Camping

Last weekend we went on our first family camp out!  We have been meaning to do this for years but it seems like every summer something has come up...like moving, the last two summers.  So we were determined to get it done this year!  It just so happened to fall on a week that was really stressful.  We were trying to finalize things for the draft of our home among other things regarding our build and without getting into all of the details of that...Mark and I were swimming in a sea of stress!  The camp out was kind of the last thing on our minds but we went and it was the perfect thing for us.  We NEEDED to get away and it gave us some much needed perspective on things.  

The kiddos were really excited to go and sleep outside!  Because of some things with the house we didn't get to leave until a little later than we wanted to but we got up to our campsite around 5:30 on Friday.  We decided to go to Summit View Campground up Georgetown Canyon.  Mark remembered coming up there a lot growing up and it was fun to go to a place that had so many memories for him.  

It was also great because although there were other people around, I would say at least half of the sites were empty so you still felt like you had a lot of space.  

Our campsite was filled with wildflowers!  Jacob told me right when we got there that he was going to be brave about the bees.  He got stung two years ago and ever since has been terrified of bees!  I overheard him and Sarah plan to "rip all of the flowers so that the bees will stay away"!  Haha!  So that is pretty much what occupied their time.  Whenever there was downtime they would go off together to pull the flowers.  

We made english muffin pizzas over the fire to eat with some veggies for dinner.  Benjamin was a perfect little gem all evening.  He was really content to just sit in his bumbo (which is definitely hit or miss with him) on the picnic table and just watch what was going on.  

We set up our tent and my oh my was it cozy!  It's a four man tent and even though we have little kids we were all pretty snug in there!  Plus, it doesn't help that Benjamin easily had a third of the tent all to himself with his pack n' play!  We put Benjamin down to bed and the rest of us got out the marshmallows. 

We have decided that smores are definitely not our family's thing!  We all made them and I had brought all of the add-ons but we all ended up eating each thing separately.  Haha!  But you can't go camping without having them, right?!

At about 9:30 we cleaned up our site and got ready to go to bed.  Benjamin was not doing too great in the sleep department and was wide awake when we came in!  Jacob fell asleep first and Sarah kept trying to talk to Benjamin for awhile.  Finally, after picking up and putting down Benjamin several times we just ended up letting him sleep with Mark and me.  Of course, Benjamin was absolutely in love with this arrangement and once he was all snuggled in slept like a little angel until morning!

Benjamin was just the happiest little boy once morning came.  We couldn't get enough of his smiles and giggles.  And Jacob was OUT!  We had a good time watching him sleep!  

We had this cinnamon roll french toast thing for breakfast and it was delicious!  But, I don't know if it's possible to go wrong with anything involving cinnamon rolls!  Everyone guzzled it up with some yogurt and orange juice.  We then headed out for a little hike.  There were a couple hikes out of the campground but we decided to go up one that led to an amphitheater.  It was beautiful with all of the flowers.  We walked a little past there through a bunch of huckleberry bushes before it became too dense and I was a little worried about stumbling on some wildlife with our little tribe.  

The kiddos had a great time exploring and it was the perfect escape for Mark and I too.  We hope to make this a summer tradition for our family!