A Campin' We Will Go

On Tuesday, we got an email from the Winn's, inviting us to go camping this weekend with a group from Phoenix CRC.

Since Paige has been begging me to go camping for months now, I knew what was coming next. I came home from work, and the first thing I said was "So have you packed up the van yet?"

She just smiled.

So Friday we headed out of town for Larson's Ridge north of Payson. Us, and about 1 million of our closest friends...

This guy had a great license plate... GLBLWMR

We got up to the campsite at night, set up our tent, and unloaded enough stuff from the van to alert the Visa fraud department.

No, really.

When we got home yesterday, I hit play on the answering machine and listened to the old messages. One was from the Visa fraud department, saying to call immediately about suspicious activity on our account. Just as I was about to ask Paige what that was about, she sheepishly said "I may have spent a little bit of money at Walmart getting ready for the trip." And by "little bit" she apparently means "enough to get Visa worried."

I still haven't dared check our bank account to see exactly what that means...

She did, however, pick up this fancy outdoor toilet, which I enjoyed the view from the next morning.

We mainly went for the "how easy can we make each meal" method of camping, so the first morning it was premade (homemade!, clarifies Paige over my shoulder) muffins.

My lovely camping wife, who brought me along on this lovely trip, despite me dragging my feet. The last time we went camping (4 years ago,) both my dog and my truck died the same day, so I feel I have a valid excuse. Paige argues otherwise.

The girls brushing their teeth the first morning. At least dental hygeine was observed by one memeber of our family while camping, at least for the first morning. I, on the other hand, spent the entire camping trip missing a crown on my tooth, since it fell off on Friday at lunch.

The kids caught a horny toad (or tortise, as Kaley kept calling it.)

All the kids eagerly built a "house" for it, complete with a stick "fence." From which it promptly escaped. Over and over. And was then scooped back up and plopped back into the bucket.

The Addink camping setup.

The group site.

It threatened to rain on Saturday, so a bunch of the kids ended up in our tent coloring and playing games. We ended up with only a couple of sprinkles.

The adult men enjoyed other forms of recreation.

Levi, despite being in the great outdoors, with a ready supply of approximately 1 billion pinecones (which he eagerly collects from the park at the end of our street) wanted nothing more than to play his VSmile.

I did manage to get him to engage in other outdoor activities. For which I was scolded by his mother.

Luke, running on too little sleep, waiting for his dinner.

The kids enjoyed Cheetos by the fire.

And marshmallow smores as big as their heads.

Noah gave his one thumb up (his other thumb was busy feeding marshmallows into his face.)

Ella tried out roasting her own.

I'm sure somewhere in between Cheetos and marshmallows, we actually fed them a real dinner.

The next morning, Carol entertained our kids while we packed everything back into the van.

Then a lunch of grilled cheese and strawberries.

Ella claimed her strawberries were rotten, and was none too happy about it.

The many faces of Noah and Levi.

Luke, enjoying the serene mountain views one last time before we left.

Orrrrrrr, screaming for his life that he was stuck on a stump, while his mean old dad told him to wait so he could take a picture...

All in all, despite the call from Visa fraud (or possibly because of it) we had a great time camping. We got very little sleep, washed off 15 tons of dirt from the kids and dog when we got home, and are all mildly dehydrated. But we got to spend some good quality time in the woods as a family, roasting marshmallows, catching horny tortises, and tromping around the woods.

And now that we can go again without alerting Visa fraud department (because we own every camping accessory that Walmart sells,) Paige declares we will be doing this again soon.