Well, a brief summary of the camping, but not so brief as last time.

Friday evening we left Denver late enough that we stopped to eat dinner at Chipotle. This was mistake number one. Don’t eat beans while sleeping in a tent with your wife. Don’t eat beans while sleeping in a camp ground where others might hear you reap the rewards of bean eating. Don’t put two bean eating tents together lest those tents produce a ‘call and response’ sort of passing wind festival of beans.

Mistake number two was that I left the air mattress at home because the car was full. I should have left home the three pounds of trailmix I bought. My back was incredibly sore that night. I was also incredibly not sleeping. Abby didn’t sleep well either, which means that Jessica and I didn’t sleep well on top of anything else that might have caused us to not sleep well [rocks].

Mistake number three was not bringing matches or a flashlight. Fortunately we had a small flashlight in the glove compartment of our car (we never have gloves in there!). That flashlight lasted all weekend long… which was amazing. The Kaes and the Doyle’s brought plenty of camping supplies that made up for our lack, but I still felt silly.

Note to self:
Make a checklist next time and don’t forget the hatchet.
Second note to self:
Buy a hatchet. You read the book in Jr. High, you know that with a hatchet you could rule the world.

We had a great time and on Saturday, since the Doyle’s had to leave the our family and the Kaes family went for a hike. What fun it was. Craig ripped down a tree with his bare hands (and a little help from me). Smokey the bear shortly thereafter hunted him down and ripped him down with his bear hands. OK, not really, but if you’re an environmentalist pretend you didn’t read that. OH, and seriously, the tree was already dead, Craig just uprooted it.

That night we ate a feast of various things the ladies had brought and also sang songs around the campfire (I wedged my guitar into the car, but not the air mattress). The Lord blessed us because we also got to sleep on an air mattress Saturday night since Mike Doyle left us his and promised to come up on Monday to help us pack up. Mike left us his sleeping bag liners as well, Donna left Jessica her water retardant coat.

If we hadn’t had the air mattress we’d have been uncomfortable. If we hadn’t had the sleeping bag liners we’d have been in worse shape than without the air mattress since the cold weather swept in and mad a mess of our camp with its windy cohort.

Sunday morning we woke up and I crawled out of the tent into snow blowing onto my jacket. Fortunately it didn’t accumulate much, but it was a surprise. I walked over to the Kaes’ tents and discovered that they too thought leaving for dryer, warmer and friendlier climates was a good idea. We packed up, came home and then basked in the sun all the way home. Serious. It was as if Denver was having summer break while just 50 miles away snow was having its way with the mountains and the people in the campsite near ours who drank way too much Coors (you can’t drink anything else in the Rocky mountains) the night before.

Oh, and there’s pictures of the good part of the trip.