Camping near Big Lake

We went camping last weekend, just our little (or big, depending on how you define a family size) family.  We left on Thursday and headed up to Big Lake, Arizona!  We love camping up there because it is usually much much cooler and it typically rains.  This trip was rain-less, which was a little disappointing, but we still had a great time.  We camped for a few days and then headed home.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

Preston enjoyed some out door, big boy playing!

 Outdoor camping food is truly the best!  Seriously, nothing ever tastes as good as camp food.

 There was no such thing as clean while camping.  It's amazing how fast faces were covered in dirt.

 I love seeing how these kids imaginations work and what fun ideas they come up with.  I also really love seeing them play well together.  It's unfortunate that it isn't always the case.

 There he is... Mr. Wonderful.  Just had to throw that in there.  I think Oliver "took" this picture.

 Male Bonding Time!

 Preston's first hiking experience.

 And look who carried him!  This was a first for both of us.  He rode, and I carried.  Usually Brandon does the carrying.

 Exploring by Crescent Lake

 I mentioned the dirty faces... right?

 Melanie is truly a monkey.  We traded her in at the zoo a long time ago.  Don't let the zoo know though.  She is too cute to give back.

 More Male Bonding.

 Eating their desserts around the "fire".  (It turned out to be no burn this trip, so they had to imagine their fire, but they still insisted having a camp fire moment).

 Camping bath!  How do you like my awesome socks?  They were my Christmas present from Noelle last Christmas!

 More camp fire moments.

 Okay... the Oreos!  This little man may look so innocent, but let me tell you...  it's a facade!  ha ha!  See, we told the kids the last night that if they ate all their dinner, they could have dessert (which is what the girls were eating around their imagined camp fire).  Well, Mr. Red refused to eat his dinner (which was unfortunate because the aforementioned awesome-ness of camp food).  Needless to say, he didn't earn dessert.  The girls both got cupcakes.  Well, Brandon apparently also bought some oreos, which he informed me were dairy free (I'm dairy free right now).  I'm not quite sure what is in oreos that they can be dairy free, but alas, I didn't want to know that particular night.  I opened the package and ate two.  Then I started to get ready to give Preston his bath.  Next thing I know, Oliver has 2 yummy oreos, one in each hand.  He proceeded to do the most amazing "I stole the Oreos" dance imaginable.  It was quite a thing.  It was too cute that I told him that he had just better hurry and eat his stolen goods before it was time for his bath, or I'd take them away.  And he did just that!

In the end, camping was SO much fun.  We were about 2 miles away from any other campers.  I could let the kids go "free range chicken" and not worry.  As long as I could see them from the camp site, they were fine.  The weather was nice (a little hotter then we had planned, but much cooler than at home).  It was fun to spend time with each other and explore.  I can't wait until we can go again, and neither can the kiddos.