Ben and I both grew up camping, but we haven't been since before Jarom was born. Camping while babies are little didn't sound like fun to us. So this was the year! Since we knew it would rain everyday in northwest AZ we decided to rent a camp trailer. We loved being off the ground, and the one day that it rained all afternoon, we were inside reading, playing games and watching a movie. We camped right off Black River and it was beautiful. We had our own path to the river with a little bank. The kids had fun walking up and down the river. The water was going pretty fast, so Thomas had to hold on to someone when he got in. The boys were so excited to fish, and we tried a few times in the river and at Big Lake. It was a pretty frustrating experience to everyone when lines get stuck, bait gets lost, lures disappear and mom and dad only have so many hands to fix the problems. In camp they practiced casting a lot and that wasn't as hard.
Packing to camp for a week felt like I had to bring the whole house with us. I thought I would forget tons of things, but between the six of us we thought of just about everything. Ben brought our camp stove to cook on and it was perfect. I felt like I had a chef, he cooked every meal for us. I loved the campfires, being all together, my king size corner of the camper, how beautiful it was, and watching the kids play in the water.
Jarom had accidently cut himself 10 days before and had 2 stitches in his arm. Ben took them out while we were camping. Jarom's favorite things about camping were sleeping in the camper- listening to the rain outside, swimming in the river, and fishing-especially watching Thomas try to fish.
Camille liked dad's food and the bagels, she had fun in the river, and she enjoyed having time to read.
Evan loved swimming in the river, fishing and waking up and seeing the bite out the bag of hamburger buns by a mysterious animal.
Thomas loved having his jacket on, swimming with Jarom, Camille, Evan and Thomas. Then he liked breaking a stick. (in his own words)
Thomas loved having his jacket on, swimming with Jarom, Camille, Evan and Thomas. Then he liked breaking a stick. (in his own words)
The second to last day we packed up the camper and drove to the ranch for the last night. It was great to be clean again! There was a huge storm coming in and we were glad we didn't have to wait the storm out camping and pack the next morning. This was a vacation we will all remember!
When we bought our plants in February we wanted to do tomatillos, but couldn't find any plants only seeds. We planted them then forgot we did it. They took forever to come up. When we finished our lettuce and pulled the pea plants that didn't survive very far into the summer, the tomatillos finally started getting big. As you can see the plants are huge with tons of blossoms... but no fruit. This weekend we did see three little tomatillos, so we will see what it ends up producing. Little onions on the left.
