A couple of weekends ago (Woohoo, I'm almost caught up on my blog!), I decided we needed to go camping! Asher had never been before, it had been quite a while for myself, and the weather was perfect camping weather. I realized that while camping would be fun with just the three of us, it would be even more fun with friends. A family from back in Maryland moved to El Paso about the same time that we moved to Juarez. They are such a good, fun family, we knew that camping with them would be a blast. That Tuesday before the long weekend, we emailed our friends to see if they wanted to join us. Of all the people we know, this family of eight (the youngest being less than a year old) would be the ones who would say yes to the short term invite and pack up the family and go camping. Because that's just how cool and fun they are, and that's how they roll :)
That Friday, after some last minute shopping to pick up items - like sleeping bags and s'more makings - we were off to Percha Dam State Park. Fortunately, it was a State park, or it would have been closed along with all the other National parks due to the government shutdown that was taking place. We drove up after work, and our friends were already set up, with the fire and tin foil dinners ready to go - btw, the foil dinners were the best I had ever had! Sooo good! :)
From the moment we got out of the car and Asher saw his friends and the fire - he decided he loved camping! He was such a good boy on the trip, and we had so much fun with him.
He had fun hanging out with his friends and being silly together :)
And of course, like all normal boys (or people for that matter) he was mesmerized by the fire.
This was also one time where Asher sat for longer than two minutes :) Just relaxing, drinking his root beer. Nothing better than that!
Then it was s'mores time! All the kids were pretty excited about that :) Asher had fun learning how to cook a s'more from his Daddy.
My boys :)
Cute sisters, having fun around the campfire :)
Then the giant campfire marshmallows were pulled out - some liked them uncooked, others like them cooked - but had to deal with the consequences of their massive size :)
Candid shots are fun :)
We even had our own cowboy at the campfire - Well, soon to be Texan who is embracing the Texan look :) It works for him though!
After relaxing and eating around the fire, we finally went to bed in our tents. We definitely didn't expect it to get at cold as it did! We made it through the night, but we were definitely tired and sore in the morning. Nothing we didn't expect with camping though :) Asher slept pretty well, snuggled in between us. We woke up with the sun, and decided another fire was definitely needed! It was still cold!
We ate a delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and sausage cooked on our Coleman camping stove, along with orange and apple juice (though we should have brought hot chocolate to warm us up!). It was delicious.
Then afterwards, another marshmallow was definitely needed - or so Asher thought :)
Our friends brought their B B Gun for target practice - now we felt like we were getting closer to being real Texans! (Even though we were in New Mexico)
Asher even got to try it out!
We relaxed a little bit more, even though the smoke from the fire was starting to be a bit much. But it was a good time.
Then the kids ran and played while the adults packed up the camp site.
Asher being an older brother :) "All the camping chairs are packed up? No worries, I'll just use my friend as a back rest. He's the second youngest of six, he won't mind! He's totally used to this!" :)
He also found something to jump off of - of course.
After we were all packed up, we decided we needed to take a "hike." While this park isn't really known for their trails, there was a little one that ran alongside the Rio Grande. That fabled, not so aptly-named river. With the river being so close to us, and since we still hadn't seen it since the riverbed we cross over 4 times a week to enter El Paso is dried up, or gone or something, we had to go see this mighty river :)
And here it is...Wah waaaah. Totally unimpressive. Come on people! Where the heck is this river!? At least the kids could throw rocks in it if nothing else.
More things to climb on :)
We then found the start of the trail...
Friendly little sign surrounded by unfriendly barbed wire...?? What the heck??
And on we went - upgrading walking sticks as we went.
We did find one scenic spot that was lovely. But just one ;)
At the end of the short trail (though great length for kids and tired, sore adults), we came to a field of cotton of all things. Where are we??
We then hiked back, and started our trip home. As we started out of the park, we noticed this field that we didn't see on the way in because it was too dark. A field of chilies. How cool! How beautiful!
While we were expecting something a little more wooded (silly east coast notions), we had a fantastic time camping. The company was top notch, and Asher had a great time - Expect for that one time right before we went to bed that he started freaking out because he thought the car wasn't going to start....???? What?? Where did that come from?? :) Sean was good enough to take him to the car and show him that, yes, in fact the car really does still work. Thanks dad! I think Asher was weirded out by the fact that we had parked on grass. He must be a city boy! I love my little boy.
While it's a little too cold at night now, we are planning on starting earlier in the season next year to get our camping in. Especially now that I saw it can be done with a baby! Good times had by all! Thanks New Mexico for a fun time.
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