Backpacking Trip

Well I am finally getting to blog about the most awesome backpacking trip that we took with some of Jason's family. It was so much fun. There is this little place right here in Dayton called Pocket Wilderness. There are all kinds of trails, a couple of campsites, and some waterfalls.....it's beautiful. It's quite a shame that we really don't go up there more, but I think after this little trip we will most definitely be going more often. Here's the group of us that set out to go...The man on the far left is Jason's dad's cousin (his son in front of him). The two couples in the middle are 2 of Jason's uncles(Scott and Steve) and their wives (Diana and Angie)...and of course our family. Although Austin did not go with us. We really wanted to take him, but it was about a 2 mile hike in, so we felt that even taking Lily may have been pushing it (since she often still enjoys being carried herself). Here's the 4 of us getting ready to begin our hike.

Taking a break....notice the double hats and sunglasses on Jason's head...

Me and my little boy...

Anyway....I've been backpacking before, but never on an overnight trip. It was quite different trying to pack everything we'll need for overnight...and for 2 kids....in a backpack. Especially when we didn't have all the cool lightweight stuff that Uncle Steve and Aunt Angie had. But it was a lot of fun hiking in there and getting all set up and cutting our own firewood...

...and swimming in the creek...

...and cooking our dehydrated dinners (which were suprisingly tasty) over the little propane stove that Uncle Stevie brought. (There are no pictures of the marshmellow roasting and smore making, but we MOST definitely made room for that stuff in the backpacks).

And Daniel pretty much adored Uncle Stevie the whole trip. I loved the picture above of him b/c this is literally about as far as he ever got from him...plus he rarely took his eyes off him. We also popped some very yummy popcorn over the little stove. Then the kids took the bag around to let everyone get a handful.

This little lightweight hammock was one of the really cool things that Aunt Angie brought and I think she definitely agrees it was WELL-worth the 3 lbs. that it added to her bag. Uncle Steve and the kids (esp. Daniel) spent most of the evening in it.

And this....would be the little tent that we decided to bring with us backpacking. "Oh...it will be so much lighter than our 4 person tent," my husband tells me. Well....there's a reason for that....its TINY!! To his defense, we didn't know Lily was going to join us on the trip til last minute. And it was funny because we did have to sleep rather close and at one point Lily said, "Mommy turn on the air!" But, hey...it was just one night! And it really would have been harder to carry the bigger tent.

Gathered around talking before bed...

And here we are the next morning getting ready to head out! There is smoke blowing in front of us; and Lily is saying "Ow" in the picture since she touched a piece of wood from the fire.

And here we are headed out. That would be my pack that I carried...the sleeping bag hanging from the bottom. And Lily about carried that bag of peanuts the whole way out too.

All in all, it was SOO much fun. The kids weren't ready to leave. So later that week we actually ended up driving to a little campsite and taking Austin with us. They definitely enjoyed that a little more....just the whole idea of camping without walking....and getting to sleep in a 2 room tent verses a 2 person tent. :) Yay for camping!!