We debated back and forth whether or not to go on the ward campout. We have a baby who is quite active, and runs away with no care in the world where his parents are. I mean if he sees us, he loves us, smiles and runs to us and wants us to pick him up. But you wouldn't know that he did love us by his running. Also, he is a good sleeper, but he has to be alone, he won't fall asleep in my arms at church. He barely falls asleep in cars, and mostly he just needs to be alone. So this whole tent thing was going to be tricky.
We arrived at the site with only a few minor problems, Siri took us to the sand dunes, where we got stuck and a family who timed it perfectly that day to leave their campsite and go see where they had gotten stuck the night before... and they helped us get unstuck.
Its the small miracles.
We thought we had my tent here, which is a four man, but we had Brad's sister's tent, which we took a gamble that it would be a four man...nope 2 man. So the pack and play idea was out.
Camping just got real.
No pack n play. So we had a rollie pollie with us all night. I made him a bed, put 4 layers on him, but it was in the 40s and he doesn't keep a blanket on him, so I put him next to me, keep the little monkey warm. Basically he took up the entire air mattress, because everytime I tried to scoot him over, he cried, so I just stopped moving him in the night. Brad and I shared less than half of the air mattress, and Miles mostly slept using my stomach as a pillow, and Brad kept pulling the blanket up over us, and I kept pulling it down because it was over Miles head. My shoulders were chronically cold. And my boob not to mention...because I'm still nursing, and since we didn't want to wake up the entire campground IE our ward, I just basically nursed him all night.
If a picture is worth 1000 words, or what our night was like... Here it is. But somehow he wakes up happy as a lark.
Three is definitely a crowd.
Especially when the 3rd is an overactive toddler.
Who is hot and cold with his happiness.
And, his favorite thing to do was just explore and pick up all the rocks and sticks-and lick them of course.
It was a chilly morning!
But so beautiful.
We sat around the warm fire when we woke up.
We stayed around the fire, until I took the trek to the bathrooms to get Miles in a new diaper and relieve myself. You see, it was quite a hike to the potty, and I did pee in the bushes a few times to avoid that trek.
We enjoyed sitting around the fire, watching the buffalo across the lake.
Miles never enjoys sitting.
On our way back from the bathroom we took pictures by the lake.
It really was so pretty.
A nice escape from Lubbock.
We talked about Brad's picture taking skills after this...how somehow he managed to get the light in every picture.
And he didn't even notice it was ruining the natural beauty.
But the point is, we documented, light and all.
We loved it. It was such a nice break from the hustle and bustle.
We need these breaks.
Here we switched, and after a picture I noticed the light..
So I tried again, but dang, the light still made the pic :)
It was hard to see the screen in the blaring light-
Aside from Brad's eyes, I love this pic.
We love the outdoors.
And grabbing things..
If Brad were to drop him, it would not be in water...surprisingly the dock was not over the water.
I always wonder what he is thinking. He is probably like a puppy. I wanna lick I wanna lick I wanna bite I wanna bite....but sometimes I think he knows....he knows how to act. So I like to think he has deeper thinking than that.
After all...
Its moments like these that may seem simple to the eye, but in these moments I get all giddy and cannot contain the love that fills inside of me. The love for these two, its the thing that gets me up in the morning, and it keeps me real. It keeps me happy.
I am so grateful for these two. In so many ways. I am grateful for Miles, because he is making me a better person, making me care about things that are really important, taught me how to love deeper and stronger, and teaching me the importance and reality of eternal families. He is teaching me that small things bring joy, like the sound of ripping tape, and the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board while cutting carrots. He has brought happiness into my life, and been my little companion during this difficult time of medical school away from our family and loved ones. He loves me and forgives me instantly (please last forever) and his kisses and hugs are worth every pain I have ever suffered. I am grateful for Brad, that he is such a dedicated hard worker, and that he cares about his life path, and he wants to be the best he can be, and that even though he has difficult tasks at hand, he stays calm and collective, and he continues to be diligent and accomplishes the task at hand.
He just mentioned to me that he wants to do his best in this current class, and he is scared that he won't receive the highest grade because it is so difficult, but he then said, "I'll only be mad at myself if I didn't do my best." Then I thought, wow that is such a great way to look at life. If we all do our best and still fall short, we have to know that we did our best, and sometimes winning, or becoming valedictorian, or whatever trophy wasn't our path, but yet the journey was our true purpose. Not saying the grade isn't important, but yet, doing our best is most important.
Now that I have gotten all deep, lets switch gears and watch Miles try to get out of the tent. He is so graceful.
It was quite painful to watch him. He would try to walk out, but then would just end up tripping, and falling on his face. Then be all tangled. He would pull his legs, but the tent kept bending and he could never get them over.
And the tent kept giving and he kept squiggling out of there..
And once he was out, he was free as a bird.
He thought he was the coolest, and just escaped with no turning back.
I took lots of pictures of him trying to get out because it really was funny to me.
It took him at least 2 minutes everytime. Best part is...he didn't even whine or cry, he just kept grunting and pushing and grunting knowing that the end was near.
Wow, hows that for a scenery shot? There are buffalo in that picture-I promise.
Oh thats a little better.....I promise we saw buffalo.
And to finish with my favorite picture of the trip. This baby bear who although was a complete whirlwind in our freezing cold night-loved every minute of his first camping trip.
Thank you Caprock Canyon for reminding us of the beauty of this earth, and bringing us back to reality.
That even if we lived in a tent, and froze every night, and ate only smores (due to us not being smart enough to bring anything to eat for dinner-and thankfully being saved by a kind souls spare tin foil dinner) family, is the only thing that really matters.
