee was the only one that had a minor fall (to no ones great surprise) and so we made it through the weekend without any deaths.

This picture we took before we left on our "little" hike to find topaz crystals, which turned out to be a "BIG" hike. The kids turned around about 45 minutes after we started, but not before Bret found a cool snake that all the kids got to touch, and not before Samantha decided to step on an even bigger snake...However, they did turn around before we found any crystals. Thanks to Aunt Elissa, the kids were able to go back to camp and climb their mountain, while the rest of us "die hards" with Norman in the lead continued on our quest. Sadly we hiked only another 50 yards before we found crystals, so the kids could have stayed. But don't feel bad, we spent a total of 6 hours hunting for crystals(it might have been longer), and the kids who went back to camp were able to share all the crystals we found...no one left empty handed.

I love that we get to spend this kind of time with Bret's family, the kids love to play with their cousins and we get to visit with family that we don't see often enough.