On Memorial Day we went camping as a family...for the first time ever! Haha!
Sure, we've done a few minor things, but never for several days and never with all 6 of us!
It was a blast!
Friday, some friends mentioned that they were going camping and asked if we wanted to come along! I finally got home from work around 10:30 pm, got all our food and gear packed by about 1:30am and we were all set and ready to go by 10am Saturday morning!
At first I was a littel nervous because we only knew one of the families, but those fears were quickly put to rest! The other families were wonderful. Our kids played together like they'd known eachother forever and the whole weekend was just a complete "breath of fresh air!"
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| Cole made the kids really learn how to do things since Kaitlin will be going to girls' camp next year. We want our kids to acutally be helpful at camp;) (Looks like we'll have to start camping a little more often!) |
Right off the bat, the kids got to work on a bike trail through the forest! They worked for hours on that thing, even building jumps! It was pretty awesome! (I was so glad someone thought to throw in bikes!)
And of course, there was an awful lot of baseball going on! I'm pretty sure we played at least 2-3 games per day! It was always adults vs. kids, which made for a pretty heated game! I am convinced that I could've recorded the whole thing and started a new reality tv show entitled, "Dad's Gone Wild!" Let's just say there were some pretty competitive ex-ball-players! Haha!
...and they wonder where their kids get it from!
We tried to play Bocce ball, but the ground was so uneven it was nearly impossible! The kids had fun trying anyway though!
Oh my, the bike races these kids had! They rode around and around and around! Then, when that wasn't enough, they started having time trials and races and workouts! Oh, to have the energy of a child!
Alli even learned to ride a 2 wheel bike without training wheels this weekend! She simply hopped on and away she went! It was awesome! She was so happy to feel like a big kid!
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| Brandon was thrilled when Jona helped him find a horned toad! I thought the thing was nasty, but thought it was cute the way Brandon took care of it so well. He was a champ about letting it go when it was time to leave! |
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| The woman all got matching bracelets to remember the trip by! I thought that was a super cute idea! |
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The whole group went up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon one day. It was pretty, but hot and hard to have a bunch of little kids around the trails. We looked, picnicked and headed back to camp!
That night we watched a movie outside! It was so much fun!
Definitely one of the highlights of the trip!
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Poor Alli crashed! It had been a long day of biking, hiking and adventures!
All in all, it was an awesome trip that we hope to replicate annually! It was one of the most fun weekends we've had in a long time! You just forget how much fun it is to hang out away from the lights, the fast food places, the internet and phones, and just sit by the campfire and talk and watch the kids use their imaginations and learn how to explore and entertain themselves! It was just an awesome adventure and I'm so glad we were spontaneous and just went with it!
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