Thursday, August 28, 2008

Roughin' It

Our annual ward camping trip. A welcome escape up to the mountains with lots of our church friends. The evening bonfire. The breathtaking views. The trail mix (with extra M&M's.) The DIRT. Much of which we brought home as a souvenir.

It's funny how camping is so much different now than when I was a kid. Back then it was 5% work (for us kids - Dad might have a different perspective) and 95% fun. Nowadays it is:
10% winding road up to the campsite
10% attempting to set up the Boy Scout tent we borrowed, thankfully with the assistance of three experienced scouts
5% soothing Grace when it turned out she was TERRIFIED of the tent
20% meal prep (read: reminding the kids 14 times that hot dogs need to be kept OVER the fire -- not IN the fire, in the dirt, or in the neighbor's tent -- in order to cook properly)
10% trips to the porta-potty (I swear they don't go this much at home, do they?)
10% baby wipes
2% looking at the stars, marveling at nature's wonders, and singing songs around the campfire
75% trying to keep the kids out of the fire

Yes, I know that's more than 100%. It was a really long weekend. And we multitasked.

In Marty's words, "Let there be fire."
(What is it about fire that always brings out the superhero personality in men?)









If it weren't for the long hair, Grace could have easily passed for a boy this weekend - she was obsessed with the dirt. And rocks.















A break from "hiking." (Once again, much different from my childhood memories.) Our version of hiking is attempting to keep all of the kids on the paved trail, in sight, and heading in the same direction. All of this during a 15-minute window in which no one has to go to the bathroom. And by the end of 15 minutes they're suddenly all starving.











This is the 2% marveling at nature. Ooooohhh. Ahhhhh.
















Water break / shower (after the 15-minute hike.)
I've never seen Grace's mouth open that wide.















The view really was awesome.

Thank you to the Activities Committee who planned this whole thing. It wouldn't have been summer without it.

3 comments:

Brittany Roscheck said...

That looks like so much fun.... Can't wait to take our kids! Mike will be stuck doing all the dirty work. That's how it is right now anyway. He sets everything up so that I will like camping a lot. Oh that picture of Grace with her mouth opened wide is very cute. Give the kids our love.

Leah Marie said...

This is so funny because William and I were recently discussing how much camping would change after we have this baby. Thanks for clarifying that for us. ;-)

Anonymous said...

What a fun trip! Your pictures are always so wonderful, keep the blogs coming, I love reading all of the updates :)