The Mother of the Year Award

So you can all pack away your evening gowns. Roll up, not out, the red carpet. Because I will not be winning the mother of the year award anytime soon. We took the boys on their first ever camping trip. First ever. And I forgot to pack the camera.

Sooooo, we have no pictures of the cuteness that was the boys on this whole entire trip. Wonderful.

We took the boys to Cloudland Canyon for 2 nights and 3 days of camping right before Easter.


I have been there many times before because of its proximity to where I grew up. So I was kind of like, "ho-hum, Cloudland Canyon." But it turned out to be a wonderful place to take them.

The first night was so cold it felt like it might as well as have been snowing. Kind of like it did in February.

It didn't really snow on us like this. But it did get down to 34 that first night. Let me just say for the record and for anyone's personal interest that I am an official "Cold-weather-wuss." The boys did fine. Mitch did fine. I froze. We discovered that my tolerance level is somewhere around the mid to upper 40's.

When we got there, after setting up camp we let them walk around the overlook on the Eastern Rim of the canyon. The next day however, once we thawed out, we hiked them down to the two waterfalls.

These pictures are not the best; they came off the internet and didn't do so great in the upload process. It will give you the general idea though. I was so proud of the boys. Aside from being a little afraid that one of them would misstep and plummet down the canyon, my biggest fear was of the potential for the chorus of the whines on our ascent back up the canyon. They did wonderfully. Our hike was whine-free. I think it did help them a bit when they started pretending "to climb up fixed rope" on some of the steeper parts. I suppose they were imagining they were climbing Everest. That must have made Mitch and I their Sherpas since I was carrying water bottles and jackets and Mitch had the daypack etc.


I loved it because they truly enjoyed the hiking aspect. That afternoon we hiked them to a wildlife viewing area. The next morning our plan was just to start breaking down camp and all. But John Mark begged to go hiking again. So off we went, this time on part of the Western Rim trail. We went off-trailing to a part of the creek that eventually meets its fate in the waterfall. As we sat by the creek, Gabriel got out his pocket knife (explanation to follow) and lost it in the raging waters. That was the saddest part of the whole trip. He loved that knife. Moment of Silence.


About the knives. They were a part of their Christmas gift from Aunt Joan and Uncle Dereck. They got these cool binoculars in a holder with a caribiner. They call it their "patch." They wear their patches anytime we do anything like this. Well, no one noticed until the boys did, on Christmas morning, that there were pocket knives in their patches. They are so proud to have those knives. The patches, binoculars, and knives were the hit of the camping trip. They bore holes in trees. They cut leaves with the scissors in the knives. They filed their fingernails, endlessly, with the fingernail file in the knife. They whittled sticks. They stabbed the dirt. They ground their knives down to where they probably wouldn't cut butter. On hikes, they would stop every so many yards and look at things through their binoculars. They were a real Lewis and Clark pair. And then we lost the beloved knife. Moment of Silence.


Daniel of course was not given a knife at all. No way in . . . God's green earth. But then again, he didn't need one. He had his tiki torches he called roasted marshmallows. The boys LOVED roasting marshmallows and being like Daddy and poking the fire. Daniel of course would stick his marshmallows in the flames and not pull them out until they were completlely charred and flaming. Everyone had to huff and puff and blow his marshmallows out before he burned someone. If, heaven forbid, he only lightly toasted his, he would scowl and say "mine not firuuued."

All in all it was a great trip. And aside from their patches, knives, hiking, and marshmallows, the boys declared the next best thing about camping as not having to take baths or brush their hair.