With summer finally here and the 100 degree temps creeping up on us, it was time for our first family camping trip of the year. However it was a little like our own version of Clark Griswold's Family Vacation!!! In a nutshell:- Night before, we can't find our air mattress or pump.
- Send Kasey to the store (mistake!) for a new one.
- Kasey can't find it at Target (no idea why)
- He heads to Walmart. Buys the wrong things, Ryder loses all the bait & tackle Kasey picked out.
- Kasey shows up home at 10pm pissed but we all head off to bed excited (sort of) to camp in the morning.
- Heading out of town Saturday morning we hit two major road closures and their respective detours. Now we know why people drink and drive (kidding of course).
- Get to the campsite and sign says "FULL".
- Before losing it, we decide to talk to the camp host, luckily he had just noticed one family packing up to leave.
- SCORE! We get a site and start unpacking.
- The lovely camp host then comes by and tells us he forgot to tell us that the high winds mean no campfire!
- WHAT?! HOW CAN YOU CAMP WITH NO FIRE?!?!?!?!?!
- Try fishing. No luck there.
- Kasey and Ryder go to a different fishing spot and break Ryder's brand new fishing pole.
- Camp host then informs us we can do a charcaoal BBQ. $20 later (thank you overpriced gas station) we have hot coal.
- Camp host then informs us we can do a FIRE!!!! ($20 wasted) But alas we have FIRE and SMORES!!! Life is good.
All in all, we had a great time. Just seemed like what could irritate us, did go wrong.
This was the first time it was only Kasey, Ryder, and myself. So we kept it nto a short one night excursion. We camped at Christopher Creek near Payson AZ. The site was very rural (thumbs down) but it was very clean (thumbs up) and had a creek that ran right through it (thumbs up!!). Ryder had such a fun time with the creek. It was perfect for his age. He could walk in it and throw rocks. He was having fun finding worms under rocks and shooting his water gun. Kasey & Ryder tried to fish but it was unsuccessful. Poor guys!
The little, dirty, indians eating dinner in the tent because it started to rain on us. Luckily it was a short rain and we enjoyed rest of the night out side of the tent.
Kasey & Adam tried fishing quite a bit but didn't catch a thing. The kids enjoying the lake:
The area of Pinetop-Lakeside was BEAUTIFUL and cooler. We left 110+ sunny Phoenix for 80 degree, partially cloudy weather with big pine trees everywhere! The only bad thing was we were a little disappointed with our actual campsite. It sat about 100 yards from a major 6 lane road. So much for "wilderness"! But we made the most of it and we scoped out a new site that was much nicer for our next camping trip. We spent most days fishing...or should I say trying to fish! We did catch a few small fish quite a few times. Ryder LOVED it!! He thought fishing was quite possibly the best thing ever! After him nearly destroying a real pole, we eventually we bought him a 30" Spiderman kids pole and he had even more fun with that. It had a little plastic red fish on the end and he caught that one again and again, and was just as amused as the first time! Everytime he reeled it in, he would say "I caught one!". He also kept saying it was a baby fish and he would take it for a walk looking for its mama! Too cute!!
Throwing rocks was another fun time. Ryder would count "ooooonnnnneeeee.....two.....three...TEN"! And huck the rock as far as he could. This probably had a little to do with why he couldn't catch many fish! He scared them all away.
One evening we hiked to the backside of a lake and made a campfire next to the shore. Mindy taught Ryder the a-b-c's of campfire building and he really did help! He gathered lots of wood and then Mindy showed how to stack them in a tee-pee formation:
Of course, every night was dinners made on the campfire (yum yum), and then plenty of S'mores (YUM YUM
