dirt+more dirt+camping =so much fun

We love camping!  It actually sounds fun right now, but it is winter here and still a little nippy at night.  This week I decided to flash back on a fun camping exertion we took with our good friends in Utah.  We all lived within a 2 minute walk from each other and we loved it.  We had 5 families(one wasn't able to make this particular camping trip..bummer, we missed you Bikmans) & we would hang out all the time.  We would all go on Sunday night walks together, the whole fam with strollers galore.  All of our kids are the same age pretty much.  In these pics we just have the 2 each going on, but currently we have 3 and 4 a piece now.

Above are the girls with their younger sibs....summer 2006

We camped at Hope Campground up Provo Canyon.  It was fantastic because we were up in the mountains away from everything but only a 15 minute drive back to our houses. The best of both worlds if you ask me....and Hannah Montana thinks so too...for those of you who aren't familiar with Hannah Montana, her TV song is just that...you get the best of both worlds.....

anyway...moving on....oh wait, one more thing...Rex looks too huge to be swigging on a bottle....he was a hard one to wean.

Is there anything more campingish than getting DIRTY, DIRTY, DIRTY??  The kids were FILTHY when we got home.  The campsite had a huge hill the kids would climb.  They would climb and climb, get scared to climb down so they would sit on their bottoms and slide down, shoving dirt in areas where dirt shouldn't be...but they had a blast and camping wouldn't be camping if you didn't come home with dirt caked to your face and smelling like fire.

You can't really see on the dirt on his face, but it's there...lots of it.

Liv with her bff's...Maddie, Leah & Courtney

Rex with his friends, Emmy, Peyton & Clara.  Funny story...there was and still is a love triangle going on.  Clara likes Rex (the girl trying to hold his hand) and to this day still refers to Rex as her husband.  Rex likes Clara, but his heart is kinda loving Emmy.  He tells people here that he has a girlfriend named Emmy.  Clara used to get hurt when her "husband " wouldn't pay attention to her.  Ahh, young love..we'll see how it all turns out.

The boys...just trying to keep all the women happy.

Jared cooking up a mean dutch oven chicken.

Rex is all business when it comes to PDA (public displays of affection).  I think he was trying to figure out how to spend time with both girls and not cause any contention.  What can I say...he is a heart breaker! :)

Camping is so fun....once the kids were in bed, we would stay up late talking and laughing by the fire...I love it!!