It's Over: Part 1

The worst thing about vacation is that it has to end! And the end always comes way sooner than it should. So, this last week Aaron had one of his three weeks of vacation this year. We couldn't afford plane tickets to fly home so we decided to take two mini trips during the week. On Monday and Tuesday we went camping!!!

Note: due to the high volume of pictures (which I was mocked for by loving husband), I will try to limit the narrative.

Have snacks, will travel.
And we also brought necessities like Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear and a light saber to fight off all the bears and wolves.
Ohhhh, look! A hill!
Little hikers ready to go with Light Saber in tow. Unfortunately, the light saber was left on the trail somewhere. Destroy is heartbroken.
Across the suspension bridge. Every time we crossed this the boys never failed to notice the good sized glob of poo on the bridge. Search was convinced that it was hippopotamus poo. We never did see any hippos though :)

Hiking normally went in this order. Search running ahead, Daddy close behind, and me and Destroy bringing up the rear. Destroy is a bit slow and unmotivated.

Daddy and boys on the top of a big rock.It's never to early to start rock climbing :)Mom and Search. Search is almost entirely out his his momma's boy phase. I'm happy and sad all at the same time. He's such a sweet kid (when he's not dumping hand fulls of flour on the floor or repeatedly kicking his brother in the stomach).

Family picture attempted in a cool "T-Rex" cave.

This hike was so cool because we got to climb up three or four ladders. The kids were in heaven, but I was a little scared about the combination of high ledges and spastic children. Aaron didn't tell me until after the hike that the trail map said that this particular hike was "very rugged". He's not going to let two little boys get in the way of his fun :)

Climb on!

Climbing...

Hi Mommy! Does our insurance policy cover dumb parents who take their toddlers on dangerous hikes?

You're not really supposed to look at the camera, right?

We asked Destroy to take our picture. Third...

time's...

a charm?

Break time. Do you notice how Destroy takes every picture with his arms out? He got this from his cousin Darci. Funny kid.A little bribery never hurt anyone (except for the fact that it's high fructose corn syrup)! They LOVE candy corn.Coming out of the narrow ravine where Aaron and I had to scale steep walls with a kid on each back. Obviously there are no pictures of that.

Braving the cold, cold water.

Cutie boy.

Finding rocks to throw into the water.

This tree is amazing because it grows off the end of a rock! I tried taking a picture of it last time we were there but it was the wrong time of day. I'm happy that this one turned out.We thought this giant rock looked like a shark fin, so they were pretending to be sharks.Making up for a lack of camping chairs. No wonder the car still smells like smoke...All tuckered out after hiking two miles! And I didn't even position them the same way or anything :)

We eat better breakfast while camping than we do at home!The next day we hiked 2 more miles and we saw a turtle right in the middle of the trail! I also caught a frog to show the boys. All Search and Destroy wanted to do was squish it though (their nicknames still fit them), so I stopped pointing out the wildlife.

Search has slowed down by this point, tired of all the hiking, to just walking with Daddy instead of running in front of him. I pretty much carried Destroy the whole two miles on my back.Next we went canoeing. We stopped a couple of times along the way when we found sandy beaches so the kids could play. Look, even Elmo grows a beard while camping. This photo looks doctored but Search just has a very poky rib. Little boys are made to play in the dirt. But somehow they weren't made to be cleaned up afterwards.On the canoe. Aaron and I decided to be daring while canoeing. About half way, when the river split, we decided to take the fork with a few rapids. All was going well until an unavoidable obstacle attacked our canoe and threatened to tip us. Water started gushing into the canoe, kids were crying, and parents were laughing (the water was only a couple of feet deep). Aaron had to step out of the canoe to turn it against the strong current. It was kind of funny. I thought about getting out to take a picture, but decided the boys might have issues if I abandoned ship while it was "sinking".No swimming or wading allowed in this river, but we can always pretend.

Proud parenting moment. Letting your two-year-old lead you across a slippery narrow ledge with a big fall (for a two year old).Search and Dad.I can blame blogging for inhibiting my compassionate motherly instincts. Instead of consoling my little boy who just face planted in the cold water, I run and grab my camera. Of course, my action to grab the camera was taken only after the promptings of the compassionate, consoling father :)So now he gets to be nude.A favorite, the covered bridge. And, no, that's not Destroy stretching his arms out, that's Search, the little copy-cat.

I'm finally done. That was too long of a post for such a short vacation!