Camping Adventure!

Friday afternoon, we headed up to the annual camping adventure at Boiling Springs. This is something I look forward to all year long. And we thought for sure this would be the year the rain avoided us. Not so much! Every year! We had fun, regardless. Lots and lots of fun.

 

 

 

 

Fall has definitely hit head-on up in the mountains. The colors are amazing!

 

 

The first night, we had a roaring fire and stayed up as late as our eyes would let us. We had quite the crowd, some great music, and lots of laughs. The kids were determined to stay up as late as the adults....I think all three fell asleep at various times. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banks' first camping adventure with us was a total success. He LOVES sleeping in the tent, all cuddled up with the kids, and stealing our blankets.

 

 

This was our view from our tent Saturday morning. Sunday's view was SNOW. Brrrr! As soon as my parents were awake, we made a mad dash for their trailer where we stayed warm through breakfast, when the sun finally came out.

 

 

Carter used to be the one obsessed with the 4-wheeler, but Kendall is now the one asking for rides every 30 minutes or so. She loves it! And she definitely isn't reserved like her brother - she likes to hit the gas, and her giggles definitely prove she's loving it!

 

 

 

 

We also loaded up on some ammo before we left, and spent some time shooting mine, my dad's, and Matt's guns.

 

 

 

We also walked back in to one of the hot springs, so the kiddos could splash around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Timing is truly everything in the photography world, and Kendall afforded me about 0.0246887 seconds to grab this shot before she was back to wrestling with Banks.

 

All in all, it was a great camping trip - minus several shoes going missing from the phantom skunk or fox, who drug the shoes away in the middle of the night. At some point, some random hunter is going to stumble upon a treasure of shoes (always the left foot, strangely) and wonder WTH is going on up in the mountains. Punk animals!

Day Trippin'

 

 

Sunday, we decided to head out into the mountain air for the day. We wanted to let Jackson explore the outdoors and get his feet into some water. We didn't want to go far, so we just went above Arrowrock and back on some of those dirt roads. There were a ton of people up there fishing! This warm "winter" is certainly different!

 

 

Jackson went right to the water and had a drink, but had no interest in getting in. I don't blame him - it wasn't exactly warm water! Despite that, Eric picked Jackson up and tossed him out into the water. The dog instincts kicked in and he swam back to shore like a champ. Unfortunately, there was a slight breeze and the poor puppy was shaking for about 30 minutes afterwards. Poor guy!

 

 

 

We brought along a blanket, which he was laying on in the truck, so we wrapped him up in that and let him warm up in the sun.

 

 

 

 

The kids and I sat around throwing and skipping rocks while Eric took Jackson on a little walk to explore.

 

 

After we had our fill of the water, we hit the back roads and explored. We found a great little campsite that someone must have used rather recently as the firewood was freshly cut. We unloaded and had lunch. Jackson even found himself a recently killed bird and had his own lunch. The lab in him is coming out, for sure!

 

 

After lunch, we set up the targets and did some shooting. Carter and his little BB gun....cracks me up that he's using two fingers to pull the trigger. He needs some muscles!

 

 

Kendall managed to find a bone and was quite proud of herself....but mad that we didn't let her bring it home to keep in her room. Sorry, girlie.

 

 

Of course Eric and I had a friendly competition (is there such a thing?) with our targets. He had a slight handicap due to that cast. ;)

 

 

 

 

That cross-hair hit of mine is the reason Eric sleeps with one eye open. Ha! ;)

 

 

I believe this weekend is supposed to be about 20 degrees warmer, so we'll see what adventures we find next!