So worth the effort

Something I've thought a lot about recently is life, happiness, effort and children.  Those dang kiddos make everything so much harder!  But they bring whole new levels of emotion and meaning to everything for me.  So this year, we're putting lots more effort into getting outside, and it's been so fun.

We just got back from our first camping trip of the year, and our longest trip so far (3 nights-wootwoot!).  We went to Mineral Park campground, just outside of North Cascades National Park, with 2 really good friends.  They brought the Vanagon, while we slept in tents, which the kids love.

Breakfast in the Westie, with Aspen's baby

We talked about going out for a hike, but decided to play on a toddler-friendly scale.  We hiked around our camps, ate salmonberries and huckleberries, took naps.

River "hopping" around camp.

Hunting and eating berries is serious business to Aspen

berry-finding 

River's hungry face

I'm really glad we kept our goals super small.  This was River's first camping trip since he was 8 months old, and I think just living outside for 3 days was enough for him to acclimate to, without the grown ups having a bigger agenda.

Laura telling River about plants

Bubba and Aspen peeking in a tree cave

The kids found the days exhausting, and needed more food than usual.  Sleep too.  It took a little while to realize that.  I've started keeping notes of our trips outside, hoping to learn from the past.

So we slung up a hammock for resting and a slack line for playing.

At least, that was what we thought.  Aspen had other ideas...

Laura helping Aspen walk on the slack line

Bubba came back from taking Aspen to the bathroom with a story: she had stopped in the middle of the path, and he told her she could go ahead.  Aspen says "Daddy, I can't, because I'm scared of that," pointing to a deer 15 feet away from her.  Aspen's biggest nature experience to date.  The deer hung around our camp quite a bit that night, and we saw him a lot.  He was young, and has a lot to learn, that deer.

River's first marshmallow

Aspen with a "classic" smore

On our way out there, I saw a smoke shop, but it was old, and I thought it said Smore Shop.  And a new dessert fad was born!  After the kids went to bed, we tried out all kinds of smores for my new business venture: classic smore with dark chocolate, dark chocolate with gingersnap, graham cracker with salted caramel peanut butter chocolate truffle-you'd think it would have been too much, but no, it was amazing.  We'll have to work on coming up with different combinations in our future trips.

Napping baby, snuggly forest floor, peach and a book.  How awesome is that?

And then River surprised us by coming out of the tent after his nap.  Apparently he learned how to work the zipper.

It was hard to get out, and we got back the day Bubba had to go back to work, but I'm so glad we went.