Petit Jean Mountian

We returned last night from a fun camping trip to Petit Jean Mountain. It was Carson's first time to go camping, and it was a hit! We borrowed Corey's parent's little bitty camper for Caylie, Carson, and me to sleep in, and Corey slept with Christian in a tent.

As we arrived, and started getting set up, we ran into some friends from our neighborhood that are also in our small group at church. They invited us to come to their camp site to meet another family that they were camping with, and make smores. So after roasting hot dogs for dinner, we headed over to visit and have dessert! We all enjoyed hanging out, and visiting around the campfire. There were 11 or 12 kids in the group, and they had fun playing around together! It would have been a fun photo op, but I didn't have the camera!

After we got back to our camper, it took a while to get Carson to wind down and go to sleep, but after he did, we made it through the whole night...yea! I wasn't so sure about how that would work out! He even let us sleep in until around 9! Love that!

Yesterday, we started out with an easy hike to see a big cave that has old Indian markings on the walls. It was so cool to be there, and think about how many things had happened in there over the course of many, many years. The kids all liked climbing and playing around on all of the rocks, and were pretty good sports about posing for some pictures!

We headed back to the campsite for lunch and nap time. Carson wasn't very interested in taking a nap, but after he finally gave in, he slept well, and woke up ready for more action.

We decided that since things had gone so well earlier, that we would be a little more ambitious this time around. We hiked down to a stream that leads to a huge waterfall. After we got to the water, Carson and Caylie took off their shoes and socks, and put their feet in the cold water. Caylie said that she couldn't believe how long Carson was keeping his feet in the water! I think that he would have just jumped right in if we hadn't held on to him! He must have gotten that trait from Christian...Christian is a little heater! We are always amazed at how warm he stays while everyone else is freezing!


Christian found his way onto a dry rock in the middle of the stream, and decided to take a little break before heading back up!

Although Corey held Carson for a few very small parts of the hike, Carson did the vast majority of it completely on his own, or while just holding one of our hands. He really enjoyed himself. We were all so proud of him.

As we headed back, we went on to an overlook where we could see the actual waterfall. It is amazing! Maybe the next time, we will take the 2 mile hike all the way down to the bottom of it!

In the picture below, you can see part of the waterfall, and the tiny white dots on the side, are people!

We had used up all of our marshmallows the night before, so we went to buy some at the shop in the lodge. They were out, but told us to check in the restaurant. Caylie went to ask, and when the lady came back, she was holding a little styrofoam cup full of tiny marshmallows! Caylie, not wanting to waste any good marshmallows, headed back to the camp fire, and got busy roasting her some baby marshmallows on a tiny stick! Look closely, and you can see them! Just as yummy....only smaller!


After having some "technical difficulties" (a little bit of a sink overflow issue!), we decided to wind things up one night early and head back home. No need to sleep in a wet bed when you don't have to...right? The kids were kind of disappointed...and I guess we were too, but we all had a great time while we were there, and look forward to going back!