Camping!

Brandon went on a camp out with the boy scouts last week, and he promised our kids that he would take them soon. They got so excited, and since the weather has been so nice we decided to go this weekend. We packed up all of our stuff and headed out on Friday afternoon. Here are the kids just as we are getting ready to leave. Notice all of our stuff in the back? The Durango was totally packed full. A few times on the drive up some things would randomly fly forward onto the kids, (including a gallon water jug. Thank goodness Alexis was such a good sport when it came flying into her lap.) Brandon went camping with the scouts a couple of years ago at this great spot, and he has been wanting to take us there ever since. It was kind of far away, but we decided to make the drive anyways, because he said it was such a great spot, and had the perfect little stream for the kids to go fishing in. I used to get really car sick when I was younger. For some reason I thought that I had out grown it. But as we were driving up those windy mountain roads, I realized I was mistaken, and also that our sweet Alexis takes after me =(. We finally arrived only to find out that the camp site was closed! about 45 minutes back we had passed another camp site, so we decided to head back to that one. We got there about 6:30 pm, and everyone was starving. Brandon and I hurried and set up the tent. Thank goodness it was easy to set up. We then started roasting hot dogs for dinner. I love this picture. Alexis really wanted to roast the hot dogs but the smoke kept blowing in her face. I told her there's an old saying "smoke follows beauty", and she thought that was pretty cool. This is what she looked like most of the time as she was roasting:
A camping trip would not be complete without smores! Here are Levi and Brandon roasting marshmallows.
By the time we were done with everything the kids were exhausted and cold, so we tucked them in there sleeping bags and piled them up with blankets. We were in for a long night. It wasn't too cold once we were all bundled up in our sleeping bags, but it definitely was not comfortable! I borrowed my brother's mummy sleeping bag, because we couldn't find mine, and let me just say, I definitely felt like a mummy squished inside of it. I could barely move. It felt like when you are sleeping and get all tangled up in your blankets. I hate that feeling! It did keep me pretty warm though. Alexis ended up squishing into Brandon's sleeping bag with him, so he was pretty scrunched too. It felt like the night would never end!
Brandon got up really early and built a fire and made us all hot chocolate and breakfast. He said he wanted us to be able to wake up and be able to sit around a nice warm fire, instead of just walking out into the freezing cold. We were very grateful for that, because it was pretty chilly when we got up. Here are Levi and Brandon eating sausage. It was yummy!

Levi was so cute sitting by the fire eating his breakfast. The girls were still pretty freezing so Brandon turned a movie on for them in the car and turned the heat on really high. They ate their breakfast in there. I got a picture of them in there, but it turned out too blurry =(.
Our original plan was to go fishing in the morning, but the river that was by the campsite that we ended up staying at was moving a little too fast, and we were afraid the kids would fall in and get swept away! We decided to go on a walk instead. We all had a great time. Brandon showed the kids all sorts of different plants, and taught them what their names were.

After the walk we packed up and headed home. We were going to stay longer, but Tori and Brandon were both not feeling well. We came home just as it started to snow. We had a really fun time camping with our little family, and I am sure we will be going up a lot more this summer.