Us3

Us3

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Dancing

Here's a very short video of AJ dancing from last night. He was doing this A LOT, but I never could get much on video. It was hiliarious tho!

Camping!

Last weekend, AJ and I went camping. What an experience. AJ has been camping with Jason and we all went a few times when he was 1 (that was terrible because he didn't sleep), but I have never taken him alone. I can say, I honestly wasn't thinking too clearly when I agreed to go- we planned WAY back last winter and so I just said, "Sure! What the heck?" without really thinking about details.

As the time got closer and I started to get packing and actually think about the trip, I started to get a bit panicked. What if AJ got lost? What if we got eaten by bears? What is he didn't sleep again? What if he got hurt? How am I going to watch him this closely by myself for 2 days?

Now, I say "by myself", but that isn't really true. We went camping with 24 other people! So, when I say by myself, I just mean he's is solely my responsibility, but my friends certainly helped out a lot!

AJ was the youngest one, but that didn't matter. He LOVED it! He got to play swords and go on adventure walks and play games in the tent with all the other kids. And the kids were AMAZING with him. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Riley and Maddy were awesome and played with him a ton. Samantha and Joseph took him on walks and made sure he was safe. And all the other kids were great too. I let AJ go for walks pretty far away from me, but I made sure to dress him in bright clothes and never took my eyes off of him.

On Friday afternoon when we got to the campsite (in Golden), we all set up camp (thank you Kris and Joel for helping me!) and just hung around and let the kids play. We waited for all the families to get there and then cooked dinner and sat around the campfire. That night, I didn't sleep more than an hour total. I was FREAKED out about animals. I had asked the ranger when we first got there if there was anything I should be aware of. She said, "Well, you will probably hear the bears roaming around your site between 11pm -2am, so make sure you put all your food and the clothes you cook in, in the car" Awesome... So, I was awake all night worried about hearing the bears. At one point, I thought I did hear something, but looking back, it was probably a chipmunk- haha!

Saturday, after our pancake breakfast, all 26 of us headed out for a hike. Again, I wasn't thinking. I was planning to take AJ on a 4 mile hike and expected he would walk it? The kid doesn't even walk into the house half the time. He loves to be held. (And remember, he's almost 35 pounds!) So, we started out and for about 100 feet he was into walking and running with the other kids. Then.... it all got much more difficult. For me. I carried this child for 2 miles uphill mostly on my shoulders, but when those felt like they were going to break, I held him normally. Then 2 miles downhill. It was so frustrating because EVERYONE was offering to hold him. All the guys offered to put him on their shoulders for a bit and tried to talk him into it, but he wasn't going for it. Only when we got really close to the top did one of the guys offer him M&M's if he allowed Kris to hold him. That worked for a bit.

But, we made it- and it was BEAUTIFUL at the top. We could see the entire Continental Divide. Just gorgeous! Later that day we all napped and then at night made dinner and had smores. It ended up being a lot of fun- even though it was a lot of work. I slept much better on Saturday night. And AJ slept great the entire time, thankfully.

On Sunday, we got packed up and headed home around 11. We were filthy and exhausted. It was certainly an adventure and I'm glad we both survived it! Here are some pictures:



Maddy wanted to ride up with us and she and AJ were just too cute. She read him books and they chatted the whole time. She was awesome!


Our campsite. SOOO many trees!


Joseph, AJ and Riley hanging in the tent


He didn't take a nap on Friday.... he was beat.


I think his favorite part of the trip was being able to pee on every tree :) I caught him off by himself this time and it was SO cute! Such a big boy :)


Hanging out with the girls

The top of the hike! We made it!


Maddy, AJ and Samantha

Such beautiful views!


The girls- Me, Corinna, Joy and Holly


Riley and AJ checking out the view


Relaxing with Maddy


It was fun- but exhausting!