Saturday, October 4, 2014

Balancing Act

I sometimes fear we are poisoning the girls' opinions about camping. In my family, camping was all about the fun: Join other families with kids; canoe, swim, build sand castles, pick raspberries; sing songs with a guitar around the roaring fire; roast marshmallows. Repeat. All through the summer.

With us it's a means to an end. A certain somebody I know and love doesn't see the point of camping if you're not going to climb something, and our girls are lucky if they don't have to carry all their gear to the campsite first. 

But then they get to experience this:



... and this:



... and moments like this:




These photos were all taken on Mt Massive (14,428 ft) last weekend. Nicolas flew to Denver and met us in Leadville, and from there we four-wheeled to our campsite and pitched the tent in the dark. Good times! (ahem.)

Actually the good times usually come when we wake up the girls before sunrise. This is not greeted with open arms, but what beauty we'd miss otherwise:


Nicolas in the background packing up our gear. 
Cayenne beginning her hike up Mt. Elbert (14,439 ft).



Smiling already. This is a good sign.




Things got brighter...



... and then darker...





... and then colder...  but never any less beautiful.


Mt Elbert is Colorado's highest peak, so Acacia wanted to be the highest person in the state. 
Cayenne just wanted food.



Back to the car, and then to our favourite coffee shop in Buena Vista, to share as many minutes together with Papa as possible before going back to our everyday lives.

I suppose sleeping on the ground and getting up in the cold isn't so bad if this is the reward... but I'll make sure next summer when Nick is in school, that we do lots of camping just for fun.

Because it's all about raising balanced little people,
even if that means feeding them melted marshmallows. (Quelle horreur!)


   

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