Idyllwild

Our good friend Chris's girlfriend has a family cabin up in Idyllwild, a small town up in the mountains about 2 hours from us.  She generously invited a few of our families to join them for a weekend, and we happily accepted!  We had 4 families and 7 kids in total for the weekend, and it was such a fun time!

Saturday morning we were up bright & early and headed out for breakfast, then a little stroll through town.  Here's the first half of our little motley crew - Matthew (5), Winslow (5), Mason & Talia (4).

After checking out the town we headed over to the wildlife & nature center, where we saw some scary animals, like bears, fox, snakes, hawkes, and whatever other animals you might find in the area.  The kids had a great time checking everything out.

Wow, look at those bear teeth!

Then we headed outside for some exploring.   Here's the kids conspiring on who was going to jump over this fence first.

Matthew braved the jump!

Doing what boys do best...throwing rocks.

And finding sticks to use as swords, which apparently is a trait some boys are born with, because Mason has never seen a sword in his life and was swinging this puppy around like a pro!

Sadly this was all that remained of the crazy snowfall they'd had just 2 weeks ago.  It didn't phase the big boys at all, and they went ahead and made their version of a snowman.

And Talia made us a little campfire.

Someone was up at 6am (a full hour & a half earlier than usual), so we headed home for an early nap to prepare for the Cella clan's arrival.

Once the Cellas arrived, we spent the afternoon on the AMAZING back porch.  Not a bad view, huh?

Rough afternoon, huh Tristan & Jess?  Can I get you another beer?

We had a big bag of peanuts and were throwing all the shells on the ground so that later we could "hide" and wait for the squirrels to come...and man did they come.  These puppies were huge, and the kids had a blast watching them eat the peanuts.

 Saturday evening before the sun went down we decided to head up the mountain and find some remaining snow to sled on.  

Here's our full kid crew, the best group of kids I've been around.  These 7 never fought ONCE, and were on their best behavior all weekend.  They pretty much entertained themselves - to the point that it almost felt like and adult weekend away, no exaggeration.  And I gotta say, they're pretty darn cute as well.  In case you didn't notice, Talia is the only girl, and she kept up with those boys, no problem!

I can't believe what a big boy Mason looks like in this picture!

After a few photo ops, it was time for sledding!!!  Tristan took Mason up to the top of the hill for his first sledding experience.

Mason was NOT into this at all

Approximately 1.5 seconds after this picture, they fell off the sled and Mason was not happy about it.  Let's just say this was his only sled ride of the afternoon :)

Chris & Winslow giving it a shot

And then Dan, Tyler & Brody

Buddies since elementary school!  And now they've all got boys.

On a side note, this is Binky, both ridiculous in name and manliness.  He was shaking like a leaf because he was too cold.  It was about 50 degrees.

Look at all these boys.  Every one of these men are raising some amazing little boys, they are all such joys to be around.

Brody, Cal & Mason - best buds!

One last family shot in front of the beautiful mountain

And one last group shot too...I had to include this because of Mason.  Tristan was trying to jump out of the picture because he was freaking out.  Think he was over it??

It was a quick trip, but we had a great time.  It was so great to get away and unplug for a weekend.  Can't wait to go back!