A Family Camporee {Or Two}

After our initial attempt at family camping last summer, we decided we had so much fun that we (Peter) had to stock up on all the REI dividends and outfit us for some serious camping this summer. (Seriously, no one should ever have the amount of dividends we ended up with).

And because we finished our second trip before I got around to sharing about the first, you get a twofer this post--two trips in one, double the pictures, double the fun! Brace yourselves...

Echo Lake
For our first campout in late June, we traveled to Echo Lake at the Base of Mount Evans. We didn't do so well planning ahead for the actual dates, and all of the weekends were booked, so Peter took some comp time off of work and we went for two nights during the week. We had to bring and cook all of our own food, unlike the church campout where they do it for us (so guess how many dividends our new 2-burner camp stove got us!). Peter knew how overwhelmed enthusiastic I was about the Pioneer Woman deal, so he promised to plan and cook all the meals, and he was good to his word. (Except that I took over at the stove our first night so I could get warmer!).

Pioneer Woman feigning happiness.
Cooking. Cleaning. Abounding joy!

Funny story: we rented a canoe from the local Air Force base for the trip, had to stop multiple times while driving to tie it down better, only to find out when we got there that we couldn't even put it in the water. Apparently we'd read the regulations wrong. So the canoe stayed perched on top of the car the entire weekend and the kids had a sad...

Mount Evans boasts the highest (and arguably scariest) road in North America, being one of the few 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado that you can drive to the top of. (Pike's Peak being the most famous). The road stayed busy, and our campsite was a little closer I expected, but otherwise the campsite was great.

Campsite in the making

After dinner and a fire with s'mores the first night, we put the kids to bed in their tent and enjoyed a beautiful sunset across the road over the lake.

That night, the cold mountain air froze me mercilessly to the bone just like Anna, and if I could have unfrozen myself from the fetal position long enough to take a selfie, I'm sure I would would have been the same shade of porcelain blue. I even packed accordingly this time around, after learning from our fun bout in the rain last year, but apparently eight layers don't matter in the middle of the night at 12,000 ft. All my bitter frozen heart could repeat half the night was, "I know I've been at least ten times warmer then this while skiing!" (Guess we didn't get enough dividends for my sleeping bag even though it's rated to 15 degrees!). Ethan also woke up multiple times throughout the sleepless night and Peter attended to him like a nice husband because I was clearly immobile, and as soon as day began to break I begged him for a fire with which to thaw myself under my eight layers of clothing/blankets.

It lives.

Thankfully the sun came out eventually, and a pretty little doe also came to graze by our site as the sun rose. Marie promptly named her 'Lily' (as she names all of her dolls and animals and dreams of naming a future sister). After breakfast we hiked the trail around Echo Lake. Let me just say that I have never, ever seen so many dragonflies in one place! Or dragonfly nymphs crawling all over us when we stopped for a snack. It was little Fear Factor-ish.

But unbelievably gorgeous, too!

Just because you can't see those dragonflies
doesn't mean they're not there...everywhere... 

We had some lunch and then went back over to the lake for some "fishing" (we never catch anything) before the clouds started rolling in and we sought refuge from the frigid rain in the warm safety of our tent. Well, Ethan and I did anyway. The big kids and Peter played in it for awhile. Thankfully it passed quickly and another family arrived in an adjacent campsite just before dinner. Their kids were the same age as our oldest two, so the children stayed nicely occupied while we got dinner ready and the other parents set up their tent. By the end of the evening their friends had also arrived with five more children, and it was great to see them all playing so happily together while we relaxed!

After dinner and more campfire and s'mores, we packed the kids away in their tent again and Peter plopped a few more logs on the fire so we could enjoy some rare quiet time together with just the two of us (and try
to warm up as much as possible before the long night ahead!).

It went about the same as the first night, but the next morning was slightly warmer. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before packing up and hiking one of the trails near our campsite that cut up the side of Mount Evans.

Overall, we counted it as a success, and I kept telling myself that our second trip in July would be much, much warmer (and a few thousand feet lower in elevation).

Mmm, dirt!

Thankfully, despite the rain, I was [mostly] right about trip #2!


Lake Dillon
Our church held its annual campout this past weekend at Lake Dillon, a gorgeous lake/reservoir sandwiched between Keystone and Breckenridge.

The campout happened to start the same day as Marie's birthday, and she had been waiting allllllll summer for her birthday campout! For three straight days prior to the campout, it rained incessantly (I felt like I was back on the east coast!) and I tried to convince Peter that we should stay home Thursday night and head up Friday instead. But we had promised a little girl that we would go camping for her birthday, and he wasn't about to break that promise. And did I mention that this is the campout where all the big strong men do the cooking and I have to do none? So I packed everything in plastic bags, threw in the galoshes, and by the time we arrived around dinner, the rain cleared long enough for us to set up and even enjoy a little nice weather that evening by the lake while Peter taught the kids how to skip stones. We even brought a cake up for Marie and got to share her happy birthday with a few of the other campers during dinner (of course I forgot to take pictures!)

That night was still chilly, and I still woke up cold throughout the night, but it was slightly more manageable this time around. We also decided to put Ethan in our tent so that we wouldn't have to stumble around the campsite in the dark to get to the kids' tent if he woke up, and that was a smart move. He added extra body heat and whenever he woke up I could just reach out of my sleeping bag and shove him back into his. Win-win.

Friday
We enjoyed breakfast before heading back to our tent to hole up for an incoming thunderstorm. The thunder was a little scary, echoing forever through the mountains in a way I'd never heard before. We played Go Fish and went stir crazy in our tent for about an hour and a half while buckets of rain poured down all around us:

It let up just in time for lunch, and the sun even came out briefly so we could enjoy a family canoe ride in one our church member's famous handcrafted canoes. (He's our neighbor and makes them in his basement--not even kidding...I got to see his workshop a few years ago with this specific canoe in the works)!

The rain returned that afternoon, and because I knew I hadn't packed enough pairs of kid pants to withstand five changes a day, and because Marie's old sneakers were literally falling apart after getting especially wet, and because the I was cowering at the thought of another two hours in the tent together playing Go Fish, we did the only possible rational thing: pack into the car and drive to Target. It's only about 15 minutes down the road, and I convinced Peter that it wouldn't be cheating that much since Marie needed new sneakers. Ethan napped in the car with the big boys while Marie and I gallivanted around the store, and then we drove around the lake in the rain enjoying the scenery. And the dry seats. And the heat! The rain at least had good timing and let up again before our amazing dinner (ribs, slow cooked allllll day!). I snuggled in early with Ethan while Peter did the bonfire with the big kids, and we stayed significantly warmer that night!

Farmer Pete, wildflowers my sweet girl picked for me, boating and playing by the lake,
driving through the rain, and my buddy keeping me company in the nice warm tent!

Saturday
It dawned bright and sunny, finally! The morning consisted of a fishing competition for the kids, then good long stretch of time playing on the beach in the sand while I met some new mom friends. Peter and I spent a few minutes teaching the kids how to play horseshoes (eek!). Peter also rushed into the water Baywatch style at one point to make a daring rescue with one of the other guys when some teen girls capsized their kayaks. Thankfully everyone was fine. After lunch, the teens did some face painting, then we went back to the campsite and relaxed in the hammock before going on a family hike around the point. It was gorgeous. And--dare I say--even hot out!!! Back at the campsite, both Marie and Erik got stung by yellow jackets while playing in some branches--a painful experience, but I'm so thankful that neither of them have an allergy or reacted badly other than swelling up just a little. That afternoon we met some new friends at the campsite next to ours, and our kids hit it off playing together. We soon walked down to the pavilion for dinner...and for church overlooking the lake, because in addition to the men cooking, our priest comes up to say mass for all the campers! That night we tucked the kids in before heading to the bonfire next to our campsite for some real "big kid" fun with the other parents--we may have stayed up a little too late, but it was a lot of fun and worth it!

Hike around the point

Fishing competition (still no bites!), Erik's choice of face paint, relaxing, more hiking views,
the mean bee, altar overlooking the lake, and new friends. (Aren't they the cutest?!) 

Sunday
Sunday was reserved mostly for packing up, but we attempted to sleep in a few short minutes before we got woken up by a little birdie:

Between packing, we still got some time in for a good breakfast and some play time at the lake before also packing our worn out campers into the car. Ethan had a tantrum saying, "I don't want to leave camping!" and the other kids agreed with him, in slightly more mature fashion.

And when all was said and done, I had to agree with them. We made some great memories, survived the rain and cold, and had a lot of fun in the process! Maybe all of those dividends really were worth it, after all!

[And no, Peter, we don't need any more!].