Us In The Wilderness

As I mentioned in an earlier post, last weekend, our family headed up high into the mountains to do a little public campground wilderness retreating. Here's what went down.

Reesie spend some time with her pants on her head.



Henry spent a lot of time wading in the river near our camp site.


Reesie spent a lot of time watching him.


I spent some time teaching Henry how to smile.

No, no, no. That's exactly the opposite of smiling.

There you go. Much better.


Perfect. He's a quick study.

Uh, oh. Looks like Dad's forgotten how. Now, that's just sad. Try again.


Much better.

Et tu, Reesie?

Aw, she's working on it.

And now? Well, now she's just workin' it.

After we sat around and just smiled at each other for a few hours, our cheeks were really starting to hurt. Someone suggested we go on a hike. I think it was the couple camping next to us. They wanted us and our dogs to get the he-- out of the camp ground area.

This couple were older yuppies who apparently thought that children, dogs, and everyone else camping should be seen and not heard. We're pretty sure they didn't like Henry riding his power wheels in our camp spot, nor did they care for the loud children camping in the spot just adjacent to us. They didn't like motorcycles, trucks or cars circling the campground to look for open sites either. I think the campground host must have told them to quit their complaining and moved them to a new spot...RIGHT NEXT TO THE OUTHOUSE. Take that, elderly yuppies.

For the record, their two dogs charged another person while we were camping. These dogs were small enough to kick so they weren't too menacing. Also in the 'for the record' category, since the campground host gave us the green light on Henry's four wheeler riding and everyone else around us thought it was an awesome toy, once the elderly yuppies moved RIGHT NEXT TO THE OUTHOUSE I took it upon myself to guide Henry on several, SEVERAL trips up and down the campground road, passing them and waving to them each time.

See, I'm nice. I waved at them, didn't I?

Take some deep breaths, Jen. Serenity now. Ahh. Here's Hank and the dogs on our hike to Fehr Lake.

Henry incurred a scrape on the hike. It was so important to him that I document his owie. It was also important that everyone that came within 50 yards of us know it too. He was so proud of it. I told him that chicks dig scars.

This is what I look like whilst hiking.

This is what Reesie looks like hiking.

This is what she looks like grabbing for the camera.


The pups decided they would go for a swim.

See Batty dog wet.

See Maxie dog wet.

See Henry sit by Lake.

See Henry hike out of lake trail.

Then it was back to our camp site and down to the river. Henry thought he'd throw some rocks. As you can tell from his rock selection, he's a little ambitious for his own good.

Then Henry showed us how dirty his hands had become after two days of wilderness living.


Reesie shows off a cleaner version of hands.


Because Henry was so filthy, we thought it would be nice to hose him down to get him clean. Instead, we spread canned cheese lines along his legs and let Bat lick him.


Then we retired to bed where Henry and I played and told stories under the covers until Dad told us to knock it off or we would both be grounded.

Whatever there, Dad. Remember the squirrel?

Didn't get enough of us camping? To see all the pictures of our latest wilderness event click here.

Bad Hair Day

Sometimes when you go camping your hair just won't go right. The second day in the wilderness, my hair became unruly. Now, if you've met me, you know that unruly hair is sort of my signature, but seriously, you've not seen anything like my hideous camping hair.

I couldn't find an attractive way to wear my bandana. This is nice enough, but it doesn't really do it for me.



Uh, no. Sideshow Bob anyone?


Aw, come on. Now I look like Carrot Top before he got on the juice.


What's a girl to do? There's got to SOME way to wear this bandana thing in a cute way.

Behold. I finally found it.

Survivor Man

This past weekend, our family did a little camping in the Uinta Mountains. We had such a fun time. It's becoming increasingly difficult to post about our camping excursions since we go so often. I mean, how entertaining can it be for my tens of readers out there to see ANOTHER camping trip where we show picture ourselves looking at the fire or ourselves looking at trees or ourselves claiming to be the next Survivor Man? Oh, wait a minute. That last one is totally entertaining.

Here's Jeremy. You should all know him by now.

Here's Jeremy demonstrating what his fire will look like once it takes off. I can't be sure, but he may be using Navy SEAL signals here.


Here's the awesome fire he built. (with gasoline and two matches)

No, wait...here it is.


Here's Jeremy explaining to me what an awesome Survivor Man he would make because he can keep his family warm (fire), provide for his family (he and Reesie caught two fish while Henry and I napped) and because he uses pine needles to pick his teeth.

And Here's Jeremy just seconds later. After he was totally spooked by a confrontational squirrel.

Here's what the squirrel most likely looked like.

Here's what Jeremy would have you believe.

Did you see my mad Photoshoping skills? Be jealous. It's okay.

*Author's Note: There are more camping tales to follow including my stories such as my bad hair day, learning to smile and hiking.

Gooey Goodness

Last weekend we went camping again. Surprise, I know. But it was 'The Weekend of Jen'*, as Jeremy put it. This meant that I was able to pick whatever activity I fancied. So, of course, it was camping with my family.

*Jeremy would like me to point out that it is frequently 'The Weekend of Jen'. I would like to point out that Jeremy has golfed once or twice a week since the end of April. There. We're even.

What's the first thing you do when you set up camp? Make a fire, of course. Gaze upon Jeremy's masterpiece of kindling, old gym socks and Vaseline. (He added the last two ingredients this trip and he was so excited about the results.)



Henry acted as a fire tender the entire night. He added so much wood that we eventually had a bonfire.

See how proud he is of himself?

Reese and I enjoyed the campfire.

She became mesmerized by the flames.

Way mesmerized.

The second thing you do when you set up camp? Have a staring contest with your dog.

Maxie was unable to hold Jeremy's gaze for long. He quickly became bored and licked himself.

I began to get the itch for a smore. Here's what I look like wondering if I should have a delicious chocolaty treat so close to bedtime.

Jeremy jumps into action and begins making me a smore. Here he is directing the whole operation. He was in charge of the chocolate, Henry was in charge of the marshmallows and Reese was in charge of the graham crackers.

Somehow, the marshmallows all found their way into Henry's mouth. Whoopsie.

And Reese really wasn't too reliable with the crackers either.

I thought I saw some incriminating evidence on Henry's face.


A close inspection confirms my suspicions. Also, it shows that the smoke is hard on Henry's eyes.

Reesie was busy trying to down her evidence as quickly as she could.


Somehow, Jeremy was able to pull it off himself. (Note: for future reference, any pictures we take while camping that involve food at all, know that Batty WILL be in the background somewhere.)


Picture perfect, fat filled yummers.

See how happy I am while eating this classic camping treat?

Oh, yes. I am definitely so pleased with my hand crafted smore.

You should know that I had the 'happy smore face' around four or five times that night.