First Campout of 2010

So this week we took off on our first campout with the boys. We headed up to Mt. Charleston and enjoyed being away from the city. I think the boys had a great time too. Jacob had some concerns about tigers, but we made it through without seeing one.
Here are few pictures of our adventure:

Sometimes you have to cool your tush. Exploring.
Chowing on marshmallows.Learning how to roast marshmallows.

Perfecting the smore.Eating good food-mmmmm!

Having fun with my big boy.

Enjoying the scenery.

Loading up.

Things I love about camping:

• The smell of pine.
• Watching the boys explore.
• No TV, no cell phone service.
• Being cozy by the campfire.
• Wearing a sweatshirt.
  
• The awesome new tent we got that made it so comfortable.
• Over eating on smores.
• The sound of birds in the morning.
• Teaching the boys silly camp songs.
  
• Watching them play simple games, like rolling pinecones down a hill.
• Stars.
• Clean air.
• Doing something my husband and I both love.
  

Things I don't love about camping:

• Drunk, obnoxious, college students with no respect for anyone, who turned on their thump-thump music LOUDLY at 2am, only after waking us at 1am with loud swearing outside our tent.

If it hadn't been for that, it would have been the perfect adventure. We will definitely be going again as soon as we get the chance! I'm sure there aren't always drunk college kids at that campsite every time, right? And I really didn't see any bees or mosquitos yet, which was great since I hate dealing with both of them.

I have fond memories of camping as a child, out at Newman Lake in eastern Washington, or over to the Washington coast and camping at the beach. Mark is the son of a forest ranger and spent plenty of time camping in Arizona with his family. Because of that, he is the best fire builder and would have made his dad and Smokey proud putting out his fires. After all, ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires.