Last night our ward had it's Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration Campout. It used to be known as the Fathers & Sons Campout, but it's now the Fathers & Kids campout - pretty much everyone but Mom is invited. It was a lot of fun. I found it somewhat ironic that they'd hold a church campout at the Holy Ghost Campground. It's up near the Pecos River, which has a some pretty good fishing and is beautiful country. It took us just over 1 1/2 hours to drive there (don't ask how fast I was driving most of the way). Even though the drive wasn't too long really, the girls would ask every 5 minutes if we were in the mountains yet. They were pretty excited.
The campsite was pretty nice. I'm hoping that we'll be able to camp there again later this summer. I have to admit that the restrooms were the nicest campsite restrooms I've had the pleasure to use here in NM. Morgan was still terrified she'd fall in however. She really doesn't like toilets that you don't flush. I can't say I really blame her --
We roasted our hot dogs over my backpacking stove - nice and well done on the outside while still cold down the middle. Sydney actually ate one of her hot dogs straight out the package. Yuck! We didn't have a pan to warm up our beans in so they came back home with us. I found out that my titanium backpacking bowl probably wasn't meant to be used as a pot - it turned all sorts of irridescent colors when I put it over the burner. Hopefully I didn't ruin it. Even though the hot dogs and beans didn't turn out too well, the smores (on Heidi's homemade, gluten-free graham crackers) were pretty darn good.
I thought it would be nice to sleep next to the creek and be able to enjoy the sounds of the water so that's were I set up the tent. Morgan and Sydney liked being close to the creek but complained, complained, and then complained some more about how loud the water was when it was time to go to sleep. They suggested that I get out there and build a dam so the water would be quiet. Needless to say, I wasn't getting out of my sleeping bag - I was nice and warm. It didn't take the girls long to fall asleep. It was after 10pm when we shut the lights out and enjoyed the neon glow sticks that have become the traditional night lights on our camping trips.
Morgan woke up at about 6am to tell me it was raining and she wanted to get out of the tent. I told her to go back to sleep. This was the first day I'd had in a long time to sleep in and I was going to take advantage of it. We all slept for about another hour before deciding to get up for the day. The girls headed straight for the campfire after the obligatory bathroom stop. Sydney really seems to like sitting around the fire - except for the smoke getting in her eyes.
After breakfast, we slowly packed up camp and headed out for the Pecos River for some fishing. We headed up to Cowles, NM to fish on the two ponds there. Morgan caught her first fish just moments after her first cast landed in the water. Morgan proceeded to catch 4 fish. Sydney kind of lost interest in fishing after landing her first one. It was easily the biggest fish of the day. Between the sunny, rainy, windy, cold, and hot weather (we were only missing some snow), Sydney didn't want to spend a lot of time up in the mountains. But we made her stick around. Finally after she saw all the other kids there catching fish she decided to try again and quickly landed her second fish of the day. I'm really thankful that my girls like to fish with me. I'm patiently waiting for the day that they can fish on their own so I can get a chance to wet a hook of my own :-)
All in all, a fun trip. Now I can hang out and relax for the rest of the day ... hopefully ...
The campsite was pretty nice. I'm hoping that we'll be able to camp there again later this summer. I have to admit that the restrooms were the nicest campsite restrooms I've had the pleasure to use here in NM. Morgan was still terrified she'd fall in however. She really doesn't like toilets that you don't flush. I can't say I really blame her --
We roasted our hot dogs over my backpacking stove - nice and well done on the outside while still cold down the middle. Sydney actually ate one of her hot dogs straight out the package. Yuck! We didn't have a pan to warm up our beans in so they came back home with us. I found out that my titanium backpacking bowl probably wasn't meant to be used as a pot - it turned all sorts of irridescent colors when I put it over the burner. Hopefully I didn't ruin it. Even though the hot dogs and beans didn't turn out too well, the smores (on Heidi's homemade, gluten-free graham crackers) were pretty darn good.
I thought it would be nice to sleep next to the creek and be able to enjoy the sounds of the water so that's were I set up the tent. Morgan and Sydney liked being close to the creek but complained, complained, and then complained some more about how loud the water was when it was time to go to sleep. They suggested that I get out there and build a dam so the water would be quiet. Needless to say, I wasn't getting out of my sleeping bag - I was nice and warm. It didn't take the girls long to fall asleep. It was after 10pm when we shut the lights out and enjoyed the neon glow sticks that have become the traditional night lights on our camping trips.
Morgan woke up at about 6am to tell me it was raining and she wanted to get out of the tent. I told her to go back to sleep. This was the first day I'd had in a long time to sleep in and I was going to take advantage of it. We all slept for about another hour before deciding to get up for the day. The girls headed straight for the campfire after the obligatory bathroom stop. Sydney really seems to like sitting around the fire - except for the smoke getting in her eyes.
After breakfast, we slowly packed up camp and headed out for the Pecos River for some fishing. We headed up to Cowles, NM to fish on the two ponds there. Morgan caught her first fish just moments after her first cast landed in the water. Morgan proceeded to catch 4 fish. Sydney kind of lost interest in fishing after landing her first one. It was easily the biggest fish of the day. Between the sunny, rainy, windy, cold, and hot weather (we were only missing some snow), Sydney didn't want to spend a lot of time up in the mountains. But we made her stick around. Finally after she saw all the other kids there catching fish she decided to try again and quickly landed her second fish of the day. I'm really thankful that my girls like to fish with me. I'm patiently waiting for the day that they can fish on their own so I can get a chance to wet a hook of my own :-)
All in all, a fun trip. Now I can hang out and relax for the rest of the day ... hopefully ...
1 comment:
Holy cow that is a big fish! Good job girls. We haven't tried fishing this year yet (or camping). It finally has warmed up and we can't wait. Hans missed the campout this year. Tristen had a baseball game.
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