Mountain Top Retreat

School starts next week!

Sigh....

Our little family took some time to celebrate the last days of summer freedom.

We celebrated in the top of the mountains.......at the B-family reservoir.

Just  a canoe, a few frogs and other choice critters and us.

I was a little  a lot nervous.

I haven't been roughing-it-no-facilities-camping in many, many, many, many, years.

But everything went really well.

So, no worries.

Thanks in part to a contraption very similar to this (click here)

but 99.9% due to a husband who takes care of all of the hard stuff.

There were plenty of frogs to catch and mud-puppies to gross me out.

We even saw a water snake eat a frog.

That was weird and fascinating!

We didn't think we'd be able to have a fire up there but lucky for us MDH's cousins have been hard at work on a camping area and there was a wonderful fire pit we could use.

Not five minutes after this picture was taken her face was completely covered in dirt. I'm not sure how it got that way, I think she took a handlful of dirt and rubbed it on her face.

The funny thing to me is that her brothers and sister all ended up looking very similar but I'm pretty sure they didn't rub handfuls of dirt on their faces.

There was a beaver lodge on the edge of the reservoir and we even got to see the beaver swimming around the reservoir close to sunset. The boys tried to catch up to him in the canoe but he got away.

In the morning we were awoken by the sounds of coyote barking and howling across the reservoir. That was a little unnerving but we never heard or saw them after that.

We also borrowed MDH's parent's canoe. The kids absolutely loved it!!!

I loved that I got to go with MDH and he did most of the paddling.

This picture was taken over my shoulder because I was too scared to turn around and take it.

Glorious morning at the reservoir.

You may notice there's not too many pictures of Duder in this post.

Let's just say every second was spent either chasing and catching frogs or in the canoe on the water.

He was amazing!

My parents loaned us their dutch oven. We may have to invest in our own because it produced some pretty tasty food.

And
My mom even made us cookies to take with us.
I'd planned on making cookies but ran out of time but my mom saved the day.
She's always doing that!
Thanks mom!


Over all our expedition was a success.....more ultimate camping experiences in our future I'm sure!
Maybe even one to celebrate the loss of summer freedom.
We haven't been fishing yet this year.....so.......Christmas Meadows Here We Come!