Camp Cutler

We had a really fun weekend together as a family! We went camping!! This is only the second time Bailey has been camping. We left Friday evening and went to the upper campgrounds at 5 Springs. We got there kind of late, so we hurried and set up before it got too dark. Ken was so excited to use all the camping equipment he's been collecting. He got to use his Dutch Oven and he baked a PERFECT cherry cobbler...it was SO good!! He said it was even worth his burnt finger. We also got to try out our new camp stove and lantern. It was SO warm even at night! The kids just had a blast and they did great! We were trying to keep them quiet because we had neighbors, but they had SO much fun!!

(This picture got out of order, so the explanation is at the bottom!)

The mighty mountain men cooking breakfast

Good morning!

Ready for anything!!

Taysum was so proud of the sand/pine needle castle he built

A closer look at the "Dragon Castle"

After we broke camp, we decided to hike to the Medicine Wheel. Ken had never been there and I hadn't been there since middle school or since they restored it. It was really fun to see again. It is a Native American marker bevieved to be used during religious ceremonies. A lot of people have left blankets, beads and other offerings tied to the fence. The parking lot was full when we got there and we were really surprised at how many people were there from all over: South Dakota, Maryland, Colorado, etc.

We saw a HUGE rainbow (sundog) around the sun!

Taysum and Bailey were both exhausted and fell asleep on the way down!

We had a couple scares on the way home...we nearly burnt out our breaks! We stopped (thankfully we were able to!!) and they were just smoking like crazy! So, we pulled over and had lunch and let them cool! That was our "grins and giggles" moment for the trip. (When I was young, we'd go to the mountains a lot and Dad would always want to do something just for "grins and giggles": try to drive through a snow drift, try to drive through a creek, try to go up that REALLY steep road, hike up that mountaing "really quick," etc. Needless to say, no one was grinning or giggling!!) We were very blessed and able to get home just fine! We made one more "diaper" stop on the way home. We pulled over at a construction site. The kids are into "Bob the Builder" right now and they were really excited to see the machines. We let them go see them and Bailey ran right up to one. She was so excited about it. I happened to look down and right next to her foot was a (at least) 1 in. thick SNAKE she was almost stepping on! I haven't been that scared in a long time! I screamed and my first thought was to stay very still and somehow grab her away. Then I noticed that the head had been cut off and it wasn't even alive. Oh man, I was so thankful, but I still snatched her up, held her very very close and told Ken we were leaving NOW!! When we got home we went to the wading pool at the park. We were all really worn out, but we had such a fun time just hanging out as a family!!

The kids were so great the whole time, but Bailey got pretty beat up! She tripped over and over at the campsite and one time she really crashed and burned and scraped up her elbow pretty badly. She also got some splinters in her hands we had to get out with a needle! We distracted her with a movie at home and she said "ow" once and then didn't make a peep the whole time! She also was bit by a mosquito right under her eye and the next morning it was swollen shut! It's looking better today, but she looks pretty beat up! Smiles, joy of living, grins and giggles!!