When you marvel at the mountain...

We didn't think that it was possible to fit three car seats onto the back bench of a 1996 Toyota 4Runner. Turns out you can! And I think it might have even been safe! 

We went to our favorite place, and I'm going to give you the name in complete confidence that you won't tell the whole world and take over our secret neighbor-free camping spot in the Uintahs.

Spring Canyon Road. It starts off pretty busy with campers, pretty smooth dirt driving. 

Oh but then. 

The "road" turns into something between a boulder field and a roller coaster. 

But we made it. We survived. And no one else was there! That's the beauty of the road! If no one but yourselves are crazy enough to drive up the road, you're  guaranteed quiet camping!

We gave the kids a quick lesson on Hunter Gatherers, and they piled that fire wood up nicely.

I could have also taught them about how people used to have large families so that there would be more people to share the work load, but we let them pretend it was a game instead. 

Because we're amazing parents like that.

These two were convinced that they were Mountain men in another life. Luckily they also brought along the flame thrower.  

No offense! I'm sure that with time you really could have gotten a flame. I'm really really sure.

Huckleberries. OH the huckleberries! They were seriously tiny, but they packed a punch of flavor that made my tastebuds sing. 

I hadn't had any since Camp Loll where they grow in abundance, so it was fun to pick them again. So many Camp Loll reminders lately! What is this?

There's a baby in this photo, can you see her? 

(he he)

When I see photos like this of my baby, I immediately forgive Caleb for every spare penny that he has spent on photo equipment. There we were in the middle of the woods, fighting for survival, and he was off making art like this. 

Bless him. 

The idea here was to take a new family picture, since we haven't since Claire was born. I've given up on the lovely photos that most families have, because we're not most lovely families! 

I knew I was going to have a little girl who looked like her Dad. It was destiny. I knew she was coming.  

These yahoos were CRACKING us up the whole time. I have no idea what they were playing at in this photo (or the rest of the time we were there for that matter) but they were having fun. That is what matters when you're 2 or 4. 

When I was pregnant with this one I got a lot of comments from people about how 3 kids was really going to do me in, rock my world, make me crazy (too late) and basically make me wish I had stopped at 2. 

Claire is here to prove them all wrong. She is the easiest baby to grace our home so far, and has done nothing but make life happier and calmer. Weird, I know.  

I love camping. I love camping. I love camping. 

Was that redundant? Yes. But it was true. 

We camped in this lovely grove on the edge of a huge meadow, and happiness reigned. I brought along some paper and glue so the kids could make leaf books if they got bored, because I am Such a prepared Mother. 

Bored? Really? We could have stayed there for a week and they wouldn't have gotten bored.

My camera batteries died 5 minutes after arriving.

But that was good, because Caleb really felt the urgent necessity of taking as many photos as possible. For the blog's sake:)

That night, it got real cold. As in everything was frosted over in the morning.

But, as you can see, we stayed warm and toasty! Did you know that a two person sleeping bag can actually sleep five persons? We all woke up happy! Except for Caleb, who couldn't really wake up because he never really went to sleep.

I don't know what to think of this photo. I'm in love since cute smiling photos of her are So rare these days. But can you even See the smile under the caked mud, ketchup and pine sap? And I can't decide if the sludge actually makes it cuter or if it's actually disgusting.  

We laughed a lot. 

Strange things become funny when you leave civilization.

Caleb and I were discussing how our reasons for camping have changed dramatically in the last 7 years since he and I started camping together (besides the entire summers that we spent camping together before 'we' were 'we'). 

The joy has increased by three now. Watching our three take in and explore the beautiful natural world is a whole new kind of wonderful.

How a being could stand in the mountains and not give credit to the great Creator is totally beyond me.

I wish wish wish I knew who wrote this poem. I memorized it when I was much younger and it comes back to me whenever I find myself in a wild place:

When you marvel at the mountain

pen no rhapsodic lines

descriptive of it's battlements

it's shadowed peaks and pines.

The mountain which has stood

through a million years of stress

shrugs off the pallid phrases,

the futile wordiness.

Make obeisance in awed silence.

You have naught to speak about.

God said all there was to say

the day he carved it out.