Camping

This weekend, before school starts tomorrow, we finally made it up the Big Horns to go camping. Christian took Friday off, so we headed up the mountain as soon as the middle school back to school night was finished. We set up pretty much in the dark that night, but we were happy to be up there.

Friday morning, we had breakfast and then finished setting up our camp while the boys played. The had a blast building forts while they waited for us to get done. When we were finished, we loaded up our fishing things and headed to the Ranger Station fish pond to fish. Things started a little slow, buy by the end, the fish were biting every cast! The boys really didn't want to leave! We went back to camp for some lunch and ended up going for a drive when we were done, since it was a little chilly and trying to rain. We drove up to Bear Lodge, got some more worms and an apple pie for dessert!

Christian cooked pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast!

Landon starting on a fort.

Ready for some breakfast!

 Landon's fort. He had to show me where he sat in it and where the bed was.

Travis built his into the ground and it was hard to see if you didn't know it was right there.

Ranger Station pond.

Carson caught a tadpole.

Christian had the first catch of the day!

Working together to unhook a fish. We ended up having to keep 7 fish because they swallowed the hook and didn't make it.

Landon, Christian and Carson fishing.

My first catch of the day!

And another tiny one!

There were frogs all over. The boys enjoyed trying to catch them!

Landon was having a hard tome catching any fish, so he and Christian decided to hit the stream.

This fish had a deformed nose. Travis named it Voltimor (from Harry Potter)

Finally caught one on his own!

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All 3 boys caught fish at the exact same time!

Landon had the biggest fish of the day...and also the smallest!

We had hot dogs for lunch, but Travis isn't really a fan, so he talked his dad into cooking one of the fish for him to eat instead. He said it was delicious!!

The two older boys brought their BB guns and shot at pop cans.

Landon helped Christian build a fire that night for dinner. We had foil dinners and they were yummy!

Friday night, our friends, the Mangus', joined us. We cooked smores and shared treats around the fire and didn't go to bed until midnight.

Saturday morning, we got up around 9, made French toast for breakfast and then Ryan Mangus took us on a hike to an area where he has elk hunted before. The area was beautiful. It was fun to do some exploring of the beaten path. We hiked up some rocks and looked down over a little valley.

The creek below.

Walking through the meadow.

 After our hike, we hung out for a bit before getting an invite to go over to Crosby's cabin for dinner. We cooked more hot dogs and visited with them for quite a bit while the kids did some more fishing and helped build another fort.  After visiting for a while, we headed back to camp and started packing up our stuff. The Mangus's were planning to stay another night, and our boys tried really hard to get us to stay another night, but we decided to head home. We had a great time and wish we were able to make it up more during the summer. Maybe next year we will make it up more then once!!