Ahhhh - The call of the wild....

I haven't been camping since I was pregnant with Brynn - almost 4 years ago! I decided on that camping trip that I would NEVER go camping again. Mostly because - it's not fun to get up in the middle of the night 4 or 5 times for a potty break. Not. Fun.

So, it should come as a shock that - when our friends asked if we wanted to go I was actually pretty excited!

We went to a new place this year - about 1 hour and 45 minutes from our home - that would be 45 minutes on freeway - and about an hour - on a terrible washboard, pot-holed gravel/dirt road.


When we got there - our trailer was pretty thrashed...

BUT - it was a lot of fun! I enjoyed this weekend. We got away from the house, the city, the TV, the COMPUTER, the fights. Yah - the kids got along splendidly! I forgot how nice it was to go camping!


It was a nice 20 degrees cooler at our campground than in the city - and little Ross was driving around on the quad with short sleeves (I think the low that night was 18?) So - brrrrr!


We went on hikes. Found a creek - with actual WATER in it (this is unusual for Phoenix - our river beds have nothing in it - weeds - but no moisture!) So a creek was exceptional!



Look - a teeter totter!




Running around the land on the rhino & quad...



More hikes (India was panning for iron pyrite) the water was so clear and the mud was so sparkly with gold-colored flecks...


Kiersten had a blast on the quad! Gabby enjoyed riding on the back! (she was too afraid to drive it - never mind that her chauffeur was only 13....)



And - I know we live in a desert - and while our view consisted mainly of cactus and sage brush - look at the blossoms on the cactus -


and the half-dead-infected oak tree - right in front of us - see the little "bush" growing on it's branch - it's mistletoe! Cool, huh!?


Going home - the 60 minute washboard/pot hole dirt road made little Ross sick - but Coby hummed to the bumps & played peek-a-boo!

And for the first time - in probably 30 years, while I was scrubbing dirt from my person - I got a finger-full of soap in my eye! OUCH - I can say that honestly hurt - and if anyone was in the room when I did it - I would have cried like a baby - so to answer the question - if a tree falls in the forest - I mean - if you get soap in your eye - and no one is around to hear you cry....do you? Nope...I bucked up - but ouch. it REALLY burned!