Torture, Hiking, and Peeing in the Tub

(I started writing this last night...) 
Well, we just finished eating dinner. "We" is a stretch, actually. I ate dinner, Rus is home teaching...the kids suffered through a horrible form of torture called "Sweet Potatoes and Meatloaf."
Okay, I totally understand that the word meatloaf sounds disgusting. But sweet potatoes? I even tried to make it more appealing by cutting the baked potatoes in half and sprinkling them with brown sugar, cinnamon and marshmallows. They still met with scathing reviews. Bekah collapsed on the floor crying at the sight of her plate. (Am. Not. Kidding.) After being threatened with her life she sat in front of her food and scowled at it for five minutes. Then she scraped off all of the brown sugar and marshmallows. ("Gross.") Then she tried a bite of the potato because she saw Beau take a bite and he didn't die.
"Yum!"
If she wasn't my daughter I'd think she was really funny.
If I was a mean person I'd give in to my natural instincts and swat her.
As it was I smoldered just a little bit didn't say anything at all.
Beau happily tried just the bites with marshmallows attached and Jacob scraped off all the marshmallows and ate them, but he totally redeemed himself by eating the meatloaf.
Seriously there is no hope for my children and good food.
Anywho...
Flashback to last weekend...

Rus and I took the kids on an adventure on Saturday to Cabezon Peak.  It was once a volcano; the peak has eroded to reveal that interesting-looking basalt column.

It was about an hour and a half drive from ABQ and the kids did really well on the drive. Bekah is great at sitting by Marianne and keeping her happy - what a change from when Bekah was a baby and Rus or I had to sit by her when she was mad/sad/tired. Rus was truly in his element driving down dirt roads and deciphering what I consider vague directions: south on 1114, second left past ghost town onto 259, left at the watering hole and right at the pile of sticks. (I'm exaggerating. Sort of.) Our van said it was 46 degrees outside and I was a little nervous that we would all freeze, Marianne especially. But I wrapped her up in my Moby and used my coat as a windbreak and all was well. Except for the muscles in my legs. Because I obviously haven't been asking enough of them lately, and that hike was a butt-kicker. Lots of up and lots of rocks. The kids did great, considering. Aww...look at this great family picture. Even Colonel is in it. The fifth child that lives outside most of the time.

And here's where I step in and grab Marianne because she looks slightly uncomfortable the way Bekah is holding her.

Love this view of the peak - the sky was so perfectly blue.

Rus brought along the gps and the kids had fun finding two geocaches. Rus would basically find the cache and then tell the kids where to look. They call it "treasure hunting." Luckily Jacob and Bekah each found one or I never would have heard the end of it.

Beautiful view from the mountain...

And on another note we decorated for Christmas a few nights ago. Doesn't Beau look like this little picture of Rus from when he was a kid?

Jacob looks like him, too, but I couldn't get him to take a picture with it.

The kids in front of the tree, Jakey looks slightly crazy here, maybe there was a bug on Beau's head:

Okay and this was so funny...the other night Jacob woke up and needed to pee. It was about ten pm when he walked out of his room (he had slept in his Santa hat), walked into the bathroom, climbed into the tub and peed. I took this pic as he was finishing his business. Rus was the one who saw him first and he whisper-yelled to me, "KERI! Come here now!!" AAH! So funny. And Jacob never woke up enough to realize what he was doing; the next morning we asked him about it and he was clueless.