Almost Camping

 If you know me, then you know, I am not a good camper.  The outdoors -- I love it.  Hiking -- awesome.  Nature and wildlife -- I never feel happier than when I'm among them.  But sleeping outside -- nope, I don't do it.  Have I?  Sure.  Do I like to?  Not one bit.  I have a terrible combination -- a bad back (had a surgery several years ago bad) and being a terrible sleeper.  This tends to mean a long, cold, uncomfortable, sleepless night, and a very cranky mommy the next day. 

So, we prefer what I like to call, modified camping. We take the kids, and often the dogs, and we head out for the woods.  We go for a long hike.  Often we go way back, off trails, or on rarely used trails.  We explore, let the dogs off their leashes, enjoy the beauty of nature to it's fullest.  Then, when we're done, we find a campsite, start a fire with wood we've brought, cook out hotdogs, smores, play around the campfire -- you know, the best parts of camping.  Then we put the fire out.  Pack everyone into the car, dirty, tired, and smelling of yummy camp smoke, and head home, where we snuggle into our warm beds, use a real toilet, and wake the next day refreshed, happy, and able to shower.  Perfection! We had such an outing two weekends ago in American Fork Canyon.  It was lovely.

 Wednesday was booking it along the trail that day. We could hardly keep up.  She kept shouting back, "look out for that branch," and "there's a turn up ahead".

 

Angus carried this stick the whole way, then when we got to the turn around, he planted the stick, claiming the mountain for us. :)

 Every now and again, we would break through the trees and into a lovely clearing or meadow.  We brought a ball for Olly in our bag and he would run and play.  Bailey, the bassett hound, would sniff thoroughly.

Those are some happy kids!

 Dad brought up the rear, making sure the hound dog made it all four miles.  Wednesday tired at the turn around, and I was very thankful that she's super skinny, as I carried her the last two miles on my back in the ergo, which I had shoved into our hiking pack.

 When we were done on the hike, we headed to a campsite.  Dad started a fire for us.

While they waited for the fire to build enough to cook, the kids climbed...

...and pretended to roast marshmallows on the unused grill.

Once the fire was nice and roaring, we roasted hot dogs and made smores, and ate!