The best camping trip ever!

Ah, what fun we had this past week/weekend! Bill took a week off and went 4-wheeling a couple of times, the girls finished up their 4-H stuff, we went school shopping and then camping.

Thursday, we went up to Windy Ridge by Hell’s Hole and found a perfect spot! Bill’s parents were nice enough to lend us their trailer and that made camping a whole lot more fun. We had a nice little creek for the kids to play in and they LOVED it! They made mud traps, piled mud on rocks, and just splashed around. Thursday was nice and warm and Bill and I just relaxed with books in hand and rotated around to stay in the shade as the sun moved all afternoon. We taught them lifelong skills of how to roast the perfect hot dog and make delicious smores – skills all kids need! After we’d only been there a couple of hours Billy announced that “this was the best camping trip EVER!” Bill and I giggled as this is the first camping trip he’s been on. However, at 3:30 a.m. when Billy fell out of the bunkbed we were afraid the “best camping trip” might be ruined. Luckily he wasn’t very hurt and the “best camping trip” continued.

Friday was a little cooler and there was a breeze all day, so we didn’t play in the creek. The kids found the next best thing to water was dirt. And boy, did they have fun! They also found a “secret lair” and fought bad guys a lot. Billy even made a bow and arrow and hunted 7 buffalo and 5 chickens. ;) Cheyenne led Chloe and Maddie in a rock’n version of “Forest Rockband” complete with tree drums, stick guitars, and Maddie playing the flute. Bill took the kids on a couple of hikes to find wood and then all of them went huckleberrying. I was told that Maddie was the best berry picking partner; Jon was the best berry eater; and Billy and Chloe entertained them with a musical made up of one song, which they sang over and over again. By the time we came home we were all tired of the one line song.

Saturday was a little cooler still with it only getting up to around 60*. We still had a blast, though, playing and reading and playing some more. We also had cows around the whole time. On Friday they came and rounded them up, but they forgot some that showed up later. The funny thing was every time Bill would start reading Fablehaven (our family book right now) to us, the cows would show up to listen, too. Around 4 that afternoon, Bill decided we should have some pizza for dinner so he and Cheyenne ran down to Heise and brought back pizza and pop for us for dinner – that was great camping food! We got chased inside a little early that night as it started to sprinkle a little, so we played some rousing games of Uno Attack. That night got pretty cold, but it was so nice to turn on the heater about 6 a.m. We got up, ate cereal in the little boxes (Cheyenne and Natalie said we couldn’t go camping without them, Grandpa), finished loading up and headed home. It was a fantastic, relaxing, wonderful weekend, and I think we all decided we need to do it again, maybe a couple times next summer!