Cool Campers

Since Easter was later in the year, we decided to pack up and go camping. My sister Jamie, and her husband Rian were there. My sister Chelsea came out in between shifts at work. My parents were the Camp Chiefs, and then there was my zoo. It was great!

On Saturday, about forty of my aunts, uncles, and cousins came out to have an Easter picnic...only it decided to rain. But that didn't stop us! Here is a shot of my monkeys after the rainy Easter egg hunt.

Isaac didn't care much for hunting eggs. He was much happier to sit and play in the dirt for hours on end.

When the rain made the dirt a little difficult to play in, we colored Easter eggs.

Isaac was also not a fan of this endeavor. He wanted to drink the egg dye and was screamin' mad when we wouldn't let him, so he opted to take a nap with dad.

The trick with carrying around an Easter basket that is half as tall as you are is that the contents spill when you bend over to retrieve another egg.

Levi was on the prowl. He was checking for eggs everywhere.

When the clouds cleared and the sun came out, we were off to play in the water...in our underwear.

It worked out perfectly that there was great dumping dirt next to the trailers and ideal toe sand - you know the kind - next to the water.

Ignorantly, we thought we could ride the four wheelers up to the stream to dip our toes in. It would be too cold to do much more than that. What were we thinking? Kids and water is like me and Cold Stone - there is simply no such thing as 'dipping.' It is total commitment....and Daisy found worms. Very cool.

And since the water was quite brisk and more than just our toes got wet, the kids snuggled up to keep warm on the way back to camp.

Meet Kocuom, our camp warrior (you know, from Pocahontas. What? You didn't see the resemblance?) Here's the recipe for a perfect camp warrior: 1 roasting stick + 1 piece of red yarn + a 4-year-old imagination. He was killing all sorts of bad guys, and even earned the alias CocoaBum for those who misunderstood, cannot pronounce, or are otherwise unfamiliar with Disney characters.

Meet the camp wood hauler. Isaac assigns himself to fire duty any time we go camping. He does a swell job. And the fact that he is this cute doesn't hurt either.

Grandpa was over entertainment and did not disappoint with his Horseshoe Throwing challenge. I think we may have some real up-and-coming championship horse shoe-ers in the family.

When he got tired of watching horseshoes sail back and forth (and being told to stay out of the way) Isaac was back to dirt work.

Levi's heart was set on "cooking a hot dog in the fire." So we packed all the fixin's to roast hot dogs...except roasting sticks. Did that stop us? No way! Levi and Jeff rode the four wheeler down to the stream to find some strait sticks and started whittling down the ends to a point. Before you knew it, we were roasting hot dogs with authentic roasting sticks.

Between four wheelers, Easter picnics and egg hunts, whittling sticks, digging in the dirt, playing in the stream, tossing horse shoes, eating junk food, taking naps, playing cards, roasting marshmallows, and doing our share of make believe is where the real important stuff took place. Between all of that was where the memories were created, the laugh-till-you-cry moments emerged, the meet the eyes of someone you love and just sigh, the take it all in, and the this is why we do this made itself known.