Camping AGAIN!!!!!

Lets just say we love having friends that are really good at camping!! =)

Don't get me wrong... we could manage on our own if we had to, but it is nice to have those extra things like a camping stove, shade cannopy, chain saw, axe, a really big tent (instead of our little 3 person tent) and of course it is so nice to have the company of good friends!!

For Labor Day we headed up to Blue Ridge Reservoir.  So much fun!  We stayed in a campsite and we had a really good spot because we weren't close to anybody else!  It was almost like winging it in the wild!

The kids really love camping!!  They were so excited! 

Ian got to shoot a real gun for the first time!!  He loved it, but was also mad that Dad wouldn't let him hold the gun by himself.  We tried explaining that he wasn't big enough, but he kept saying that now he was 4 and 4-year-olds get to shoot guns all by themselves.  Pretty funny!  He still had a blast!

Nik doesn't get to shoot very often, but he really loves it.  It was so nice to have another guy there for him to shoot with and throw the clay pigeons!  There were also some girls that Nik and John go to school with there and one of them could also throw the clay pigeons really well so both boys got to shoot at the same time!  It was fun!

Playing in the dirt... one of the favorites of camping!!  Both kids get so dirty within the first hour of camping... but I usually don't clean them up until it is time to go to bed!!  What kind of mom would I be if I expected them to stay clean while we were camping? =)  Ha ha  It is really funny how dirty they get though!!

One of my favorite parts of camping is that the kids get to be kids!!  They are able to wander and play away from us a little bit and go exploring.  They kept pretending to go on hunts and look for animals.  There weren't any other kids this trip so they played with each other or begged one of the big people to play with them.  In this picture they were behind the tent and we could hear them talking together and laughing and talking some more... I peaked around and asked what they were doing and they were "playing Primary!"  What good kids!  Ian was teaching Miranda what he learns in Primary!

Now we have a tent, and we all fit in it (barely) and this trip John and Courtney had a big tent for us to use.  It was so nice to have room for all of us to sleep comfortably!  It was pretty cold so we all ended up cuddling close, but we didn't have to and that was the good part!!  It was like a mansion!

The last couple of times we have gone camping the kids wake up so happy and excited to be there!  It's like they wake up and remember where they are and get excited all over again! =)  They love the fire and sleeping in sleeping bags and throwing things in the fire and running around.

Kamryn did really good too!  There were lots of girls wanting to hold her and she is such a mommy's girl right now that she fought it, but did pretty good letting them hold her!  She is still such a sweet baby!!

Camping is definately one of our favorite things right now!! =)