Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Gold Hill

Did I ever tell you that I like camping? Well, I do. In case you hadn't figured that out by now. Getting away from the noise, the lights, the home chores, the screens, the lack of dirt, all the stuff we have, and getting back to the basics of enjoying who and what is real around us. I do love it.

This weekend we went only about 15 miles from our front door up into the mountains past the little town of Gold Hill. We camped on Roosevelt National Forest land where camping is allowed, BYO water and TP. The girls and I left early on Friday and Mitch came up on his bike when he got off of work. Don't you love living so close to the mountains!


We found a great kid-friendly campsite. And the girls were in heaven for the weekend.They had a wrestling house:


S'mores toasted over the fire:



A hammock boat to play in:







Great trees to climb:


A fort (or hospital, as it became in their play) that we built for them to have fun in:

Can you see Anna and Josie in there?






Dinner cooked over the fire:

And lots of time for this little family to spend together without the normal distractions of city life as we know it.

It amazes me how fast these girls can get dirty. I guess it is a camping rite of passage. For the mom, I mean. Getting past caring how dirty your kid's face and hands and clothes are. As long as you clean their little hands before they eat, right?
Although, I have to add, maybe it has nothing to do with camping. Maybe all the dirt has more to do with being a kid, so free and innocent with none of the adult cares and joy-stoppers that we all carry around with us:
Little miss Ruthie. And I thought you got dirty camping! I got out the hose before I let that little munchkin back in the house!

3 comments:

akamilby said...

Wow, that looks like quite a camping trip. Those three girls are having a lot of fun! Although the final picture of Ruthie at home definitely takes the cake as far as messy goes:)

Unknown said...

Katie, this looks like loads of fun! I see that you took a photo of yourself making s'mores. I like s'mores, too!

Mitch, did you notice that Katie used our famous phrase "getting back to the basics"? Isn't that always true ;) Also, how was you bike ride to the mountains? Did you bike all the way from Lafayette?

Anonymous said...

You gotta love the mud. :)