We had another solo Thanksgiving this year.
But having my four favorite people around and really good food made up for it.
Continuing our new tradition, we went camping on Black Friday! The campsite was almost empty and we got there early enough to set up camp and explore the campsite. The kids wanted to tackle this:
It's steeper than it looks
Climbing with three kids, a camera, and my pregnant belly was harder than we expected, but we made it up by having Robb ferry the kids up one at time over the tricky places while I stayed behind with the rest.
It leveled off at the top and our little mountain goats had fun exploring.
We started making dinner at 4:50, which was great considering all I had to do was cook spaghetti. But late camping dinners seem to be inevitable for us because it took 45 minutes to boil water and cook the pasta (Robb says I used the wrong kind of pot, I think it was pre-destination).
Meanwhile we played several hands of Super Mario Uno and then the kids went off and played together on the rocks. I kept hearing Alice yell, "Don't worry, Colby! I'll help you!" and then see her grab his hand and pull him the rest of the way up. I love those two.
Robb started a campfire while I cleaned up dinner by moonlight (because by that point the sun was gone). He told me later that Colby and Alice were singing "Twinkle, Twinkle little Star" with Claire joining in with her own rendition.
We roasted marshmallows and made life changing s'mores (the secret is using Reeces Peanut Butter cups instead of the traditional Hershey's chocolate bar). Then we tucked the kids into bed after Robb told a "scary" (per Alice's request) story about three monkeys that were almost eaten by coyotes, but they stayed quiet in their tent and were safe...and several more stories along similar lines because the first was such a hit.
Robb and I sat out for another couple hours watching the stars, talking, and enjoying our fire before joining them.
We woke up at 1:30 am when a group of drunk boys drove into the campground and started yelling (they realized the rock formations created an echo) and cursing at each other for a solid 30 minutes before going home. I almost went to talk to them, but Robb reminded me that if I went out there was a good chance they'd slash our tires, so I stayed put.
The kids let us sleep in until 6:00 which has to be a record for us and then Robb made us pancakes while I packed up.
We tried getting a National Park stamp at the Fort Bowie Historical site once before, but didn't realize there was a hike in to get it. Apparently, it's been haunting Robb since then.
It was hot and we made it the 1.5 miles, but we had to stop every 15 minutes and the kids were dragging along. Colby dubbed the first 1/4 mile the "slippy trail" because of all the loose gravel. There were things to look at along the way, but the kids weren't interested until we found water. That got us to the park station. We ate our lunch on a bench outside and patched up Colby's arm after a fall. A breeze started blowing and everyone seemed to perk up. The hike back was so much fun. Colby and Alice took turns being trail leader and we started "zooming" (running when the trail went downhill). We made great time and all three kids were laughing and the older two were cracking jokes.
The kids became less and less impressed with the historical sites as hike went on.
At the Fort
My favorite part of the exhibit
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