Sage Hen

Sage Hen Reservoir Group Camp Site...our first time visiting, yet it holds many fond memories for us now--as many memories as can be crammed into less than 48 hours. Even though, due to one wrong turn and a flash-flood-induced highway closure, it took us nearly 3 times the time to get there as it should have. Even so, after driving around and around the campground at midnight, they are true friends, those who can recognize your baby's cry in the middle of the night (thank you, Sharon!), and come out and help set up your tent in the pitch dark. (Thank you, guys!!).

Our constant friends, The Hughes, organized a camp trip with a bunch of their friends. Some we know and are very close with, others we met for the first time. 20 kids and 14 adults. Yes, we were very outnumbered. But I am happy to report that not one--not one--adult was caught unawares and tied up by untamed children and left for the mosquitoes. And that, my friends, is how we measure success around here.

Here are some of those wild children now. Don't let their innocent expressions fool you.

The kids played and imagined and impersonated Robin Hood until the sun went down. The girls were sure they were dreaming to be able to spend so much time with their friends. Actually, Brian and I felt the same way. Here the adults are having fun:

It was Darin's birthday on Saturday. He received a beautiful, state of the art, plastic bow and arrow for his birthday. He was like an apple pie at a picnic. The kids swarmed him and they were thrilled with his present:

We learned so much during this trip. One thing we learned was that it's fun to help each other, even more so than getting a turn:

Here Holland thinks, "how does one load this thing?"

She asks good friend, Stellan, for help.

Another thing we learned was that it's a chivalrous thing to help a lady with her bandaid:

We also learned that scary faces do keep bears away. Or, maybe we just didn't see any. We'll never know, I guess.

Personally, I learned that if you want to be just like everyone else, just fake it. No one will know the difference. Notice all the guys working hard to carry their offspring. Nathan must have wanted to be just like them:

On of the favorite things learned was the ability to disguise yourself in the middle of the woods. Natural mustaches are the best:

We had fun playing in the mud and water. One of the best things about our baby, in my opinion, is her love of getting dirty:

And apparently she likes to fish, too:

Brian lets Reese think she got to go on a real live boat trip.

Then he takes the bigger girls out to the middle:

Sand castle architects:

Beautiful sites seen on our hike:

When it was time to go, we, along with The Cooneys, didn't want the fun times to end.

So we found a spot on the way home to play some more:

Harrison loved seeing the skipping rocks:

Reese loved seeing Harrison:

I packed the girls a zip-lock bag to collect treasures on our trip. I think it's safe to say that the glittery colored rock was Liv's best find: