Miner's Retreat Days 3 & 4

On our 3rd day camping we decided to get up early and go on a hike to the glacial wash above the campsite.  Early turned into after lunch, so again, it was blazing while we hiked.  We took Puppy with us because he'd done pretty well the day before.  We probably should have left him at camp with the other littles.  He wanted to be held the whole time.  It's been a long time since I sweat that much!  Again, it was beautiful though, so if I could forget about being hot, it was great!  Here's everybody checking out the boulders once we reached the top:

Me and my man:

Big Boy and Cheeks at the bottom of the trail, they were troopers:

We were all dying of heat and thirst when we got back, so Brent sent the teenage girls to town to get some sodas, so refreshing!!

Since Matt & Abby live so close they went home and got a sprinkler to hook up.  It was awesome!!

We all took the chance to veg after that:

I pulled out a few crafties for the kids, including googly eyes to make pet rocks:

They all had a good time:

Cade brought up his ever popular corn hole set:

After threatening to rain the entire week the heavens finally let loose.  I can't remember the last time I was outside in a rainstorm quite this big!  The kids got soaked running around.  Then their tents got soaked because they hadn't zipped them up.  Needless to say we were all scrambling to find dry clothes and bedding for them all that night!!

We were so glad to have the Gouldings with us from Elko for this reunion!

We tried to make it to the Homestead Crater that day, but the rain never let up.  It looked like someone was just dumping buckets of water on the windshield.  It also hailed for a little bit.  So, quite the soggy day!  It was nice to have it finally cool off a bit after such a hot week though. 

After another fabulous dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs that night the guys set up a movie 'screen' over the volleyball net and we watched a show.  All the rain that day brought out some critters, including this salamander that scared us all by running under Brent's chair:

Granny kept the kids busy on our last day reading them books while we all packed up the camp. 

It was so sad to see the week come to an end!  If all our gear wasn't soaked I could have stayed another few days!!  It was so much fun, I can't wait until next year when we'll hopefully do it all over again!!  I love the Taylor family!!  I wish we would have done the group shot on our first day when Eliza's hubby Will was there, but here's the whole gang: