Father's Day Fun!

As many of you know, this past Sunday was fathers day in the U.S. (and select foreign countries). It was my very first fathers day as a dad, and I had a most excellent time. I was up early (but not too early) to play with the kids when they first awoke. They are always happy then, with big smiles to greet the day and their parents who come to get them. They had some breakfast and played a bit, and then we called/skyped our dads (the new granddads) to wish them a happy day. Jaime & the kids got me just what I'd been hoping for: a new double burner griddle for the stove, so I got to work mixing up buttermilk pancake batter and making the lightest fluffiest pancakes I've had in quite some time (for those of you who are curious, I found the recipe online by googling "light fluffy buttermilk pancake recipe" and it didn't disappoint). After brunch we watched the world cup soccer game of the moment, which I think was the Brazil-Ivory Coast match, and then we packed up the car and the kids and headed out for our first family camping adventure, up to Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.

We stayed in a tent-only campground (manzanita) and set up our new family tent for the first time.  Here you can see the tent with the fly rolled half way up.  Everyone is sleeping in this picture, though it might be hard to see.  Jaime is napping inside the tent, and the kids are napping in their carseats. Later on when people were feeling more rested, we all moved inside the tent for some playtime. You can see just how big this thing is inside: we fit a queen sized inflatable mattress and both their sleeping pads (actually, they are changing table pads doing double duty) with plenty of space on the sides of all that for our bags, cooler, and to walk around. It's tall enough that I can stand upright along the centerline, without having to bend over. When the kids get bigger and want a little privacy from their parents, there is a wall/curtain which divides the space into two rooms, each big enough for a queen size mattress. Camping in comfort it was, and will continue to be :-)