Sunday, January 23, 2011

Winter Camp

We went camping Friday night with some friends. It was almost perfect. The only complaint we had was the temperature. We got up there and it was 34F - and the fire pit was really wet and cold. Consequently, it took a long time to get a fire going and hot. So we were real cold at first. We did have the best tin-foil dinners I've ever had so far; it just took them awhile to cook. Our friend Rachael had this great idea to get Reese's for the smores. So good! I love smores over the campfire, even the sticky mess.
That night it got down to 27F! But, we got these awesome sleeping bags as a gift from my parents. They were incredible. I was hot. Getting out in the morning wasn't very fun though.
But, I did and made oatmeal and hot chocolate - no wait on the fire that time:Maybe it is just me, but food when camping is so much better.
We did about a 6.5 mile hike (trail walk- not a whole lot of elevation change) and I'm feeling it in my legs this morning. The forest was really different from forests back in Utah, but it was still pretty- and the weather was perfect. By the time we left it was 55F and so pleasant.
I remember now how much I love camping and being outdoors.
(I apologize about the pictures, I am having a hard time uploading them onto the blog. For some reason, this was the only picture that will work. I'll keep trying and will post them when blogger starts working for me again)

Quick Rewind

So I am officially bad at updating this blog. So here is a really fast recap of the last month.
We had a good time in Hawaii with my family - no, I don't have any pictures. I'll scour some up from my sisters. But, we spent a lot of time at the beach, the pool, and watching football. I didn't get much color (any, actually) because I was really good at sunscreen. We went on a great hike with my Dad and brother (have to find those pictures, too - Dad, did we use your camera?). We hiked around a lava lake and some lava tunnels - and drove around the entire island. Rain, sun, forests, waterfalls, lava fields, beaches...it was quite beautiful.
After Hawaii we went back to Utah for my grandfather's funeral. He was a really great man, truly a hero.
When we got home, we picked and ate the fruit of our labors. Our sole tomato -guess which one we grew :) However, we ate it baked on a pizza and couldn't really taste it very much...but we are pretty sure it was good!
Sometime shortly thereafter, we helped this young woman clean her apartment - this photo was halfway through. It was disgusting. The stench was indescribable. Garbage of all sorts was strewn about, animal crap hidden intermittently. I am so grateful for my clean house!
I tried making baked sweet potato fries. They were actually pretty good, too.
and we've had game nights, football nights, reading nights, relaxing nights, and chore nights.
We have been trying to adjust our schedules forward since Mark has been getting up at 5:30am to go running. Last week we were pretty good at going to bed on time.
I think that is pretty much caught up to this weekend...our camping trip.