Christensens: Camping on the Mountain

I think it was back at the beginning of June that we went on this fun little adventure. As kind of a last minute thing my family decided to go on an overnight camping trip up on the mountain behind my parents' house. A family friend owns the land and runs cows on it. It's not a normal camping spot, but he let us make our own little campsite up there.

It was certainly nothing fancy, but we had fun being together and I loved it!

Michael

There was a piece of our tent that was broken. We could have made it work if it weren't for the crazy wind that night. Drew attempted to set it up but it just didn't work out. My dad gave up his tent for us and drove down the hill to sleep in his own bed for the night.

Our little camp. It really pays off to be in the porta potty business sometimes.

The kids (and grandma) gathered around watching grandpa start the fire.

We had the kids go hunt for kindling.

Ezra loved this job and was especially serious about it.

Michael decided some sagebrush needed chopped.

Apparently Jase always sleeps with his hands behind his head like this.

My dad showed up the next morning on his motorcycle with this fancy pink backpack.

We forgot cups for the orange juice so we got to take turns drinking out of this water bottle we scrounged up.

Brian was in charge of the bacon.

I made the pancakes (with the help of the mix my parents brought).

I'm such an outdoorsman!

Jase and Parks with the axes. Safety first!

We're pretty serious about roasting marshmallows in our family and Darcy is really starting to get the hang of it!

Drew is an old pro and he was very proud of his work!

Another perfect mallow!

The racks on the back of my dad's old pickup were the perfect jungle gym.

We had a crazy adventure with a cow that morning. I guess one of the cows had eaten too much of a certain weed that makes them go a little crazy. Luke was the first one up and out of the tents and while he was out this cow came charging toward our camp. Tank (Nick's dog) was there and Luke told him to go get the cow which he did. When the cow turned to run away her legs buckled because she was so sick and she never could get up. We let our friend know what happened and he sent a couple guys to come get the cow. They were originally just going to pick her up in this tractor and take her across the very bumpy group all the way back to the ranch.

We happened to be there with a trailer for the motorcycles so we emptied it and Nick went to rescue the cow and give her a little more comfortable ride.

A bunch of the guys and kids followed them to the ranch to see what they did with her. Darcy and Ezra both had a little ride with Drew.

Another fun place to play!

Drew took Parks for a ride.

My dad and Sam

Luke and Whitney

Brain (This picture was taken just after he went over a crazy bump he hadn't seen coming and he and we were all laughing.)

My mom (who is cool and brave and is always willing to try new things) decided to give a motorcycle a try.

Drew with Parks, and if you look closely you can see Brian coming up fast on Michael's little motorcycle.

Nick was impressing the girls with his weapons and knife skills.

Our friend told us they were having problems with too many coyotes this year and he told us where we might go to find some and get rid of them. So a group of us took off on motorcycles with guns to go find them. We got to the spot they were supposed to be, but there weren't actually any there at that moment so it ended up just being a fun little ride to go see a dead cow. :)

Dirt = happiness

The kids found this lizard and Matthew was sure we should name it "Cute."

Haley did some wildflower picking.

We went on another adventure to see a little old rundown cabin. Matthew rode over with Brian.

Luke took Whitney and Michael.

The cabin

The beautiful view. This is home for me, so I am a little bit partial.

We got to the cabin and thankfully Nick (with all his weapons) was the first one to go in because he found a snake in there that wasn't very happy to have visitors. Nick took care of it.

The kids were so fascinated that the body kept moving even without a head.

Drew and Ezra (walking exactly the same)

Luke took some of the kids down the hill, and I was freaking out a little because from where I was it looked like they were standing on the edge of a cliff. He told me when they came back that really there was just a little ledge down to more ground that really wasn't very far down.