Camping Trip

I have always loved to camp. In fact before I got married I would camp almost every weekend during the summer, even if it just meant throwing a tent up late Friday night in a nearby canyon only to take it down at first light the next morning. When I am in the mountains I feel more alive, more like my true self.

Once I got married and then after Antalya was born, we still camped quite often. In fact, the within a week of Antalya getting released from the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) the three of us were sitting around a camp fire with friends for the weekend. She was still on oxygen (ya, I know, having my infant and an oxygen tank near a fire is not the smartest thing I have ever done - good thing I'm getting smart with age).

But then life caught up to us. And I suddenly realized it has been almost four years since I have been camping. So when my brother-in-law invited us to go camping with them, Jason and I jumped at the chance.

We were a bit nervous of how they would be with the campfire, how anyone of us would sleep all in one tent, and how to keep Antalya from wandering off, but they both did surprising well. Only once did Antalya wander off, and it doesn't even really count because she went to the horses at the camp next to us, they stayed a safe distance from the fire the whole time, and as far as sleeping in a tent - not a peep all night (which is a complete miracle for Antalya who normally wakes up crying several times a night).

I only got a few pictures before the camera died, but the girls loved roasting hot dogs over the fire, going for a hike the next morning, playing in the hammock, and even taking a short ride on the neighbor's horse.