Petit Jean Camping Trip

After much planning, packing, loading, unloading, loading again, leaving, coming home and finally leaving again (long story), we left home at three o'clock on Thursday afternoon.  (Certain items were forgotten in the loading of the truck the first time and it all had to be re-done.  And our bike rack in this picture below was no good, so we had to go and buy a new one, then come home to install it.)  

I was so glad to see that we were close to the bath house.  We've been very far away from one and it was a pain in the rear.  The small things in life make me happy, and this happens to be one of them.  Our first night of dinner was amazing~I took marinated chicken for our family for the grill rack on top of the campfire, and we had salad, green beans and baked potatoes to go with it.  For dessert we had peach cobbler.  

It was cool that night, but that's the way we like it.  I actually got hot in the middle of the night and slept uncovered.  

Friday was spent exploring some look-out areas on the mountain.  Beware: lots of pictures are coming!  

We started off by eating a huge (HUGE!) breakfast.  I love coffee even more when it's made outdoors.  It always tastes better, for some reason.  We are serious about our coffee when we camp.  Here's the coffee pot that sits on our camp stove, to prove that little fact.

Crash went everywhere with us.  When we got back to our campsite, he was exhausted.  All of the families finished arriving on this day, too.  There were seven families there~with the seven families, there were twenty eight of us.  Needless to say, all the kids had the most fun for the twenty four hours that all the additional kids were there.  When the other families left on Saturday night, they were all kind of dejected.  

Saturday was warm and full of more exploring.  

(The inside of our tent.)

The precious little girl Todd fell in love with...and she loved him as much as he loved her!

Bobby was exhausted from their hike, after carrying a toddler on his back for the duration of the hike.

Another funny story about him~he kept dropping his hot dog in the fire and he burned his hand, so he dangled it over the fire instead.  I guess you had to have been there, but it was pretty funny.

It was really quiet after everyone else left.  Our last night it was just the Hansen's and us, which totaled nine of us.  

Sunday we got up and ate and packed everything up.

We stopped and looked at this truck before we left the mountain.  We ate lunch at Wendy's, filled up with fuel and headed home.  

As fun as it is to be outdoors and enjoying God's creation, it is so nice to be home!  And in our bed...and inside...with cool air blowing on me...

It was a tad bit hotter than we would have liked, but still, it was a great trip.  We have been invited back for next year, and I believe we are already on their reservation list.  

Congrats~you made it to the end!  Thanks for reading all about our life...some of you are so sweet to always comment, but the real reason why I have this blog is for my family.  This is a great way for me to document what we do, and my kids are so much more likely to read it here than in an actual journal.  Plus, I can't include pictures in my journal.  ;)  

Happy Monday and love to all.