Happy Campers

Friday after work we headed up to Mt. Lemmon for a spur-of-the-moment sort of camping trip with the Rawns and Chrapczynskis. This time, we managed to make it to the check-in station at the campground before Ib's truck sputtered out, due to altitude sickness. We let it sit for a few minutes and it finally fired back up and we were able to drive down to the camp site.

We all seemed to be experiencing some technical difficulties when it came to setting up the tents. Ours was new, so at least we had a half-decent excuse.


Saturday morning Colin prepared a feast of eggs, chorizo and hashbrowns and we made some pretty tasty breakfast burritos. Then the girls colored. Then it was 8:00 am.

Around 10:30, we decided to go check out the lake. There were lots of folks fishing, but not many fish biting.

Take a good look. This is Maddie's "before" picture. She sure is cute!

We spent about 45 minutes at the lake and then headed back to camp for a nap. There was a nice breeze, so it wasn't too hot in the tents.

After nap time, Hailey was exploring. She's just about ready to walk and was getting pretty brave playing in the dirt and rocks.

Meanwhile, Madison didn't stop to take a nap. She played and played and played some more. This was the end result: after she brought us some firewood...that had already been in someone's fire. Pictures can't even begin to show the amount of dirt on this child. All that was missing was the little cloud of dirt following her...although I think I saw it a couple times. Needless to say, she was having a blast!

I shared some applesauce with Hailey for dinner. She is a smart cookie, and was dipping her cracker in the dish, since I wouldn't give her the spoon. When I saw that, I figured I might as well let her give it a shot. The first couple spoonfuls went mostly on the bib, but she did pretty good after that.

The girls and the puppies went to bed early, while us grown-ups enjoyed the quiet (and some S'mores) around the fire. Then, (upon returning from my 1000th trip to the outhouse) I heard a rustling under the picnic table. I thought Cooper had snuck out of the tent, but last time I checked, Cooper didn't have a white stripe down his back. Yep, there was a skunk, about 3 feet away from me. For a front-heavy gal, I can still move pretty fast when I need to. Mel and I hid in the screened-in porch on their tent. What good that was going to do us, I still am not quite sure. Ib snuck up on the hill behind it and threw rocks, scaring it off. And then we called it a night.

Bright and early this morning, we all broke down our camps and Ib warmed up our famous French Toast for everyone. Complete with real Pennsylvania maple syrup. Then, we loaded up and headed back to the hot, hot Tucson heat.

All in all, it was a fun trip. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to other 5-month-pregnant ladies...as certain aspects were a bit challenging. For example, getting dressed in the tent...on an air mattress. Now, this can be an acrobatic feat in itself under normal conditions. But add a volleyball to the equation and you end up somewhere between a turtle stuck on it's back and a beached whale.

There was also the outhouse factor. Thankful as I was to have an outhouse (because that volleyball feels like a bowling ball on the ol' bladder)...running up and down the hill 3 times in the middle of the night, holding the flash light in your teeth and watching for skunks around every rock...it takes a real trooper. Especially last night, after Holly said, "Not to scare you guys...but, just so you know, there are 2 black widow spiders on the door of the outhouse." I've always had a very strange phobia about toilets...and something coming up and grabbing my bare butt out of the darkness. So that pretty much sealed the deal for me: I admitted defeat. My late-night bathroom runs consisted of putting on my shoes and leaning up against the first tree I ran into after stepping out of the tent. In a way, it was sort of a personal victory.

This photo kind of sums it all up. But we're all happy campers and are already talking about the "next trip".