The Great Outdoors

We officially kicked off our summer this week.  The kids got out of school last week and Josh had the end of this week off from work, so we took advantage of the situation and hit the road.

Our family hasn't been camping in a while.  And we've never been out with just our little family.  But, our family loves ADVENTURE!!  So we took off and searched for our haven away from home.

We stayed in our brand new three room tent.  Josh and I slept in the middle room.  Josh bought an air mattress for the father/son campout last month.  And I love that he did.  For the first time, my back didn't want to kill me after a night in the woods.  Hooray!

Matt and Millie shared one of the side rooms and Emma and Abby took the other side room.  It was a great tent.  

This picture was originally centered, but I was trying to get Millie in the pictures and she was trying to run away so the camera followed her.

Josh had called ahead to the rangers' station to find out if there was a fire ban.  He was told that the fires had to stay within the rims provided for the fires, so we got the fire a-flamin'.

We also set up a few outdoor games for the kids to play.  I can't remember what this one is called.  Josh called it golf.  I called it The Game. 

We also played lots of card games.  Our current favorite is Skip-Bo.  We also played Mancala (the game with the marbles).  Even the kids got into that one. 

We decided to go hiking and found this cute little stream.

Emma

Abby

Matt

Millie

We also found a big rock, perfect for sitting.

Then we found the real waterfall.  180 feet high. 

Josh has told me before that girls baffle him.  That was kind of obvious when we got married (I love you, dear).  But until a year or so ago, I didn't realize that his befuddlement includes our own daughters.  Josh has three brothers and one sister.  She's ten years younger than him and so he never really interacted with her.  So our daughters are a bit of an enigma. 

This trip gave Josh the chance to bond a little more with Emma.  She wanted to build a fairy house for fairies living in the woods.  So, she and Josh found the materials in the trees near our campsite and built this really cool fairy house.

This fairy house is made completely from sticks, ferns, and leaves.  Everything a fairy would want her home built out of.

Millie loved being outside.  She grabbed handfuls of dirt and placed (read: threw) it anywhere she thought dirt needed to be.  She ran in circles and sang at the top of her lungs.  We had a butterfly that kept fluttering through out camp.  It was a big orange one and everyone loved it.  Millie would chase it and yell, "I ya you, bu'erf'y!"  That translates to: I love you, butterfly.  However, when Millie got tired, she hit a wall.  Hard.  I think her wailing alone kept any wild animal at least a mile away.  At one point, I was going to clean her face (the girl was a constant dirt pile) and she looked at me coming at her with the wipe and yelled NO! and tried to run into the woods.  She seriously took off to the trees.  Hello?  Not even Bambi would let her hang out with that messy face.

One-shoed-Millie playing in the dirt.

Fun candids:

One thing Josh and I loved doing was creating a new and exciting menu.  We were only gone for two nights, but we didn't want to just roast hot dogs both nights.  Although we roasted weenies the first night, we also made campfire nachos.  The second night we made calzones.  Yeah.  We went camping where there wasn't even a porta-potty and still had freshly made calzones for dinner.  Call us the coolest parents ever.

Now that we've been out once this summer, we'll happily go again.  We've got all the supplies we need.  We know a decent place to go (although we wouldn't mind checking out a few different places).  And everyone had fun. 

Not a bad way to spend a weekend.