Camping for Mother's Day

John asked what I wanted for Mother's Day. For months I've been talking about camping - so it finally worked out for us to go this weekend. When we left Phoenix it was in the 90's. After driving north for 2 hours we were at 6,700 ft elevation and the temperatures were downright chilly! First order of business was to change into warmer clothes. Mr. Intensity jumped out of the car to throw rocks into the lake (like Daddy) and I thought he was too close to the edge.

We found a rustic campsite (read: no amenities) and started making camp. As I helped unload the car, I noticed this friendly guy making his way to our tent:

It amazes me how yummy food tastes cooked over the campfire. Mr. Intensity ate like a champ. He had so much fun picking up scrap wood to toss into the fire. He was born for the outdoors.

We of course roasted "marsh-merrows" and had s'mores. Notice the hot chocolate mustache and stains on his shirt. He was in heaven - a boy's paradise.

When we weren't looking, he was a bit zealous and made himself a "marshmellow tree."

He was super thrilled about sleeping in the tent with Dad and Mom. I know there will be a day when it won't be cool for him to sleep in our tent, but I cherished it last night. (Note to Uncles Michael & Joel - he's wearing an Ale8 sock cap.)

and because he drank so much hot chocolate, he got up to go pee. I couldn't resist:

We awoke to the sound of coyotes this morning. They were really close and a lot of them. I've never heard coyotes before.

After breakfast, our friends (Ron & Bryce) brought out the guns. We went camping with them last year on Memorial Day weekend - pictures here. Just like last year, shooting fire arms was the highlight. Below he's firing a semi-automatic soft air pellet gun (or something like that.)

Then, he fired the Red Rider BB gun. Look at the concentration and intensity in his eyes.

OK - so it looked like too much fun for me to resist, so I had to try. It was really fun. Look at the expressions behind me - they thought it was fun, too. John thinks that Mr. Intensity should get one for Christmas...hmmm....

After the guns we went for a hike. Ron had a cool GPS that we used. We stopped for about 45 minutes to "play." A decaying pine tree became the object of his affection. He whacked and bammed another tree for a very long time. I have a video of this that I'll post later.

Even though we were gone for less than 24-hours it was very relaxing for me. Mr. Intensity was born for the outdoors. We had next to zero conflict with him and he was busy the entire time...and I didn't have to create fun things for him to do - he found them on his own. *yeah* I can't wait to go camping again.