Camping With Daddy

Lehr and the kids have been trying to find time to camp for a while now, but with school and sports' schedules, anytime during the school year is pretty off-limits. Fortunately, this last weekend had great weather and a 24-hours unscheduled window!


After church on Sunday, the three of them packed up, weighed their bags (Eli loved this part and remembered the weights of his and Maddux's bags through their whole trip), and set off for an overnight hike/camp on the Appalachian Trail. This spring, Lehr and a few friends hiked and camped along the same section for a few nights and Lehr discovered a great spot next to a waterfall that he wanted to bring the kids to. Since it was only about a mile away from the parking area, it was perfect for the kids.

Lehr said they had a blast the whole time. No swimming in the waterfall because the water was too cold, but they stayed busy with hiking, cooking, creating clean water, etc. They all slept great in one tent, and Lehr claims they even slept in until 8AM....wow!!

Camping

A few days before we left Idaho, the boys went camping. We all gathered at a beautiful camping area that my family used to frequent when I was younger around 3PM. The kids played in the water as we watched from the beach, and we all swatted away enough flies to fill a bus. Once we'd had our fill of the beach, we made our way back to the campsite for dinner. Hot dogs, fruit and s'mores were on the menu. The kids tried to cook the dogs, but the teens and adults had to take that over. Immediately afterwards we started on the s'mores. (The girls were not staying overnight and it was already 7PM at this point.) Personally, hot dogs weren't enough to lure me anywhere, but s'mores are, so I was fine with getting to the good part that quickly. The marshmallows were the biggest I'd ever seen....they could have been halved and still been big. Maddux and Eli loved that part, of course. A tasty treat and fire? The perfect combo for them!

Once we finished dessert, the girls all headed back to the house to sleep. Maddux and I slept together on a blow-up mattress, which she loved. Eli and the rest of the boys played a few card games until it got dark and then went Snipe hunting. Eli had been soooo excited about this. Treis, Cole and Uncle J really played it up, and Eli would have walked over hot coals to be included in the 'hunt'. Lehr tells me that Justin did a great job creating the scene for Snipe hunting, and Eli was into it, 100%. Once they finished (Eli was disappointed that they came back empty-handed), they hung out around the fire a little more. Lehr said that Eli asked twice, very seriously, to go to bed. On the second request, his wish was granted, and he slept later than anyone the next morning.

Happy Trails

We took our first camping trip as a family over Memorial Day weekend. Lehr and Eli have camped half a dozen times, but Maddux had never been, and I hadn't been in years. We planned on a more mild hike out, one with flatter terrain, and a one-night stay. The trail we chose was Panther Creek; I've hiked it several times, but not in close to five years. Eli and Maddux were super-psyched to go, especially because D would be accompanying us. They each packed their camel-backs with water, a snack and a few toys or books (small ones, of course). Lehr and David suited up about 25 lbs worth of gear on each of them and I hauled the food and more water.

We arrived at the trail head around 3PM on Sunday. We figured we had about a 3mile hike to the spot we had in mind, so we'd be safe with daylight. As we went, the kids did great, stopping to ask Daddy for food every few minutes, and chatting us up the whole time. We passed several great spots, but we held out for the main waterfall. Around 6PM we passed yet another great spot, and it was starting to show signs of decreased light. The group decided I should run ahead for about 10 minutes to see if I could get a better feel for how close we were to the waterfall. I ran, didn't feel any more confident, and had to hurdle a snake. About this time I was ready to go home.

We turned around and hiked another 20 minutes back to one of the good spots we passed and set up camp. The kids had a blast 'helping' D and Daddy cook the food while I set up some of our tent. We dined on red beans and rice (from a bag) on top of a huge rock. Try as they could, the boys couldn't get any wet wood to light for a fire, so the kids had to roast their marshmallows over the 'stove'. We all fell asleep pretty quickly and soundly, due largely to the loud, white-noise producing waterfall next to our camp site. (BTW - we had the site ALL to ourselves!)

We rose about 7AM on Monday, well after light came. D and Daddy tried to make pancakes, but they weren't great. Eli still ate three. We packed up and hiked back out, a little slower than we'd come in the day before. Monday found more whining by Eli, but Maddux was still amazing. She played "Animal, Animal", yelled out "Pe-CAWWW!" whenever we got separated, and sang and danced her way back to the parking lot. What a trooper!

Camping aka "Dude Fest"

Eli loves making note of who is doing what and when. Specifically, he loves telling everyone if the boys are doing something, or the girls. He is very into telling me, "Mommy, the boys are eating over here and the girls are eating over there today." or "Mommy, the girls are playing with that ball and the boys are playing with this ball." This goes on all day, every day. So when Lehr told Eli that the two of them were going to meet "D" at the campsite this last Saturday night, he was all about it. The first thing he told me was, "Mommy, the boys are going camping and we're going to have 'Dudefest' at the tent."

It sounds like the guys had a great time. Their campground wasn't as nice as the one Lehr and Eli visited in December, but it was good enough for Eli. They hiked a bit and set up the tents. Eli got to use his hiking/walking stick; Grandpa Jim made it for him last summer when we visited Tahoe. After some baseball and general 'camp' stuff, the guys feasted on a dinner of red beans and rice and hamburgers on hot dog buns. When it got dark, Eli was very excited to build a fire and roast some marshmallows. He completely torched the first one he had loaded on his stick...it caught on fire and everything. I called the boys at 10PM to check on them and Eli was still up (they'd just finished dessert). He was very very VERY excited and chatty. Lehr said he settled down a little while later and they all slept until around 8. D and Daddy made pancakes for breakfast and Eli amazed D with his ability to eat many many cakes.

Boys' Night Out

I feel like so much of these "my-kids-love-each-other-today-and-I-need-to-tell-the-world" posts have so many similarities: sometime I could probably just cut and paste. But each instance is so unique and different, and 99% of them are unprompted, so I'm going to keep with the theme.

Lehr and Eli have been trying to take a short camping trip for a few months now. Weather or schedules always got in the way, and sometime in late November, Lehr resigned himself to the trip waiting for spring. (November in Atlanta saw many days with 19-degree temperatures.) With Christmas came some warmer weather though, and since Lehr was off of work, he decided to take advantage and head to the mountain today. Lehr woke Eli up from his nap around 3:30 and the two drove to Red Top, which is very close and very well-traveled. From the two phone calls I've had, it appears they arrived in time to set up camp and still hike down to the lake. They had a dinner of Mac'n'Cheese, candy canes, and water. Then they read books and turned out the lights (except Eli's special McQueen flashlight that Daddy bought special for this trip). I called at 7:30, as Maddux was taking a bath, to say 'good-night'. Eli got on the phone and talked to me for about 30-seconds before he asked, "Is that Maddie?" when she squealed in the background. "Kin I talk to her?" I put the phone on speaker and told Maddux that Eli wanted to say 'hi'.

"Hey, Maddie! How are you? Whatchu doin?"

She definitely recognized his voice, but her end of the conversation sounded like, "Wahhh. Bleee blooo. Whoooo-AHHHH!"

"K, Maddie. See you way-ter. I wuv you."

I talked with Eli for a few minutes about what he ate and what he saw. Then, towards the end of the call he said, "I wanna talk to Maddux again. "
Again with the speaker phone and Maddie's nonsensical vocals.

"Hi, baby sisser!! Whatchu doin?" "I reading books now. Good night."

Life is good.