Calling All Halls!

This should be reminiscent for most of my family. Every Fourth of July we made a trip to Two Buttes to climb the mountain, have a picnic, shoot off fireworks and swim in the Black Hole. Our cousins always visited at that time and we made a big gathering of it. We haven't kept up that tradition since we've moved back but this year we decided to take the kids and make a day of it.

This is Two Buttes. Isn't that crazy. The land is completly flat all around and then you get to this! No explanation for it. A natural phenomenon.


The girls did really well with the hike. Abby and Pa went ahead and blazed the way for the rest of us. She told me later that she wanted to stay with Pa because he was so strong and would be able to catch her if she fell......and what am I? Chopped liver? So I casually mentioned to Abby that had she stayed back with me I was certain I would have been strong enough to catch her if she slipped and fell. She just stared at me. Even with my prodding. Apparently she hasn't noticed my new workout routine.

This is the way Jace made it up Two Buttes. He's never been in a back carrier (we borrowed this one) and I think he was less than thrilled - but he made it!



We're to the top! As my Grandpa Sim would say "Land as far as the eye can see. You won't ever see a view like this anywhere else in the world!" That's according to Grandpa Sim who loves Lamar more than life itself.

Here's the whole Robbins family + Pa. You can see his back. I think he was looking for grasshoppers.

This boy never stops eating. I'm not kidding. I think he ate more than I did for lunch. All that hiking must have worn him out!

Here's where we had our picnic - the back of Pa's truck. Usually we would have started a fire and grilled hotdogs and hamburgers. This time we just packed a lunch and tried to stay out of the sun.

This is also the place where we would shoot off illegal fireworks.......well, mostly the boys (I'll clarify just in case someone goes to jail for this!) You can find many a gord in those weeds. Perfect for putting cherry bombs in, lighting and throwing!

It's also the place where uncle Kirk got slap happy with the fireworks and threw a lit pack of Black Cats on my sisters back. Oh the memories. But all's well that ends well.

Just up from our picnic site are more rocks and more exploring to do. We found some cool looking bugs to take pictures of and Abby found a tunnel she wanted explore. I said no. Too many snakes and unknown animals.

This is the Black the Hole. It's nasty. I swim in it.

It has actually had signs posted warning of "Itching Disease" in years past. We lucked out this year and no sign was around! Besides, I grew up swimming in this hole. I'm sure I'm immune:) But Darren's probably not!

These are the rocks that we could be found jumping off of. We mostly stuck to the rock that is in the middle of the picture. It juts out and is right above the boys heads. Those boys (who I don't know) are standing on the rock in the middle of the water hole that you can rest on. You can't touch the bottom anywhere - it's too deep. There are rumors that scuba divers have actually gone down to find the bottom and can't........it's a never ending hole!

This is us relaxing in the filth.

This picture was taken right before I was nibbled on. By a fish. That's right. A fish bit me. At least that's I think it was. I don't know what else is growing in there. At any rate, that was all the reminiscing I needed. I shot out of there and didn't go back. I even had a red mark to prove it. It was kind of like two half moons, one on top and one on bottom. In a perfect circle. A perfect fishy lip circle.

Go ahead and let me know if you've ever been bit by a fish. I bet the answer's a big, fat, no. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies. I was fish bait. How disgusting!

And that was the end of our little jaunt. Abby and Brooklyn both said their favorite thing was hiking up the mountain. I have to say I quite enjoyed....everything!