To Camping II

I’m not a huge camper, but I love hiking.  I was excited to be in a place where I could just strike out without organizing a sitter… Danny stayed with the kids and I took Bronco and away we went!  Almost every morning, I was able to take this trooper out for a little hike:
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The kids got a kick out of the pictures I’d bring home.  They couldn’t get enough of the squirrels. I had to take a picture of one up in a tree, chittering loudly:0804150815

I found this nice little cove-ish area where I could pray.  One morning I took my yoga mat and iPad down there and stretched out -it was awesome.  There were a few flies that REFUSED to share their space.  I mean once those guys found you, YOU WERE DEAD.  But until then, it was a great place to breath and gain perspective:0804150834

 

 

I loved coming home one morning to find Danny making a hearty breakfast.  He’d pulled the kids beds back into the couch and table.  He made toast on a little griddle:
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It was amazing -even he ate and loved the toasted gluten free bread.  If it’s toasted, he’ll eat it.  If not, forget it:0804150848a

Lacy said to me, “When we first took the camp trailer out, I wasn’t ready to make it my home.  But now I never want to leave!”  But that’s only because she’s 8.  If she were 13, she’d be SO READY to have her own space!  I do have to agree, though, that it’s pretty awesome to have a tiny house all to ourselves:0804150848b

One of the camp site’s workers dropped off some paint, brushes and glitter at our camp site for our kids to play with.  They were in heaven!  People like that always inspire me to be give more.  I love it!
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This was my favorite view while camping.  She’d stand outside the door and call out, “KNOCK! KNOCK!” until I’d open the door.  And then she’d say, “Sanks, Mom!”0804150848d

After we’d cleaned brushes and left the pine cones out to dry, we drove out to Mormon Lake.  I’ve been dreaming of seeing this lake since I was a kid!  And this is what we found:
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All of the dark green is where the lake USED to be.  The little pond-ish creature to the right is what’s left.  Boo!  Boo on the drought!  Boo for not seeing the lake earlier in my life!  We drove into the little Mormon Lake community and played by a pond while Dad filled us up with gas.  It was idyllic.0804151345

 

 

 

We took ourselves out to the lake we’d fished the evening before.  Alice and I went to play in an area where there were no fishermen.  We threw rocks in the water so hard they splashed our faces.  I skipped rocks and hit my personal best record: 5!  It felt good to yell out my accomplishment to the world… because when you’re a mom, your life is LESS about personal accomplishments and MORE about the kids’s accomplishments: peeing in the right places at the right times, for instance.

So the rock skipping?  It was a pretty big deal.  I was happy to see that God noticed… check out this perfect heart-shaped skipping stone He sent me!0804151449

Alice went from putting her feet in the lake to climbing the rocks.  She called it, “I DA KING A’DA WORLD!”  I encouraged her.  Because there’s no greater feeling:queenoftheworld

I made sure there were a couple pictures of me in the mix. I’ve made a promise to myself to get IN FRONT of the camera when I can for posterity reasons.  Also, I used to love looking at old pictures of my parents, but they were scarce!

So here’s Mom in Dad’s hat and -for the first time since she was in first grade… leggings!

When I was growing up, my Mom always had Kool-Aid on hand. Fruit Punch Kool-Aid. We thought it was the only kind… We liked it because kids like Kool-Aid.  And then one day my Mom went to the store and WE SAW.  WE SAW ALL THE KOOL-AID! There are 70 or a million flavors!  We asked her, “Why?  Why do we only get the Fruit Punch?”  And she said it’s the one our Dad likes.

My legs are feeling a little like I did in that moment.  All this time, there’s been these comfy leggings that feel just like our skin and you’ve been putting us in JEANS!  WHY?!?!?!?!  And now it’s hard to take them off to leave the house.  I clean in them and sleep in them and they promise to love me forever.
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Here’s my oldest saying, “Watch! I’m going to cast JUST LIKE DAD TAUGHT ME.” Talk about heart melt. It was like a scene out of a Hallmark TV Movie:Lacycast


The next day we met up with PaPa and his kayaks.  It was the crowning day of our trip!

(Though I still feel like my 5 skips was pretty much the deal maker.)

Comments

  1. Leggings are the BEST. They’re like pajamas you can wear and still be cute!!
    Also, I love your family.

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