Seventy-first Passage

We had our annual week long Martin family camp out last week. We had a funny schedule. Our little family went up on a Friday, after work, with the rest of my family. We camped in Council on some property of a friend of my dad's. It was beautiful country. My only complaint was the fact that we were in a big meadow, and there was no shade until evening. We camped in 100 degree weather, so that was sometimes miserable.

Anyway, almost all the family was there for this first part, except Morgan and Lydia, who were with their dad, as well as my two missionary brothers.

We had to head back home on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday David worked. Tuesday after work we headed back up the mountain, this time with Morgan and Lydia in tow. Also this time amidst non-stop rain. It started raining Sunday evening, and didn't stop until Wednesday afternoon. This meant that driving on mountainous dirt roads was actually driving in mud. We made it almost all the way to camp, but our van got stuck going up the final ascent right before dropping into our campsite. Luckily, my dad was there with a four wheel drive ATV that had a winch. It pulled us out of the mud and up the hill with hardly any problem at all.

Anyway, the rainy days we spent a bit of time inside the "kitchen tent" as we call it. We had a picnic table in there, lotsa chairs, as well as food and games.

But after the rainy days came excruciatingly hot days. There was a creek right through camp, and so much of the time the children (and often adults) played in it.

William

 Owen preferred sticks and rocks to getting in the water.

 Morgan slipping, Lydia being concerned.

 Dirty faced Lydia.

 Happy Morgan.

 Lotsa family.

 We damned the creek the first weekend we were there, so we had a nice little pool to play in.

Owen eventually changed into swimwear, but still spent most of his time on the bank. 

 David found that sitting in the water was the best place to sit.

And then he found that sitting in the water in the shade of the bridge was the best place to sit. (I found a little snake in the tree/bush right next to me not long after this picture was taken. I tried to catch it, but it slithered away.)

We shot guns while up there. Morgan, William, and their cousin Kaien even had bb guns to shoot.

 The little cabin in the background was lived in for awhile by my dad's friend's mother. It's pretty tiny.

We did some fourwheeling, but I failed to get any pictures of it. 

Here are some cousins being cute.

 William, Emmy, Lydia, Morgan, and Ammon.

While camping, David did a lot of projects. He made glue out of pine tree sap,

He made a walking stick and used the pine tree sap glue to put a bone on the top and bottom, also using a mortise and tenon joint, and used the same glue to attach the feathers to the cord he made out of tree bark while sitting in the shade under the bridge. Whew! How's that for a sentence?

He made a couple arrows for the bow he previously made, thought I don't have any photos.

And he made a bracelet and crown thing for Lydia.

Oh, let me show you a picture of the camp.

The giant dome tent belongs to my parents. They wanted to try it out. It took hours to set up and take down.

The big tent in the middle is the kitchen tent, the identical one on the left was Chris and Christine's family tent, and our tent, which looks tiny compared to their beasts, is the little white one across the creek. 

Here's my handsome, handsome, husband helping my parents set up their tent. 

So, there you go. That's how we camp.