*camping

Well Vera had her first camping experience this weekend. She would probably tell you she had a fantastic time - setting up the tent with daddy, poking around all the gear, feeding/watering Boone [as well as tricking him by throwing rocks - cracked herself up]. She also slept great - in the back of the truck with me. That was the part I was most worried about, but it was quite easy. She only popped up a couple times exclaiming "bats!" "bugs!" "boone!" before flopping over a couple times and beginning to snore [it helped I was going to bed too]. She probably got the best sleep of any of us... I happened to come down with a flu-like bug on the drive down, so my night was rather restless, cold and achy. I literally watched the moon slowly travel allllll the way across the sky, wondering if it would ever be morning. Ben slept in the tent, though he forgot his brand new sleeping bag/pad and slept on the cold hard ground [added later.. he did sleep in a bag, just not the nice new one!] :(

We headed out about 10:30 the next morning, planning to spend some time walking around Goblin Valley and the slot canyons, but Vera fell asleep within minutes of being in the carseat and I started to feel worse and worse. So we ended up just driving straight home! Strangely, though we didn't actually see what we went to see, and though I sat in the chair or laid in the truck the whole time, it was worth it. Worth it to drive through some beautiful country, worth it to see how happy and excited both Vera and Ben were, bustling around fixing up camp, getting dinner ready, etc. We had a cozy little soup dinner too and it was fun just being a family.

..so proud and happy to help with the tent..

..we were laughing at what a dusty little raggamuffin she was here and then as I took the picture she let out a big belch. lovely..