A Campin' We Will Go!

We finally went camping for the first time since Emma was about 6 months old. Here she is on that trip: Here she is 9 years later:

We went to Payson (or somewhere right past there) over Labor Day weekend. It felt sooooo good to breathe in that fresh, cool air. I kept telling the kids to fill up their lungs with it. My sweet sister Amy let us tag along with her and some friends from her ward.

When we got there Eli ran straight for this little teepee. This was a fun thing all my kids played with at different times over the weekend. They would rebuild it when it fell apart and sweep the floors with pine needle "brooms".

Eli also wanted to carry this hatchet around everywhere he went and LOVED chopping tree stumps and sticks with it. Luckily he came home with all his fingers in tact.

He and cousin Dallin chopping:
It's always fun watching Sadie and Campbell together. They have hilarious little conversations that always include which things are theirs. Especially whose mom is whose.
I really lucked out on this trip because there were two girls there that knew much more about my camara than I did and they took time to show me a few things things. One was Amy Fraughton who's a professional photographer (see her link to the right) and the other girl had the same camara as me but was a few steps ahead of me on it.
I took my camara over to manuel for the first time and experimented. I got some blurriness because of it but it was so fun!
And I feel like I can take a little bit more credit for the shots I like.
This picture I took on a bright setting and than darkened it at home.
Camping feet.
Amy showing me how to do backlit pictures in the morning.
Letting as much light in as I could, without a blurry picture while we were having s'mores. Definetly need more work on that.
So fun to camp in all these big trees!
Too bright but a fun one.
These of Holly are my favorites. After I showed her this picture (because of course she always has to "see") she tried to wipe her very dirty face....
...with her very dirty hand. Then she said "did I get it?" So funny :)
Blurry, but I loved the tongue too much to leave it out.
We went on a super fun hike and found this little guy. Any guesses on what it is?
Sadie and daddy on the hike.
Taking a break.
On Sunday we drove over to "the Rim" and had lunch. That was so amazing and beautiful. And a little stressful to have our kids this close to a deadly cliff.

One of my favorites from the trip. I feel so blessed to live by my sister! Thanks again Ame!

It was a great trip! I brought "The Wednesday Letters" and even got to read it for about 10 mins :) Overall a super fun and relaxing time.