Ward Camppout--yeehah!

for the first time in 9 years, 4 of those in colorado (we cocky Coloradoans pride ourselves in being the #1 outdoor state in the union, at least we tell ourselves that), the mcqueen's went camping! are we retarded or what? we live mere minutes away from thousands of camping opportunities and we've never taken them--i mean all together. oh, matt has taken isaac on a few father's and son's and he also took the kids last year on the ward outing. he's always sacked out in the car with the kids--but this time--we actually put up a tent and slept in said tent. that is a mcqueen family first. and it deserves a big yeehah! (thank you jared)
it was good for us to go with a big group so we could glean all sorts of camping tidbits from those who know what the heck they're doing (unlike us) and could borrow anything we forgot (such as a pump to blow up our air mattresses) and could eat with those who can cook anything over an open fire (we did cook hot dogs and even went out on a limb and dutch oven cobblered, too) we burnt it. the kids loved getting out in nature. it was so nice--isaac, you wouldn't hear from for two hours or so. he was climbing any rock he could find
and playing good guys/bad guys with whoever would happen across his climbing rocks. megan took off with the girls, picking flowers, swinging in the hammock, and disrupting the good guy/bad guy balance. mallory would not keep shoes on her feet! i'm surprised she didn't step on anything lethal or on fire. she drove me nuts. her favorite play place was the water faucet. she was out of clothes in the first few hours. eli just toddled around exploring anything and everything. sticks, leaves, rocks, and dirt clods were all items that had to be removed from his little mouth. baby #4 has to figure out how to survive on his own. mom and dad are too busy sitting around in the camp chairs shooting the breeze.
speaking of shooting--i fired my first four weapons on our little jaunt up the canyon. our good friends, the duncans, brought a whole array of guns for no other reason than to shoot pine cones with. matt wore a gun on his hip for 3 years and i never once touched it and in 2 hours time i had fired more rounds than i probably will for the rest of my life. ironic, i know.
unfortunately, the only time i thought to get out the camera was when we were all packed up and ready to head home. so here we are, in the van, on our way back down the canyon. when we shall return--no one knows--it might take us another 4 years