Camping Round Two

This Monday evening we went camping again. The main reason for the trip was to visit with DH's Sister and her family while they were visiting their mom's cabin in Southern Colorado. It seems crazy to be so close to family and not get a chance to see them. So we drove a few hours South, and they drove a few North, and we met in the middle. We decided that driving there and back in one day would be too much for us all, so we camped the night before. The camping spot was beautiful, and we picked out a nice place to hike the next day with the family.

It turns out the site was also the dirtiest place in Colorado apparently. I've never seen such dusty, dirty dirt. And it was all over us. Here's the dirty baby, enjoying some goldfish crackers in front of the tent.

And here she is a bit later - even dirtier. She's got a yogurt mustache, and we were hard pressed to find a clean cloth to tidy her up with after she finger painted with her ketchup and mustard.

But eventually we managed to get her into the tent and ready for bed. She really got a kick out of the sleeping back and tent setup.

All she needed was a little cuddle from dad though, and she was out.

None of us slept that great that night though. DH and I were sure we heard bears off and on all evening. And then Natalie woke us up bright and early just about sunrise.

Here's a shot of the whole site that morning.

And here's the grumpy baby having some cheerios while we wait for the oatmeal, (and coffee) to be ready.

We went for a little walk around and got some good pics of the local 14ers.

We had a lovely morning, and then broke down most of the campsite while Nat had a 2.5 hour long nap in the tent. She was up just in time for us to go on our hike... but we were still missing the rest of the family, so we did some reading instead.

Turns out they'd made a wrong turn, and were running about an hour behind. We missed our chance to go on a hike before we had a hungry, cranky baby on our hands, so instead we planned our lunch.

Here's Natalie with her cousin Emma! They got a kick out of each other!

And here she is with her aunt Kirsten. Deciding on a place for lunch was very serious business, (and it turned out we did a bad job of it after all!)

On our way to lunch... checking out the local Salida color.

And at lunch! We had a nice seat out on the lovely patio. Which apparently the waitstaff forgot existed. Service was poor to nonexistent, and the party gave the food mixed reviews. Natalie kept torturing herself with the lemon wedges from our water. It made for some good pictures though!

Here we are, back at the car. Time to say good bye to the fam. There's Sam in the back seat of the car.
It was a nice visit. Natalie and I both got a bit sunburned from our very long lunch on the patio, (really, tacos shouldn't take two hours people), but maybe it was the sun that helped Nat sleep almost the entire trip back!

And when we got back, we got to have yummy brownies for our snack to reward us for a successful camping trip! Thanks for the brownies guys, they were great! We'll see you again in Austin in September!