Peaceful Valley

And truly it was. Our camping site this last weekend was aptly named.

We headed up to the hills with our friends Tom and Eleanor Needy and their daughter Anna, who is the same age as Ruthie, and Doug and Nikki Kennedy, their son Isaac, niece Kendall, nephew Jake, and Auntie Mari, Nikki's sister the gourmet camping chef.

Here are the Needys. How often is the whole family in one picture?!!

These two are fast friends, as long as Ruthie doesn't get too aggressive. Usually Ruthie's just trying to give Little Anna a hug when she puts her in a headlock or bowls her over. Sometimes, though, she's being feisty. But you should see the grin they give each other each time they meet.

Anna and Isaac running. It feels like they run and climb and jump all day long when we are camping. Nice, since it means they conk out as soon as their head hits the pillow at night in the tent.

Doug and little Ruthie, hanging out around the campfire.

Eleanor cooking dinner our second night. Mitch just got back from a bike ride.


This is Jake. It was his first time camping. He built that fire in front of him, gathering the pine needles and twigs and branches for starter, chopping a log into kindling with the hatchet, making it all into a beautiful tepee, and then enjoying the results. A proud moment.

This is how the Clement girls eat their dinner in the woods.



You cute little munchkin!

Or tough girl.

One of my favorite things about camping with kids is the never ending entertainment a rock can be. This rock was a launchpad for hours of jumping and climbing.

With a carload of sleeping pads and bags, pillows and suitcases around it, it became the center of a rough and tumble game of who knows what that the kids enjoyed for hours.

I love the joy they take in simple pleasures. I don't think these kids know what it means to be bored. I don't think I have ever heard them use that word.

Three families, lots of kids, spending time together in a peaceful valley, surrounded by the incredible, undiluted beauty of the created world. The same joys humans have shared with each other for all of history.

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!

Vedauwoo

We went camping and climbing this weekend in Vedauwoo, in the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming. We all had a wonderful, relaxing time. The girls loved every minute of it and played nonstop with their friend Alex. There's nothing like the relaxed pace of camping for finding the time to connect and be present with the people you love the most. The weather was perfect, not too cold, no rain, not too many mosquitoes, more stars out at night than our girls ever remember seeing, s'mores over the campfire, lots of yummy food-homemade pizza grilled over the campfire, fun rock climbing for the whole family, good conversation with close friends, quality family time... Perfect.

Ruth, Alex, Anna and Josie sitting in their chairs around the campfire in the morning chill:

The threesome at play- Alex, Anna & Jo:

Darren O'Connor cooking sausage for breakfast:

Mitch almost to the top of a challenging Vedauwoo climb:

Darren belaying him:

Me with all the girls watching Ruth climb:

Me on the rock with Ruth belaying:

Alex, Anna and Josie all took turns climbing as well but I didn't get any pictures of them. Bummer. They looked great, though! We were too busy belaying them and coaching them on the climb.

But here's a picture of Alex at the bottom of the climb with Pat and Darren getting ready behind her:

Of course spending time camping means we all got covered in dirt. So when we got home I turned the sprinkler on for the girls and they took their shower!

There's not much that I like better than being able to be outside all day and all night like you are when you are camping, being able to use all five senses to connect with the world around me. I love feeling the warmth and the cold as the temperatures fluctuate day and night, feeling, hearing and seeing the wind, listening to and seeing the birds, the smell of pine and dust and campfire, feeling soft dirt between my toes, hearing all the night sounds of a world awake while we are asleep, seeing the stars unobscured by electric lights, not insulated from what is real and timeless and wild. I love the cycle of day and night as I love the cycle of the seasons, the feeling of being small in a creation that is big and beautiful and intricate and awesome and doesn't need me, and yet being an intimate part of that creation, bound by time in the midst of the timeless, connecting and present to the world around me as a way of connecting to the God who made all of it. For me, that is a piece of heaven in the here and now.

Thanks, Ruth, Darren and Alex, for inviting us camping and taking us climbing!

Rainbow Lakes

-Nights under incredible stars. As Rich Mullins says: "They're the same ones Abraham saw!"

-A creek for the girls to play in. Anna was in her bathing suit playing in the creek by 7:30 the first morning before the sun was up high enough to warm anything.

-Mitch's guitar music around the campfire with the girls playing along on whatever instrument suited their fancy.

-My brother joined us for a night! I've never seen more perfectly melted, toasted marshmallows than the ones he was doing! So nice to have an extra set of free hands to take care of all the logistics of camping with three girls, although those hands will soon be filled with his own little one due at the end of next month. Anna, Josie and Ruthie had a wonderful time with their uncle and I enjoyed getting to spend time with my brother. Thanks for your kind, playful, servants spirit, Michael.

-Anna and Josie hanging out a ton with Nora and Sam, off to who knows where. Josie told Sam while they were playing one day "I like hanging out wiff you, Sam."

-Dirt play! Away from all the plastic props of normal life in our culture the girls enjoyed just playing in the dirt, literally, and built their own 'campfires' out of wood they found and 'cooked'.

-Spontaneous little girl hugs.

-Hammock time! Mitch, Anna and Josie even took their afternoon nap in it one day.

-Kind, servant-hearted friends who did the dishes almost every meal for us. Thanks, Michelle and Rob!

-Sun screening up a little Josie, or at least rubbing in what she puts on. She loves her part in the sunscreen process, that tactile little one.

-Whittling. The ultimate 'I have time to spare and can just stand here and whittle' pasttime. Most people would sit, but it was Ruthie's nap time, so I didn't sit.

-Morning coffee!

And oh so much more relaxing fun outdoors with friends filling our time.