1st Camping Trip of 2013

The first camping trip of the season was a trip at the end of June to Hoover Creek.  We camped by ourselves and had fun eating s'mores, riding 4-wheelers, and making soup.

The first night as we were sitting at the table in the camper eating dinner Jeremy says, "There is a moose."  I didn't even look.  There is this long standing joke between Jeremy and I since our honeymoon.  We were driving to the Kennedy Space Center and I swore I saw an alligator in the road ditch.  He didn't see it and didn't believe me so it continues to be the comment every time we are looking at something or have spotted something.  Sure enough a moose can down the hill, close to the camp, and stayed at least 30 minutes. I was able to get a few good shots without causing much commotion.

This summer I decided to finally finish all of my credits on the teaching pay scale, so I needed to take 12.  One of the classes I chose was amazing.  The class was called "Wellness and Wildflowers."  I HAD to go hiking in Glacier and I HAD to take pictures of flowers.  Bummer!!  I had such a great time on the hikes that I got slightly obsessed about identifying flowers.  We went on two long 4-wheeler rides and I was constantly stopping to take pictures to add to my website for identification.  Jeremy and the girls were troopers.  We stopped to pick some flowers for the camper too and I took lots of pictures of everyone appreciating the beauty of nature.

Isn't he charming??

One of the rides we took was over the mountain from Hoover Creek to Hughsville.   It's a nice ride, one of my favorites.   Not hard, plenty of beautiful scenery, and we always pack a snack for the halfway point.

At the halfway point the girls also played in the creek.  We did some wading, skipped lots of rocks, and snacked in the shade.

This camping trip was over my birthday.  Jeremy and the girls surprised me with balloons, necklaces, and crowns, even Sissy got in the birthday spirit. 

One of the girls favorite camping activities is to "make soup."  We have been doing this since Abbie was little.  All you need to make soup is water from a creek, some dirt, rocks, grass, twigs, weeds, whatever you can find to stir together.  Once a pot is made, it's poured out and a slightly different recipe is tried.  This is one of my favorite activities too because I drag my lawn chair to the creek and get in a lot of reading time while they concoct their recipes.