Surprise! Camping!

Filled in the bus blog. Still working on posting photos. Sorry!
Friday I took Clerie and the kids on a surprise camping trip. Clerie likes the idea of how, on a cruise, everything is taken care of for you. So I tried to do just that. I planned & packed, etc.
After work, Kenzie and Andy came over for some stroganof.

(Clerie guessed it would be Kenzie and Andy, since Kenzie has a particular fondness for meat dishes, and during our meal planning earlier in the week, I specifically requested a meat dish for Friday.)

After dinner, we drove to Dick's Drive-in in Kamas, where we got a little ice cream. Then we drove up the Mirror Lake Highway till we found a campsite. We sang songs around a campfire before hitting the sack. We stayed up late enough that even Jonathan was happy to go to bed.

In the morning, we had bagels, cream cheese, and fruit (easy meals, since I have to do them!) before heading further up the canyon. We thought we'd hike to Wall Lake, but it was virtually impassable for the kids. We settled on ponds lake. But even that was a mile or two on roads, and then a couple hundred yards over snow drifts and standing water.

The mosquitoes, by the way, are having a good year.

Jonathan "skied" over the snow drifts.

We had lunch (turkey & avocado sandwiches) at Mirror Lake, where Jonathan, Addison and I took turns stepping through the near-freezing water, with masses of slush and snow floating on top. Addison loved it. I think she might be able to handle cold water like Danny does.

Clerie loved the trip. She said it was nice to be able to relax since everything was taken care of. (Yes!) And she liked how it was "minimalist." (A nice way of saying I didn't cook a thing.)

Jonathan told Kenzie, "It was the best surprise ever."

After we got home on Saturday, Jonathan made me home made water ice (a reference to Rita's water ice from the road trip) buried under mountains (since we were up in the mountains over the weekend) of love (it was sand, actually).