Camping Adventure

We had a fun adventure this weekend. We went to Oracle, Az and camping on Mt. Lemmon in the Peppersauce campground.

When we first arrived, Dallin was super excited to pitch the tent, get out our food and BUILD A FIRE! He's going to make a great boy scout!

In true scouting style, he gathered small twigs and dry leaves to start his fire.

Then daddy came along and rubbed two sticks together...no, he used flint and steel....no, hmm what DID he use?!? (This is Adam's version of boy scouts)

Mookie learned to walk in new shoes chosen especially for camping and enjoyed chewing on twigs and rocks.
Mmmmm, good sticks to eat.

The rough terrain was a little difficult, but she really enjoyed herself.

When it got dark we put Maura to bed, then spent some time playing cards by lantern light.
That night was a little rough...I really have no desire to remember it and I did not take any pictures. Let's just say it was a long windy night. The wind was howling around the tent making scary noises and branches of trees were crashing around us. We weren't hurt, just not able to sleep very well. We finally moved everything out of the van and put Maura's pack-n-play inside so she could sleep better. The rest of us stuck it out huddled together in one big sleeping bag.

The morning dawned brisk and beautiful. We were awakened by several hunters and their (extremely loud and obnoxious) 4x4's leaving the campground as the sun was beginning to rise. We made a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, muffins and hot chocolate and were ready to sit down and eat when...KEERASH! A huge bolt of lightening hit very close to the campground and the ear-splitting thunder was immediately followed by a torrential downpour.

We took refuge in our tent (luckily, Adam had spent some time rolling up sleeping bags while I cooked breakfast-whew).

Maura watched the rain and hail from the safety of the tent.

Adam braved the rain to gather our belongings and paused briefly under the protection of the car.

We found other critters taking refuge with us a "pretty-mantis" as Dallin would say and a HUGE spider (that I didn't take a picture of because I was afraid it would swallow the camera).

There was a brief break in the rain, so we decided to take a little hike.

Mookie and Daddy spent some quality time together.

Dallin and I climbed off the beaten path for a short while.

Can you see the critter Adam found?

Dallin caught his very first horny toad. He wanted to keep it, but we thought maybe his friends would miss him too much so he stayed in the forest.
Awww, so cute (the toad too).

We found this HUGE tree that had been struck by lightening and hollowed out. It was the perfect hiding place for an eight year old boy.
Amazingly, part of the tree was still growing!
The rest of the day was full of rain, rain and more rain. We thought our friends the Woolfs might have decided not to come because of the rain so we headed up to the mud caves on our own. Once we got there we were a little nervous that with all the rain the road would not be passable, so we headed down the mountain. On the way down, we met our friends the Woolfs coming to join us! We discussed it and thought it better to get out while we still could. They helped us pack up our campsite then we went to another park to eat some lunch then headed home.

Even though it was a little rough, we have good memories and it was a fun adventure! I'm sure we will do it again soon!