Camping!



This was a first for our little family!  Jeremy didn't do a whole lot of camping growing up, but my family did and it's been something that I've really wanted to do for a while.  We were very blessed when another family in our church told us back in March that they were planning to reserve a cabin for their family (of seven) and wondered if we would like to join them and get a cabin for ourselves. We jumped at the chance and I'm so excited we did!  Our friends, the Becks, have five kids and the youngest three are within a few months of our three, only they have two girls to our two boys and then a boy to our girl.  :)  They have been camping most of their lives and go often throughout the summer and had accumulate enough camping gear that they had some to share with us.  Here is Derek with the fish Kyle caught within five minutes of casting the first morning! 

 Bryce (and Kyle) LOVED running around outdoors, eating meals outside and getting very dirty. We don't have too many big sticks around our place, so the boys would often find the biggest one they could carry and wave them around, smacking the ground and trees and being completely and utterly "boy".

 The Becks brought a canoe they had borrowed and Candice and I had a fun time taking the kids around the lake. (The Becks two oldest, boys, love to fish and they spent a fair amount of time in the middle of the lake with their dad fishing from the canoe.)  Kyle was so excited to go until he was handed a life jacket and told that if he fell into the water he needed to roll onto his back.  He looked at me as if he was saying, "Are you kidding me, Mom?" Needless to say, just Bryce and the girls hopped in for rides.  The water was beautiful.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but you could see clear down to the bottom along the edges of the lake where it was about 12-15ft. deep.

 It wouldn't be a camping trip, or any trip for that matter, if no one has a meltdown at some point. Abby took care of it for us this trip.  She did extremely well though, with this being the only instance where she really cried.  It was great having the cabins because when the babies needed a nap, we set them up in their pak n' plays and closed the door so they could have quiet while the rest of the kids could play outside.

 Poor Jeremy has allergies that are pretty rough this time of the year.  It usually lasts until the first hard freeze, but he has found some relief in the mountains in the past.  It was not so this trip and we actually left camp to drive the almost 20 miles into Eagle to get him some meds. so he could get some relief.  He really enjoyed himself and mentioned future camping trips!

The Becks traditionally make hot chocolate for everyone in the morning to help fight off the chill.  Bryce was so proud to have his own cup of "coffee" as he called it and proudly posed for Daddy. He kept commenting about how good it was and that it wasn't too hot for him. :)

 Here are some of the kids at breakfast the first morning, eating their pancakes. It's amazing what a little bit of fresh air does to the kids appetite!

 Here is our cabin. It was divided into two rooms inside, the front room holding a stove for heat, a table and benches and quite a few shelves to put things. The back room held two sets of bunks, one with twin beds and the other had a full on the bottom with a queen on top. I was so glad they had some good curtains and that the trees were all around to block the morning sun.  The kids actually slept in until 7:30 each morning!

 I snapped this picture just before we left after our wonderful weekend. The boys had such fun and played so well together. You can tell how much they really enjoyed each other in this picture! And how dirty they were when we left!