one with nature

What is a good road trip, if you don't have a moment of getting lost? It always makes it exciting and gives my abs a good workout from laughing excessively. This trip was an exception---we knew the way, but after we embarked, Katie and Riley called to say the way was super muddy and they had encountered a lot of trouble on it, so we should try finding out the alternate route. That started me calling home and having them tell us with google maps, which lead us to believe it would take an extra 2.5 hours. false. We were there in about 30 minutes. We did take just one wrong exit that led us on a gravel road and gave us the opportunity to see some "wildlife"...cows... But we quickly righted the wrong and headed on the correct path.

We made it with few set-backs and joined Katie and Riley and Bella at Painted Rock Campgrounds. It was such a great place for a quick camping trip...really close, beautiful reservoir to look at and for the dogs to play in and for us to think about playing in (and possibly using Nikki's kayak's) during warm summer months.

We had a delicious dutch-oven dinner of bar-b-que chicken and bell peppers with french bread and banana boats for dessert. Banana boats. Yum. I didn't know how to make mine more appetizing than just a warm banana...but I've had my eye on this chocolate peanut butter that is all legit for me to eat. So I splurged and bought it and it was honestly so very worth it. Every bite was such a treat. While sitting there around the campfire, we discovered Venus...some for the first time...haha. One of my all-time-favorite camping experiences is sitting around the fire and watching it slowly die down and seeing the embers burning, hot orange.

We cleaned up and headed to the tent to get warm and get ready to head to bed. Thanks to Katie and Riley for letting us sleep in your tent for its "inauguration...christening..." first-time use. We stayed up late playing the name game and the favorite game (love it) and laughing a lot.

i just love this...haha every time i looked over this was what i saw.

Saturday was going to be just a half day for me and Eileen, but it was so good with wonderful food, enjoying the early morning fire and watching the dogs play in the water. I just want to show you one of the things we ate for breakfast....muffins in oranges. We were supposed to wrap them in tin foil and put them in the fire. Go me, I didn't check how much foil I had left on the roll and didn't bring enough. So we put them in the dutch oven and they were still so tasty! Thanks Cari! Brilliant.

Thanks again for the fun little weekend!