The Great Outdoors

This weekend we went camping with the Walkers up in the Uinta Mountains.

I think that Corbin might have been in heaven... a full 3 days of playing in the dirt, chasing Kona around, poking at rocks, flinging sticks, splashing in the water... pretty much everything little boys always want to do, but their OCD mother's don't let them do. When we first got there he kept falling down on the uneven terrain and every time his hands would get dirty he would walk over to me and say, "hans" and stick his hands out for me to wash, because I always get mad at him for wiping his dirty hands on clothes and such at home. So when Harmony first told him to brush the dirt off on his pants he looked over at me with "the look" and was shocked when I told him to go ahead. It took him awhile to get used to the fact that he wasn't going to get in trouble for wandering around in the dirt, but once he did, there was no stopping him. I don't think that he has ever been so happy. (Little kids are easy to please.)

And lucky for us the Walkers brought Kona along, and Corbin loved that poor dog. I say poor dog because he wouldn't leave her alone, he was constantly poking or pulling at some part of her. She made an excellent babysitter, as he followed her around for hours at a time. Luckily she was really nice and let him hover as much as he wanted.


"Hugs" - really Kona was trying desperately to take a nap, but some annoying kid kept laying on her, wonder who that could be?


Whacking her with giant leaves a few minutes later.


For Mother's Day Corbin (aka Caleb) got me one of those cool toddler carriers so that Bean can come on all of our hikes with us, it really worked out great, he loved being up high enough to see what was going on and we didn't have to walk .2 miles per hour (aka toddler speed).


An example of walking at toddler speed, cute but relatively annoying when going more than 15 feet away.


I have always enjoyed shooting BB guns for some reason. I remember lining old pop cans up on Cedar Mountain at Grandma and Grandpa Nash's during the summer as a kid and trying to hit cans halfway up the mountain. Although neither one of us has ever actually gone hunting and shot an animal. (Unless you count whatever happens with boys and rabbits at scout camp and in the desert for Caleb :)


Harmony showed Corbin how the trees smelled sweet, like butterscotch. I don't know if he ever really caught on to what was happening, but he sure did look proud after he sniffed the tree, just like his pal, "Hmoney."


Oh my heck did that boy work up an appetite while camping. I guess walking around for 10 hours a day, stopping to pick things up and throw rocks must burn a lot of calories because we now see where the phrase "bottomless pit" comes from. If he wasn't bothering Kona he was eating. The first night alone he ate two full peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (well almost full, he does still pick off some of the crust), a couple of bananas, a few graham crackers, two cups of juice, a cup of milk and some raisins. And that was after a big lunch too!


It took awhile for him and Kona to learn that they weren't allowed to eat each other's food. But once he realized that he could feed her her food, he loved putting things into her mouth. He thought it was awesome.

But we definitely wore him out, by the last day he was starting to get cranky from having his sleep schedule so rudely interrupted, either that or he was coming down off of the liquid steroids the doctor had him on this last week. Either way it was a great adventure, and we all had a lot of fun poking at the fire, roasting marshmallows, playing cards, hiking, shooting, fishing, exploring, etc. Thanks to Harm and Derek (and Kona) for all the great times!