a'Camping we will Go!

When I was younger, my family would make an annual summer trip to camp at Big Lake in the White Mountains in Eastern Arizona. After Matt & I were married, we camped there twice with my family before heading off to grad school. This year we actually got to go again after a 6 year hiatus!!
We stay in an established campground with paved roads, designated sites, picnic tables, fire rings, water spigots, actual bathrooms w/ toilets and a sink and you can even pay $5 for a hot shower, if you choose! Love it! My parents have camped in the same site # for YEARS and years. We got to share a site with my sister's little family, directly next to our parents' site. My uncle David, aunt Candy and their 5 year old son Dustin also stayed two camp sites over on the other side of my parents.

This is the place!This is the site

Of course the kids enjoyed exploring the great outdoors without restraint. The first injury (and only, thank goodness) came the first full day we were there, when Gavin accidentally poked himself in the face with a sharp stick! Boy are we really grateful for eyelids!!!!! That was a close one!Friday morning, Matt went out to fish super early with my dad. After breakfast, we took the kids out but it really was soooo windy down at the lake, we all ended up freezing and didn't catch a thing. Got some cute pictures though! ;)

Brooklyn chose the total relaxation method of fishingGavin was probably the most excited to fish at the lake.
He talked about it for weeks beforehand!Even though Preston is too big for the Bjorn, Matt still insists on containing him that way!
As long as it's not me that has to lug around that 25 lbs on my front!A lump of Blake, trying to stay warm

This is a Big Lake phenomena -- the pregnant tree. Everyone in our family has to spot the pregnant tree while driving down to our fishing spot. I wonder how it must feel to be pregnant all those years???? We've joked before that one year her "bump" will be gone with tons of new little trees at her base one year. ;)

We did plenty of lounging,

scootering,Ranger-rides w/ uncle Taylor,trying to start the forest on fire with a bow & drill,and played a friendly game (ha!) of ladderball with my Aunt and Uncle.
It was girls vs boys. Boys prevailed this time. We will have a rematch!

My brothers brought back a boatload of ginormous crawdads from the lake (they catch them with cut off fishheads with guts dangling *shudder*) and COOKED these babies up to EAT!!! I refused to taste them.

We had tacos for dinner with the entire family then did S'mores for dessert!

Saturday was another day mostly filled with fishing. Matt was back and forth to and from the lake several time that day; first by himself, then w/ Blake, then with the rest of the family. This was the money day, with Matt maxing out his limit within a few hours!!! When he took Blake down to fish, I heard his sweet little voice over the walkie-talkie 5 times, "Mom, I caught a fish! Mom, I caught another fish! Mom, I caught 5 fish!" I was so excited for him, but obviously I wasn't there to catch any of those moments on camera. My dad did, but we'll see if I ever actually SEE those pictures! ;) When the rest of us went down, our group was the talk of the shoreline due to the amazing success Matt was having. I caught two fish that day, one of which I cast out on my OWN and within literally two minutes, I had a bite! I (and Gavin) reeled that sucker in and it was a good size rainbow trout!

Our total family catches of the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh yes, I sure DID!!! I am woman, hear me ROAR!!! lol
I'm not afraid to gut and clean my own fish!The master's hands (my Dad's) at work, cleaning fish

We did foil dinners with steamed veggies that night then headed over to my parents' campsite for dutch oven cobbler 'round the campfire.

Sunday morning, I got up at the bum-crack of dawn to go fishing with just my dad and mom.

The lake was so peaceful and although we watched the dude next to us reel in a fish every other minute, we had a great time and were marginally successful in our efforts. I caught two fish, one of which I pulled all the way to the shore then the hook came loose and the fish took off. pffft!

My dad had the story of ALL stories, though!!! We were in a popular fishing spot that happens to have a rock ledge that if you're not careful, you can get snagged on when reeling in. Apparently a lot of fishermen/women had caught their line on the ledge which resulted in snapped line and lost hooks, swivels, weights. We were all keeping an eye on the six poles we had out and I thought I saw the one in front of my mom bounce a bit. She started reeling in, then MY pole started dancing so I started reeling in. We then figured our lines had crossed, but when I got mine in, it was tangled with a stray line, that was MAJORLY tangled with my mom's line. So my dad worked to get my mom's line free of this mess of someone else's line. When he got my mom's free, he pulled and pulled on this tangled line to get it out of the water. My mom joked, "Wouldn't that be funny if there was a fish on there?" The fishermen on the other side of my dad took notice of what he was doing and my dad commented, "Real men don't use fishing poles to fish." LOL! All of a sudden, as my dad FINALLY get to the end of the line, lo and behold there IS a fish on the end of the line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My dad pulled it up on shore, stood up and beat his chest like a gorilla and we all had a good laugh!!! What are the chances??? He figured that someone else the day before had the fish on, their line snagged and snapped but the fish was still hooked and the line was tangled so it was trapped. My dad let the poor fishy go and he swam happily away, probably relieved to be free, but got to have had a major sore throat. haha!

Camping takes a LOT of prep work, but it's sooooo worth in once you get set up and can just relax and enjoy the beautiful nature around you!! We're hoping to keep this up as an annual adventure with my family. Can't wait until next year!