call us crazy...

Although this picture isn't really in focus I LOVE it!
This is Garrett's normal face these days! Enjoy!

Garrett's done with school until the end of August, yea!!!! And he's jobless for now, so you can imagine his boredom, so... he has been begging me to let us go camping. I had been saying no because of the chilly weather, especially at night when it dips down into the 30's. Can you imagine 2 kids and adults for that matter in a tent (in a van down by the river... J/K) outside in 30 or below temperatures!!! Well, call us crazy, but we decided last minute to go.
So we convinced these crazies to come with us...

Meet Richard (otherwise known as Dick) and Erica and their 2 kids, Ella and Ruby -only one pictured! as well as half of Ciella.

Their actually really fun friends and we are sooo glad they braved the cold and a little rain with us! Thanks Smith's we had a blast! We hope to officially deem you our camping friends.

Deemed!

We went only about an hour from our house to Letchworth State Park. Also known as the Grand Canyon of the East! It was a beautiful park. But not what I expected, I thought you could play in the water falls, and you could if you wanted to die. We just weren't really feeling "death" so we opted to just look.

The Upper falls

Middle falls

we never made it to Lower falls, oops!

Here's our little camp site. Garrett purchased some great smoke, I mean great firewood. But we mostly enjoyed the huge bellows of smoke that, as usual, seemed to follow you where ever you sat around the fire! You can only imagine how good I am smellin' right about now!Over all it was a fun trip but it did get pretty cold, I'd say it bordered on freezing the morning after our first and only sleep. Thankfully our much smarter then us friends brought hot chocolate supplies. I might have died with out it!
We got there late afternoon Saturday( the weather was nice) and had planned to leave Monday afternoon. But with the weather so cold and windy when we woke up, we enjoyed all day Sunday and left after dinner, bonfire and smores (known only to Ciella as snores, yes with an N), to enjoy our warm house and a much softer then an air mattress bed.
We enjoyed great camping food; Richard made us dutch oven Peach Cobbler and breakfast potatoes for their half of the food. We on the other hand went the lame route and BBQ'ed hot dog and hamburgers, and tried to make nothing fun or exciting. Good thing Richard was there! Otherwise we might have eaten hot dogs for breakfast too.

The landscape was beautiful.

The kids, Ciella and the 2 Smith kids, Ella and Ruby, had a blast playing together. Cadence would much rather play with dirt, grass or fire then other people, so she often did her own thing. Ciella is still asking when Ella's going to come play.

Ruby, Ella, Ciella

Ciella and Ruby enjoying a refreshment!

Although I am kinda surprised the kids all made it home alive. The park was infested with poison ivy. The kids often just wondered off across the camp road when no one was looking. At night the Smiths were getting their kids ready for bed when little Ruby sneaked right out of the tent! Thankfully we were there to stop her from getting to far. I think the Smith's now owe us their first born son. And it was practically freezing.

Favorite camping moment:
When Ciella said to me after a
huge tantrum and I took away her ice cream,
" Mom, this is not berry fun"

Cadence was almost the perfect child during our stay. She ate a lot of dirt and sticks, a few chips and spilled more hot dogs then she ate.

She didn't really cry and slept surprising well after falling asleep on Garrett's shoulders.

We had a great time and can't wait for the weather to get warmer so we can go again and actually stay for the amount of time we paid for!!! Although Garrett would have stayed if I hadn't convinced him we'd freeze to death. The night we left it got down into the 20's! Yikes that would of been cold!