camping with cuties...

we live near an amazing alpine canyon but it took me a year to get up there in a tent. luckily i had two great reasons to head up--my girls.

we have a tradition of 'special days' with the kids. a special day can be with mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, an aunt or uncle. a few years back i had an experience with michael in joshua tree that remains a highlight of my relationship with him. i figured it was time to get out one on one with the girls and get to know them a little better.

we loved it.

the trips were two weeks apart. abby went first. it was mid-week and the we almost had the canyon to ourselves. we started at walmart and wendys. she loved picking out the items we would eat on the trip and directing me to the different items. with drinks and food in hand we headed up the canyon. out first stop was the scout/church campground where we ate by the river to eat our food and she played on the slide. there were young men/ young women events planned for the evening so i figured life would be peaceful further up the canyon.

you can see abby here after her wendy's...

after that we headed up the road to one of my favorite spots in the canyon. the lookout point here makes me feel like i'm on a european alpine slope. as you can tell from my dancing abby, this is a spot she enjoyed as well.


after the look-out point we headed up to salamander flat, went hiking (which i mostly just have video of) and then set up our camp. my dad would have been proud of how interested abby was in helping set up the camp. i put our bags in the tent and went back to the car. when i returned, abby had unpacked our foam mattresses. when she heard me returning she announced that my shoes needed to stay out at the 'shoe spot'.

she loved the headlamp (as all my kids have so far.) one sweet moment of the trip was after we were ready for bed and turned out all the lights. we were about to lie down for the night and abby looked out the tent plastic and said, 'the stars!' i couldn't help but pull open the tent flap and lie under the stars with her. she was in awe. she looked and looked and even starting singing for a while. it was probably 45 minutes later before we went to sleep--45 minutes very well spent...

the next morning, my battery went dead, so i have no proof of our ramen noodle breakfast, our hiking expedition through the creek. both were lots of fun with my sweet abby.

after the trip i feel like our relationship is better. she is more verbal with me and i feel like we connect better when i speak with her. what a great time.

in the following weeks, bekah alluded often to her upcoming 'special day' in the mountains. it hadn't been officially planned that i would take them both camping separately, but with bekah referring to her coming camping trip i knew i'd better get it planned and done before snowfall (so i'm a cold wimp...)

when the day came bekah was excited. she was definitely anxious to prove she was a good hiker, climber and camper. we stopped by walmart, roxberry and little caesars for our pre-camping meal. we headed directly to the reservoir and headed out on a hike. unlike with abby, the leaves had turned and were colors everywhere. both my girls love to run along the trail (but that has been the case since the moment we took them out in public together--they like to run everywhere.)

bekah has several favorite colors--chief of which is orange. she was in heaven with the colorful leaves and much of our discussion revolved around that. i would point out mount timpanogos every time it came into view. several times after pointing out mount timp she would say, 'it's too bad she died.' apparently the story of princess timpanogos made an impression on her...

we found a log that crossed the creek en route to our hike. bekah loved it. she crossed it over and over. at one point she was instructing me how to start, how to walk across etc. our last trip across as the sun was setting she lost her balance and as she fell she took the initiative, jumped in feet first, landed on her bum and hopped back up and scampered up the rocks to safety. very proficient. she was tearful and shocked by the cold.


however, she loved hanging out near the fire in her blanket after the fact. we cooked on the new grill, ate oreos, warmed up and talked. bekah was in a silly mood and was glad to be on her special day.

i worked earlier in the day the next day and the gear was wet so we broke camp early and headed home to set it out in the sun.

overall, it was great times all around. i would love to make trips like this at least a yearly event with each kiddo. it means a lot to them and it means a lot to me.