Camping

It was such a nice week up in the mountains. We ended up arriving at the camp site later than we expected. And what is a camping trip without leaving a thing or two that you need. (or really wanted) The first thing we needed to do when we got to camp was get a fire going to have good coals to cook our foil dinners. We thought that since TJ and Zack needed to pass off fires for scouting... we would teach them how to do it then let them go for it while Chip and I set up the tents. Well, as time went on and the tents were up and the fire was still not started I decided to help a little and went to get the matches. This ended up to be a a feudal search. Yep! one of the major items we needed for the week left at home. So, being the great YW leader that I am having learned and taught many how to start a fire without matches. I set off to attempt to actually DO IT! My oldest TJ did bring a survival knife with him that did have a magnesium stick in it. Well needless to say it was 8:30 before we had dinner. But OH what good dinner it was! Nothing like foil dinners while camping.





AAHH!relaxation! The week was great for all of us. I think we all needed a good break from the normal life. Chip works so hard all the time. It was good to see him be able to chill out and not really have anything to HAVE to do. (even with Zack at his heels)




I don't know if you can see it well in this picture or not but, Yes that is a BONE Charlie is holding! Disterbing I know! The boys, TJ, Zack and Mason, found some animal bones scattered about around the site where we were camping. They thought it was cool to try to figure out "what animal" the bones came from. Well, they left the pile of bones off to the side of the fire one of the days and Charlie thought it would be fun to use one as a digging tool. At one point she was chasing Chip around with it. So, the scrapper that I am I shot a few pictures, took the bone away and got out the hand sanitizer!!


The week went by fast and I was not really ready to head down the mountain. We had planned to pack up late in the afternoon on Saturday so we could be home to get ready for church Sunday, I was teaching the lesson in YW so, skipping was not an option. Besides it was Easter! It was misting a bit late in the afternoon on Friday so, when the rain started to poor around 9pm we were not surprised. We all just bundled up and went to bed. Well imagine our surprise when we woke up to THIS...

Chip got up first, as he always does when we camp, and got the fire going and took a few shots of the camp. Then he crawled back into the tent nudged me and said "take a look outside". UGH! I thought I was going to have to pack up some wet tents -done that before- Never have I had to pack up tents with Ice and Snow on them. checked the thermostat in the car... 20 degrees!!! We were not prepared for SNOW. Cold weather yes. Snow and ice, No! Well, We started up the coleman stove and got some water going for hot chocolate and oatmeal. (we were suppose to have french toast and it was just by chance that I had put some packages of instant oatmeal in the food box.... actually that is another story.) So, after a few hours and frozen hands and feet we were packed up.
The tents went up in our back yard when we got home and all of the MUD was rinsed from the... well everything.

All in all. Total do over! We will be heading up to that site again before we leave here! Hope you all had a great Spring Break! We did.