Reunion

We had a great time at the Plowman Family Reunion! We spent five days camping just outside of Stanley, Idaho. When I say camping, I mean in-a-tent-no-showers-outhouse-kind of camping. Nate and I have never gone camping like this with Claire and wondered how she'd do. We shouldn't have. She was in heaven. She was so happy all week and kept saying, "I wanna go to my tent." She was obsessed with the tent. She also loved playing with the cousins her age and being the center of attention with the older cousins. Here's the chronicle of our trip:

The six-hour drive was beautiful! Because of all the rain we've had lately, everything was a gorgeous green.


View from Nate's eyes


Setting up the tent with Nate and his dad. Claire was a huge help.


Then cute Sierra wanted to come and help.


Sierra had already been there a few days...Claire's face got this dirty shortly. :)


Seriously, she was in her element.


The second day, we took a gorgeous hike.


We didn't have a back pack to put Claire in and it was an almost 10-mile hike. She got to ride on Grandpa and Dad's shoulders a lot.


We had to cross a few streams that were ICE COLD. My feet felt numb for a while after. But Nate's dad crossed three times. Once to get Claire and his gear over, another to take his wife on this back (wish I'd gotten a pic of that), and a third time to take his 80-year-old dad over. That's the kind of awesome guy he is.


You never heard Grandpa Plowman complain once. Here he is, 80 years old, and can out-hike any of us. We finally got a break near the top.


I'm sure Nate's back and arms enjoyed putting Claire down for a bit.


Claire loved balancing on logs.


And she loved the attention she got from cousins Cindy and Emmy.


They loved going down to the "beach" and throwing rocks. The first time Claire went she was asking everyone where the whales and dolphins were.


The men cooking dinner.


Seriously, the Plowmans do not mess around when it comes to food. We ate fabulously the whole trip.


Claire carried this chair around everywhere. She'd roll it up, then unroll it over and over.


The morning of the 4th of July, Nate's aunt's family brought up a flag and flagpole. We had a great raising of the flag ceremony. Claire got to be part of the Color Guard.




Then everyone sang patriotic songs (while Japanese tourists took pictures of us...seriously.).


Claire loves spending time with her Grandpa and I think he feels the same way. They spent hours going on "adventures" together. Every time I'd say to Nate, "do you know where Claire is?" He'd say, "with my dad."


On the way home from another hike (that we ended up getting hailed on and had to end early), we found a flock of sheep. There were literally hundreds of sheep everywhere.


Cousins Josh and Corey playing what I think was called "Ninja Destruction". Uncle Ken taught everyone and they spent a lot of time playing it.


The last night we roasted hot dogs, ate smores and played many games of Mafia.


What a fun trip. I love spending time with this family!

{More to come of our camping adventures...we're going again this weekend.}