My daughter's first campout

Sierra turned 5 this past Saturday and my desire was to do something really special for her that would create lasting memories instead of just giving her more "toys" or thing that she would forget very easily, so I decided to take her tent camping which is a big passion of mine. I was a little unsure of how she would do, so I put in some extra prayer for patience and tolerance and tried to not have too high of expectations.

As it turns out we had a grand time and she hasn't stopped talking about it. I took her down to Skyview Ranch where I worked in college and we had a great time swimming in the lake. Anybody who knows me, knows how much I love Skyview so I was very excited to be taking her there and sharing that experience with her. After swimming and enjoying the lake that wasn't there 10 years ago, I put on my pack, put hers on

and we were off on our "hike" out to the Oats Field.

After hiking to the far edge of the property and set up our tent and built a fire...

We had to hike down to the creek to filter some water for dinner and we had to walk through the field with the horses. I was a little scared, because 12 years ago, when I had my junior campers in the Oats Field on a campout, they let the horses out into that field and I woke up to a voice whispering "counselor we have trouble" and looked up to see about 8 of campers with horses straddling or standing in close proximity to their sleeping bags. This time, I felt pretty comfortable because we were in the upper field and had a tent. Our gourmet camp meal was Kraft Easy Mac over my whisperlite camp stove and hot dogs over the fire followed of course by the traditional camp dessert S'mores

After dinner, we read some of our favorite nature books followed by our all time favorite book "My Daddy and I" We sang some songs... "My God is so Big" and "Lord of all Creation" and captured these amazing pictures. Sierra even took the one of me all by herself.

Sierra thought it was really cool to use a groundhog hole to go to the bathroom in and found it funny that we "burned" the toilet paper with a match to 'leave no trace' and we finally went into the tent about 9:30 and after a little trouble (she didn't have a pillow and a nose thing) and Dad accidentally rolling over on "Clarabelle" (her imaginary friend) she fell asleep about 10:15 and woke up only once in the night and then at 5:30. At 5:30 I just looked at her and said "No, you go back to sleep" she did for about another hour. We had some granola bars and fruit leather and tore down camp and then read some creation Psalms before hiking back to enjoy some Saturday morning Skyview Ranch cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We finished off our adventure by enjoying the petting farm and canoeing in the lake and touring the old barn because it sounds like it might be getting torn down.

This was a trip that created a ton of memories for me and hopefully her and one that I will always treasure.

FIREWORKS

Thanks to all who read and commented on my last post. I will be doing some follow up comments but I hope it has promoted some good thought and discussion amongst your households.

On to a far less serious topic: FIREWORKS are way cool. It had been 6 years since I had actually gone to a fireworks display due to kids, life etc. I have seen some off and on and on TV, but to actually plan on going, finding a good seat etc. it had been a while.

Woo town (aka Wooster, OH) has a pretty kickin fireworks display so this year we decided to take the kids and go. We went around five down the soccer fields and went over to our churches bouncy castles and free hot dog/pop/water outreach area and let the girls play and we all enjoyed a free hotdog and beverage. Then we walked over to visit with the grandparents and Sarah's sister and her family. I grabbed some killer ribs and then we got some homemade ice cream (I'm not a big fan) and let the girls play a little more before going to stake out our seats. Now we normally put the girls to be at 7:30 and the fireworks weren't supposed till 10:00 so this was a little out of the norm for us.

One of Sarah's good friends from High School and his family joined us and we picked a prime hill off the walking path close to Highland on the Hill and WOW. When they finally started, it was an awesome display. They looked like they were exploding right down on us. It was great. Quellie (aka Raquel) our youngest was not too amused though and while she didn't cry, she spent most of the time with her hood pulled down over her face with Mom covering her face while sneaking occasional peaks. My oldest spent the time on my lap, constanly peppering me with all sorts of questions. It's like someone puts a quarter into this kid to wind her up. She just doesn't stop.

We had a great time and can't wait till next year.