Camping, Camping, Camping

It's March of 2016 and to my dismay these camping trips occurred in July of 2015.  I am only close to a year behind and thats ok.  You see... here is the bright side of being so incredibly slothful, lazy, too busy and any other excuse I might conjure up to actually account for why I am so behind in my blogging,  I live in Idaho now and I don't have any friends yet.  I go to the grocery store in my lounge clothes and have no fear of running into a single soul that I know.  I can fill my cart full of junk food, feminine hygiene products or whatever I want and I know not one person is going to know me.    You may be thinking "poor Shemri" so lonely, so lonely.  However, with this new move and not knowing a soul, not working, not participating on three different boards, not holding a calling in church and not running kids from one activity to the next...guess what???  I think I will have more time to catch up that last year of blogging.  Hopefully soon too I might add, so I can start journaling about the big changes in our lives. 

For seven years I have kept a blog (that is the longest I have ever done anything).  I would say that a large percentage of what I have blogged about has been camping.  Do I like camping?  You would think for sure I like camping but, I really don't like being dirty or not showering daily, I really don't like sleeping on air mattresses or cots.

But...............

I love the smell of the outdoors and the endless adventure for my children.  I love to sit at night and watch the glow of the fire, I love the trips down memory lane of every single camping trip I have taken. I love the time to bond with my family and sit and do nothing.  I love to play cards and eat treats all day long.  I love to go for walks and look for wildlife and I always love the people I camp with.  So the tradeoff for sleeping on the ground and being dirty is well worth the sum of happiness that camping brings me.  

I love that Ian and Lara moved close by so that we could camp with them all summer, what a bummer that we moved 15 hours away, (I like to make my life interesting). 

I have been blessed with the best mom and the best mother in law.  Both of them will climb every mountain, forge every stream (I just entered the Sound of Music), they are troopers in the largest sense of the word.  

Not only did I have the opportunity to camp with my kiddos and family but I had the awesome experience of going to girl's camp again.  Yahoo, who can say enough about girl's camp?  Sense my sarcasm here because as much as I love these girls and have a blast with them I am always glad to go and come home from girl's camp.  

Ok back to camping with family...

there was Pine Valley, Cedar Mountain and eventually Beaver Mountain.  

No need to explain just enjoy the pictures because we enjoyed the trip.

This meadow of joy as seen in the picture was actually the precursor to the rainstorm of the century.  As we drove through the gorgeous trees we heard the thunder, we smelt the rain, we even saw the clouds moving in but how could we turn the Rhino around when there was more nature to behold?  The signs of rain are sometimes wrong, right?  WRONG!  Soon after this picture was masterfully created we were drowned on the mountain like the worst drowned rats you ever did see.  We were soaked to the bone and when I mean soaked I am not kidding.  The kind of soaked that makes you realize that last minute decision to bring only one bra was not the wisest.  The kind of soaked that now sent you down the path finding it necessary to thank the good graces of an oversized hoodie to keep your (well you know what I mean).  Did I ever profess my love of hoodies before, because if I didn't, I have surely not given them the credit they deserve.

See why I love camping?