Well the jury is still out on that, but we did go to Glamis with Russell's parents over Veteran's day weekend and we did have a pretty good time. Morgan and Madylin were scared of the quads at first, but Madylin warmed up when she got to go on a little ride with daddy.
Morgan still refused to go on the quad until about half-way through the day after Madylin rode this
Then Morgan decided she was brave enough to try. Here she is with Russell holding a leash to stop her if needed (which it was. Often) It's only an 11 second video, but I think it's funny to see Morgan give herself whiplash and Russell running behind her to keep up.
Note to self: don't dress the twins alike when we are riding. I'm not sure who's who in all my pictures when they are on the bike with the helmet on!
There were several other people in our camp (most of them I was only vaguely familiar with) and they were all so kind to share their toys with everyone. The Burgesons let us take out their razor and the kids all loved it. Nathan even fell asleep going around all those dunes with the roar of the engine. Here is Grandpa Kinser, Me with Nathan asleep on my lap, Morgan and Madylin.
Even more than the razor, the girls loved riding in the rhino with Sammy Stuart.
Sammy was sweet enough to let the girls tag along with her everywhere. They were always in her trailer or in her rhino and if they weren't, they were asking to go play with Sammy.
Nathan was obsessed! He learned a new word: quad. He would cry if he was inside the trailer, pointing outside saying "quad quad quad" over and over until Grandpa took him outside and then he HAD to be sitting on one. Whenever he would get to go out in the rhino or the razor, or when Russell just took him around the camp on the quad he would cry as soon as you came to a stop and turned off the engine. It was funny, but made things kind of miserable because he was only happy when he was riding on something! When Russell and his dad were out on rides, Grandma and I had to deal with the unhappy kids.
The worst part was actually the night. We were perfectly comfortable in the trailer with Russell's parents, but the noise was so annoying. Can't there be a curfew in Glamis!?? I felt like I didn't even sleep because every 10 minutes someone would ride right by our trailer with their noisy toy and wake me up ALL night long. Sorry to complain, but those are the things that would keep me from becoming a "desert family."
Russell and I went on a couple of rides as well and that was kinda fun. I learned how to use a clutch!
And I only fell off once and it was actually kind of fun. I was following Russell up a razorback and I didn't get both the back tires on the right side of the dune, so I got stuck and then kinda got bucked off. But I pushed off so that I'd land far away from the bike and landed in the soft soft sand. Didn't hurt ONE bit and I thought that was pretty cool! (I did break something very minor on the bike though, sorry Travis) I got pretty good by the last day I think. And I even got a good jump and got all 4 tires off the ground (on purpose, this time).
At night we hung out around the camp fire and the crazy other parents let their teenagers have roman candle wars (shooting them at each other from like 30 ft away, Civil War style!) Sorry I don't think I'm that much of a prude, but if that's what our kids are supposed to be doing in the desert when they are teenagers, our days as a "desert family" will be short-lived. There were some really great families out with us, but those parents were seriously unhinged in my opinion! Russell's says I need to relax. Here's what my cuties were doing instead.
Just hanging around the campfire making s'mores. So I'm sure we'll be going out again this season, but I don't know if I'm ready to call us a real "desert family" just yet.
