Relaxing in the Mountains

We just got back yesterday from our first "mountain" camping trip with the boys...I love making memories like these!  It was kind of a dismal week weather-wise, but it still ended up being such a wonderful vacation.  I wasn't too sure when we arrived at our campground...the beginning was a little rough.  The first thing that we saw was a grizzly bear hanging out (holding up traffic) going into the campground.  At this point we didn't care about no bear...we just wanted to get to our campsite and get the screaming kids out of the van...but no...it's like people have never seen a bear before!  Finally we got to the water station to fill up the camper and right in front of the van runs a grizzly bear!  Not a good start for me as I am usually more that a little paranoid and frightened of bears!  I told Brad we were going to turn around and go home because this was too dangerous!  We didn't...thanks to my ever-calm husband.  And from then on, never saw a bear again...other than a black bear that ran by our camper while we were sleeping in the camper one afternoon...gladly we just heard about it from our camping neighbors.

The "neighbors" ended up being Benjamin's new buddies.  They had 2 boys around ages 5 and 7, and a little girl around age 3.  The boys took Ben under their wings and played with him whenever we were both at the campsite at the same time.  And the little girl and Benjamin had a thing going on...I looked over and there they were walking away from the campsites hand in hand...oh so sweet!  It was great that Benjamin had playmates...he's so used to having Levi to play with now it was a little lonely for him as we had to keep Levi more contained than usual.  The moment we would put Levi on the ground he was immediately pick up a rock to eat...so he was cooped up in the playpen...not fun for him.

Our bundled up boys.  Levi was the attraction for the tourists...they would say "oh...now we can say we saw a little brown bear!"

We took one day to go up the mountain in the tram...it was not really a nice ride.  No seats...so we had to hold both boys the entire way up and they crammed as many people as possible in it...and it did not smell too nice!  Not exactly a nice ride up the mountain...rather I was wishing it was done.  It was completely foggy at the top...you couldn't see a thing...it was a little disappointing.  But we got some food and the moment we sat down it was like God gave us a little gift and the fog suddenly disappeared and you could see everything.  It was great!

The boys in front of a glacier

Benjamin loved the puddles much more than the waterfalls!

The next two days we did some "hiking" and touristy sites.  The first days hike was very frustrating!  Brad asked which hike would be stroller-friendly.  And there was one trail that had a small amount of roots that you could easily go over and other than that a great trail...NOT!  I think every root from every tree around that path went through the path.  We tried for a short while to push the stroller but ended up lifting it up most of the time to get over the roots.  Finally we ended up carrying the stroller and the boys.  Thankfully we had great friends along to help us out!  We each had something to carry so it made the hike even more of a work-out!  The second hike we took up to a glacier was much more stroller friendly.  We even saw an avalanche from way up in the mountain...thankfully not close to us.

We loved every moment we spent with out boys...but the evenings were always the most "relaxing".  Sitting around the fire with great friends...enjoying great camping food...chatting.  A feeling of being refreshed.  I just love camping.  By the time yesterday came we wished we would have stayed longer...but all good things have to come to an end I guess.  Here's to next year!