~ camping season ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple weekends ago

we had our first camping trip of the year!

We eased into it by staying at our local nature preserve.

We stayed in a primitive (no water or electric) site.

It was perfect!  

Our tent is the REI Kingdom 6 and we love it.

Very spacious and an adult can stand up inside.

It has kept us dry in several heavy downpours, and stood tall during strong winds.

There are a bunch of pockets inside for everything.

I cannot say enough good things about this tent.

Everywhere we looked,

the first leaves of Spring were appearing!

The girls ran up and down the ravine,

creating little play areas and finding spring ephemeral wildflowers.

At the end of the day, they were tired in a way you can only experience camping.

We made a pot of curried butternut lentil stew

in the cast iron dutch oven, and warmed it over the fire.

Hearty and very filling!

Of course we roasted marshmallows!

I managed to squeeze in some knitting as well.

This was March 19th, and we had camped to see the "Super Full Moon".

But it was very overcast, so we couldn't see the Moon.

I had fun trying to get a picture of the night sky.

I held my breath while taking these pictures.

They turned out kind of neat.

The next day we went on a hike to find more spring ephemeral wildflowers.

I found quite a bunch, and got some decent pictures.

But I will save them for another post.

Okay, just a couple.

Meet round-lobed hepatica.

Oh, she's so sweet!

And goodness I love this last photograph.

~ carrie ~

~ off camping and a look back ~

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We're off to the mountains for a few days

to enjoy some time sitting by the fire, fishing and exploring nature.

I thought I'd share some pictures of some of our first camping experiences

when we were only a family of three, with two on the way!

Here's 16-month old Lela and me in June 2006.

We were camping at a favorite spot on the Conway River, VA.

In case you're curious, that's a twin belly at 3 1/2 months.  

Check out that tiny tent.

Notice it is sitting *on top* an air mattress.

Rapidan River, Virginia.

Lela is now 18 months and that's a 4 1/2 month twin belly.

Lela and Daddy fishing.

Our last camping trip to the Conway 

before Laurel and Livvy were born. 

I'm getting ready to release this tiny native brook trout

at 6 1/2 months pregnant.

Fast forward to May 2009 before we were brave enough to take

a four year old and two two-year olds camping.

We upgraded to a much, much bigger tent.

It's REI's Kingdom 6, an excellent investment. 

REI is a great organization, we are co-op members.

For our May camping trip, please see this post.  

And our June (bear) camping trip, please visit here.  

I'll be cooking on our camp stove in the mornings, and over the fire in the evenings.

Lunch will be sandwiches and snacks are fruit, veggies and cheese.

Thank you to my friend Cookie for loaning me her lovely cast-iron Dutch oven.

All my cooking will be cast-iron, thank you to everyone for converting me!

And thank you to my friend Nikki for these great links.  


eartheasy Campfire Cooking - building a cooking campfire, solar ovens and recipes
SCOUTORAMA  - camping and Dutch oven recipes
Joy of Camping  - camping recipes

So we're off to the wilderness and we are so excited.

I'll be back here at the end of the week, sharing stories and pictures.

Hopefully no bears, though we are counting on the pup to keep us on notice.

Enjoying nature,

~carrie~

shakori hills grassroots: day 1

 ~ beautiful meadow stage ~

Last week and into the weekend

we attended Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

with friends!

~ sweet friends ~

After setting up camp and making dinner

we got the kids ready to head over

to the festival ground.

~ cooler wagon ~

~ kid wagon ~

Thursday night, 

Rusted Root performed!

~ playing with digital zoom ~

There were hula hoopers everywhere

some with electric hoops!

~ one of many cool pictures ~

The kids did great and fell asleep in the wagons,

so the mommas had time to browse some arts and crafts.

~ babywearing! ~

A perfect evening!

~ pester me to get photoshop - this picture needs cropping! ~

Stay tuned for more pictures

of Day 2 when more friends arrived!

carrie