Camping

This past weekend was Rollie's last weekend of his sabbatical. We went camping with 26 adults and kids from our small group at church! Friday morning we drove up to a campground near Camp Verde, AZ. We found a some sites that worked for our large group and started setting up. The weather was perfect during the day, around 80 degrees. It was pretty cold that night, hitting 37 degrees, quite a bit colder than anticipated. The beauty of living in the desert is that you can go camping at the end of October.

I think there were 12 kids on this trip, the oldest being 7 and the youngest was 2 months. I'm highly impressed with our friend Megan for camping with her 2 month old Caleb! Very few of the kids took naps that first day, and quite a few of them woke up during the night as well :(  The next day was much better, though. We had a fantastic time. Kids were filthy, cooking was an adventure, and there was plenty of time for the adults to sit back and relax around the campfire. Some went off-roading Saturday morning, some went hiking, and some stayed at camp and just talked. We played bocce ball during nap time. Here are pictures from our hike:

Alice and James

I LOVE this picture of the dads and their little guys!

The kids loved roasting marshmellows after dinner. Here's a silly video of Lydia and her "mashmellows":

Rollie and I both grew up camping and love doing it (I admit that it is A LOT of work to prepare for and clean up after, though). We camp several times a year as a family and can't wait go again next spring. Here are some random pics from our camping trip:

beautiful Mena, who knew how to get out of her tent :)

Clara

 Valerie and Toby

Owen and Judah

Chloe, Rollie and Ben

Ben, Lydia and James