Camp out at the Spruces

We had our annual family camp out at the Spruces over the weekend. Friday night we drove up the canyon after stopping to pick up some burritos and joined the family around the campfire. Kennedy had been looking forward to roasting marshmallows, and Macy got her first taste of the special treat. She really loved it. It turned out to be two and a half days full of sugar - hot chocolate, cupcakes cooked in orange peels, granola bars, graham crackers, juice...add this to Macy being able to play in the dirt all day, and she was in heaven!

Macy had been sick with a fever since Wednesday, so we didn't commit to spending the night until the last minute. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a mistake. She did not sleep well at all. That meant that we did not sleep well either - except for Kennedy who did not seem at all bothered by Macy's crying and squirming. Luckily our tent neighbors said that they didn't hear her until morning.

We had a nice breakfast of pancakes and eggs and then spent the day playing around the campsite. Kennedy and I built a nest for the birds, squirrels and chipmunks to enjoy. She was so engaged in the project, raking the pine needles into a pile, surrounding them with pine cones and rocks and green boughs, and then sprinkling the nest with peanuts. She told Jake's Aunt Kristy something like, "The squirrels will scamper down from the trees and just love this cozy nest!"


Kennedy was also really funny telling everyone that they needed to visit Torrey. It was like she was doing an ad for the city, but one of the things she was most interested in talking about were the numbers on the doors of the hotel rooms. Sometimes she just cracks me up!

Saturday night after the traditional Dutch oven turkey dinner, we decided to drive home and sleep in our own beds, but even that didn't go exactly according to plan. At 1:30am, Kennedy came in and asked to snuggle. In the process she woke Macy up, but we just let her cry this one out. Naps in a tent are tricky to say the least. It was easier to get Macy to fall asleep by taking her for a walk in the stroller, but that didn't quite get her all the rest she needed.

I had to spend a lot of time holding Macy - she'd desperately cling to me if I tried to pass her off, or if I did get her out of my arms, she'd cry and try to get back to me as fast as she could manage.

We headed back up for a breakfast of omelets in a bag, fruit and English muffins on Sunday, but decided not to bother cleaning the girls up. They had both fallen asleep in the car on the way home the night before, so no one got a much needed bath. Of course that didn't matter because they had one more day to get dirty, which they did by playing in the sand and water, building castles and rivers and tunnels with the bigger cousins.

The most exciting thing was to learn that the nest had actually worked! Kennedy was thrilled that some of the peanuts were gone, and we were even able to see the mountain jays come down from the trees to grab the last of the nuts.

So then we had to build another nest that would be just for the squirrels, but it seems that they weren't as interested in the salt and vinegar chips that we left for them.

After we took the girls on a walk with Eliza riding along on her bike, we came back to camp to take the tent down, play one last board game, and then head home. But before we left, we were rewarded with a moose sighting!

It's nice to be able to spend this time with Jake's family, even though it was a little bittersweet this year because they had just put Grandma Lu in a care center. We love the opportunity to be able to visit, do creative projects, play games, and spend time in such beautiful surroundings. All that, and we sure do eat well when we're camping! I guess all this makes the five loads of laundry I did on Sunday night worth it.