That one time camping...

When Uncle David worked at Cabella's, we decided to buy some camping equipment with the help of his amazing discount. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, David is now a doctor. Like a real doctor, working at one of the best hospitals in the world.  And we hadn't used that camping equipment until last month :-/

So finally, we busted out the beautiful tent, the sleeping bags, and all the other crazy things a family packs to head into the wilderness for a few days (plus of course, all the crazy things we need for Avery like her nebulizer - with a car inverter to be able to use it - her medicine, her percussor in lieu of the vest, a massive supply of sanitizing wipes, etc.). We made a plan with Kari and her boys, and we were off to spend an awesome weekend camping for Father's Day.

Things were off to a good start. Kota even fell asleep on the drive up:

We found a great spot in Nederland...

Kota loved all the room to explore:

We set up the tent...

The kids loved hiking around:

Dad used his awesome new coozy that plays the themesong from Rocky:

Kari's camper was a HIT (and so awesome for cooking our meals!):

We had a successful first day, complete with s'mores after dinner:

AND THEN, we look over to find Avery had crawled out of the tent during bedtime. She's a sneaky little one. She then continued to scream bloody murder for over an hour. That was not so awesome... no one really slept that night:

Deliriously tired after a 4am wakeup for mom and Avery, we took an excursion to go on a hike near Brainard Lake and to hit the carousel in Nederland. We had a blast on both adventures, that's for sure!

The kids thought it was so cool to see snow on the ground when it was like 80 degrees!

Before the carousel, Jeff took the kids fishing in a little pond near town, Benjamin caught his first fish!!

And this is where things went downhill... Avery didn't nap and was being a little devious, can you tell from her face here!?

 The kids were having fun, but Avery was just constantly screaming, whining, complaining, going nuts...

 Despite her cute face (occasionally)...

You can tell that dad is not a happy camper here...

Tickles from Noah...

 Helping Auntie Kari do dishes:

AND THEN we had to go home. :( We tried as hard as we could to stay that second night, but Avery was losing it, and Benjamin all of a sudden got very scared to go #2 in the woods. He was getting a tummy ache from holding it in for two days, so with all that trouble, we decided to eat and head home. It was just too much for mom and dad's sanity to stay. Such a sad bummer, but we did at least make it two days, so for now we'll call it a win. :)

She made dad hold her hand on the way home (Benjamin cried for about 10 minutes, not wanting to leave):

But the next day was Father's Day, so we did try to make it special with a family walk to get ice cream and a nice dinner in our backyard. We love daddy!!