Camping!

Last year we sold our camp trailer and used the funds to buy some grass.  It was a good trade, but some of us still had tears in our eyes as we watched that trailer pull out of our driveway.  Camping was a big part of my life growing up, a wonderful part that I have wanted to share with my kids.  When the twins came along, we stuffed their cute little bums into some footie jammies, packed two pack and plays into our tent and couldn't wait to see their happy dirty grins peering back at us thanking us for filling their world with camping adventure.  What really happened is they started crying the moment we laid them in their tent beds, started wailing by midnight, and were so hysterical by 3 a.m. that we packed up faster than we have ever packed up camp in our lives and headed home.  We needed a trailer.  When Ian was born, we had some money saved up and we bought a trailer and it was awesome!  Everyone stayed warm and had a bathroom to use and a place to cook and eat food.  Camping was wonderful again!

But grass is wonderful too.  However with those first painful memories of babies in tents, we have been hesitant to camp without the trailer.  But then our LDS ward hosted a Father and Sons outing, so Zac decided it would be a good opportunity to see how the boys would do tent camping:

They did awesome.  They had so much fun and even Bronson was a trooper.

Which made us brave enough to pack up all of us and head to Copper Basin to celebrate my dad's birthday/retirement/father's day party.

On the way we stopped at a Fish Hatchery: 

So cool!  A friendly fish and game ranger even took us in and showed us the fish hatching and the various different stages of the fish they were caring for from the tiny fry to these big monsters above!

The kids thought the forest was wonderfully magic! 

And all of my fears with the baby hating the whole camping experience were for naught.  She had a ball thanks to an ingenious daddy! 

Now I know where the lullaby "Rock a Bye Baby in the Treetops" comes from.  We were fortunate that the bough didn't break and no cradles fell.

And best of all, I got to go on a ride with my besties. 

Who needs a trailer! 

(so long as you camp with all of your family who has trailers and kindly let you use their bathrooms!  Thanks family!)