Rock Creek Camping 2013

It's hard to believe that it has been 3 years since we last came up here!  Bean was just a little younger than Boy was on this trip (and if I remember, harder to take camping!)  The weather was awesome on the way up.  Rain is one of the reasons (believe it or not) that I love coming up here.  It makes everything so green and smell so good.  I was excited to see it so overcast and near ecstatic when it started to rain on us as we drove past Strawberry Reservoir.  Unfortunately, this would be the only rain we got on this trip.  The rest of the time was perfectly sunny.  Darn.

As I hinted, Boy actually did pretty good on this trip, which was a small miracle considering that he is at that stage where he is into and all over everything.  Little difficult to take a crawler camping.  But we found creative ways to keep these little kiddos busy.

We took lots and lots of walks.

I told Bean she should be a rocket ship pretending to get back to camp safely. 

The Upper Stillwater Dam.  A little unnerving I suppose that we camp right below one of the largest dams (of its kind.)  But for a giant mass of concrete, it really is beautiful!  It's hard to tell in this picture, but the ranchers bring their cattle up here for the summer.  We've had cows walk right through our camp before.

Bean's home away from home.

This was S's idea: bring the old playpen from my parents' house and fill it with toys for the Boy.  He would stay in there and play happily for about 10 minutes at a time (which, sometimes, was all I needed!)  Grandpa J would sit next to him and keep him company.

I introduced Boy to the tent and he was in heaven.  This kid loves crawling on beds and the tent, to him, was one giant bed.  Incidently we brought a tent up for S and Bean to sleep in.  Like at the cabin, I couldn't stomach the idea of both kids waking up screaming in the middle of the night.

There was a lot of sitting by the campfire--and roasting marshmallows.  S and I stayed up really late one night talking by the campfire.  I love my time with him after the kids go to bed.

S woke up early to go fishing one morning.  Unfortunately, this was the only fishing any of us did this trip.  I was pretty bummed, but Bean was just happy to hold the fish.  I was happy to eat the fish.

Bean spent the majority of her time in our trailer or my parents' motorhome, playing and coloring.  She was definitely easy to please this trip.

Our last evening there we took the kids for a hike up to the Upper Stillwater Reservoir.

It's sort of a rocky climb but Bean did great!

This trip I continued the J family tradition of Treasure Hunts.  Growing up, my mom would have several treasure hunts for me when we would go camping.  There are several clues along the way and, at the end, a fun new toy or treat to play with.  I always thought they were so much fun when I was a kid, but, as the adult in charge now, I think they are equally (if not more) fun to set up and watch!

I love this.  It's the last clue and her 'treasures' are 'hidden' at the base of her seat.  She stood there looking around for about a minute until she actually saw them!

Still confused.

It was a great camping trip.  My heart tangibly aches to go back up there again.  I certainly hope that it is not 3 years before we get the chance (and I hope we are able to stay a little longer next time.)