Hurli-Camp!

...not to be confused with Camp Hurliyard...this is legit HURLI-CAMP!

Last weekend (well, Friday night), John and I braved the wilderness (and tested our parenting patience!) and took our family up to Golden Gate Canyon State Park for an overnight adventure under the stars. Amazingly enough, at 8000+ elevation in mid-September, we didn't freeze, get eaten by a bear, or decide to "accidentally" leave our kids at the campground - all in all, a successful trip!

On Friday, we didn't get out of Denver until 4:30p (or later!) and had a few stops to make....meaning that by the time we got to the campsite and got the tent set up, it was already (officially) bedtime for the girls.  Regardless, we stayed up, roasted dogs, and ate s'mores (is a campfire really a campfire if you don't make s'mores? :) 

Daddy built us a roaring fire with wood from the various fallen aspens in our yard.  Being aspens, however, they didn't roar long.

Happy s'more face!
(and those sugar-high eyes...)

Me and my campfire girls!
(read:  Mom holds on for dear life so her crazy little ones, hyped up on marshmallows, don't take a dip in the firepit!)

As we imagined it would be, it was quite an ordeal to get those two settled after all the campfire fun.  When we camped in our yard, Tanner was the tough one to settle - I remember Ellery laying there, suckin' on her Nuk, watching her big Sass be a wild thang.  This time, however, was quite the opposite - this time, Tanner laid down and snuggled in her sleeping bag with (relative) ease while Ellery was the pill.  (Do you think it's possible that the Nuk (or lack thereof) played a part in this behavior???  Hmmmm... :) 

After a kindof-okay-but-pretty-rough night of sleeping (thank you, Ellery, for flipping upside down and uncovering yourself multiple times), we (meaning those two) were up early - like before-the-ever-loving-sun early.  But at least we could keep them at bay in the tent (oh yes, thank goodness for that, what a blessing *smirk*). 

There were more than a few antics between the hours of 6am (wake up) and 8:30am (when we finally let them out of the "cage"):

Yummy Pop Tart breakfast.
Sweeping up the crumbs later was AWESOME fun.

Tanner:  What do you see?
Ellery:  Wha see!
Tanner:  I see a chipmunk.
Ellery:  I see chi-mo'!
Me:  I see two monkeys.
Ellery:  I see mo'-kee!  Momma, wha see?  I see mo'-kee!
(and so it continued.  For a long time.)

Philisophical discussions over Pop Tarts.  I can't remember what, exactly, they were talking about, but it was super cute.

Eventually, we decided to venture outside of the tent (some of use were more groggy than others).

Tanner in front of tree.

Ellery in front of tree.

Tanner on tree stump.

Ellery on tree stump.
(do you sense a theme?)

Sisters being sisters.

Up close and Tanner.



Awww...look how cute they're playing!
(actually...Tanner is putting rocks in Elle's hood - and pockets - but whatever)

Roughly five hours after those two decided to pop-up wide awake (did I mention it was still dark when they woke up???), John and I had enough coffee, food, and energy to venture out on a hike.  We chose a 2.5 mile "moderate" hike that left from and returned to our campground, hoping for the best - and surprisingly, it went really, really well!

With I in my hiking clothes, and her on my back
Elle settles in for a nice little nap
(roughly 5 minutes into our hike)

A nice family pic!
(...except that Ellery's still sleeping :)

We had to make more than one stop to jump off tree stumps...

(This one was a bit to high to jump off independently)

...and sit on rocks.
(I LOVE the pose, don't you?)

Ellery awakes!

Tanner & Daddy, on the trail...

Mommy and the girls on the trail
(isn't it a fun, picturesque trail?  Perfect! :)

Panorama Point, our hiking destination
(and our lunch spot :)

It was a beautiful day for a hike - very "Colorado" and truly gorgeous...as was Panorama Point - even if it did take us almost 90 minutes to get there.  You see, we thought we took the short end of the loop to start, then planned to hike the long end of the loop after lunch (depending on how the girls were doing).  Somewhere, though, we went the "wrong" way (we figured out where we turned "incorrectly" when we hiked the return - and the signs lead you to the long way.  Those sign-posters must not take children on hikes.  :)

Anyway, back to the pictures:

John climbs a fun tree...

...which means Tanner has to "climb" it, too.

When we got to a nice, non-tree-root-y, wide, open, flat-ish path, we decided to let Ellery down to do her own hiking:

She does not look like my "baby" here.  Such a big girl hiker! :)

Evaluating the road ahead...

You might think, "awww!  Cute hiking sisters!"...
...but what you don't know is that this is Ellery refusing to hold Tanner's hand. :)

The girls :)

 

John's cool perspective hiking shot :)

Tanner jumps over a bump in the road...

...which means Ellery jumps over a bump in the road.
(hopefully by now you get the picture :)

Surprisingly enough, this happened less than expected on a 2.5-mile-2.5-hour-ish-hike.  Tanner did such a good job being our big-girl hiker! :)

Eventually, when we were almost back to the trailhead, the conversation had devolved to this:

Ellery:  Where Dadda?
Me: I don't know, where's Daddy? (he's hiking just beside us, btw)
Ellery:  ont noooo.  Where Sa-ssy? (also right beside us)
Me:  I don't know, where's Sassy?
Ellery:  ont noooo.  Where Daddy?

And so on.  And so forth.  For about half a mile.  You might be thinking, "That's not that long," and it's not, until you're having the above conversation over and over and over and over and ..... (but at least Tanner and Ellery thought it was hilarious).

An example of the conversation - only in this case, I had to do all the initiating.  I assure you, when she was propped up there right behind my ear in the backpack, she was incessant about asking over and over!

We made it back to our campsite and packed up, leaving by 3pm - which means our adventure was roughly 23 hours long (regardless of how long it felt :)  Being in your thirties and camping with two under four is definitely exhausting!  

Our fun little campsite.

 

Thought we should get a pic with the tent before we took it down...not sure what TK is doing here besides holding her hands...urm...oddly.

All in all, it was a really fun family-style adventure, just our speed (air mattresses in the tent, car nearby, and a bathroom across the campsite :)  We may make this our annual camping location, we liked it that much! :)

Happy Fall!  (more blogs in the works...stay tuned!)