Camping at Blue Mountain

We had a great time camping at Blue Mountain last weekend.

The boys love camping.  Morgan actually started packing the car on his own Friday morning after he got tired of waiting on his pokey parents.  And both boys buckled themselves in and waited in their car seats with books until it was time to go.  (:

 Hanging out at Camp Barber

 Having dinner in the screen tent.  This is a lovely little camping invention that we added to our inventory this year--it provides shade and has drastically reduced the number of times a boy runs screaming away because a bug or two have helped themselves to their food.

 We went on a long hike one morning to look for animal tracks and scat.  I, unfortunately, got sick right before we were supposed to leave for this camping adventure.  I didn't have the heart to cancel on the boys, so I went anyways (probably not the wisest choice, given I'm on day three of antibiotics and had to miss a day of work), but we managed even if I was sort of just a bump on a log the whole weekend.

 This is a huge petrified redwood tree stump we got to see at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  Colorado used to be filled with these big trees a very, very long time ago.

 We went on another hike through the petrified forest.  The boys had junior ranger workbooks, so they were looking for specific things to mark in their books.

We played by the river and the boys caught minnows

While Daddy tried to catch some real fish

 Morgan's way of roasting marshmallows...he's very anti-smoke-in-the-eyes

 Jacoby tackling roasting marshmallows like he does most things...very methodically and correctly.

 Can you see how dirty they are?!?!  They were filthy little creatures by the end of the weekend!

 I bought this silly game which has very little educational value, but somehow it makes the boys go looney tunes!  They just go crazy and get silly, in part I think because they like to gang up on Mommy (who still beats them so bad!).  It was the perfect way to spend time together in the tent before bed time (brrrr).

 We packed up camp and headed on our way Sunday morning.

  After we got cleaned up we were off to purchase a brand new washer and dryer!  Our old dryer has been screeching for a couple of months and the washer finally bit the dust late last week.  We really like this set and it actually reminds me of R2D2--it chimes, dings, and even sings a little melody when it's finished.  (: