Christie Moss Brenden & Eliza

We survived! Yesterday Moss, Madison, Porter and I headed up to Oak Grove to do some good ol' camping. Moss was really excited to take them because well their mother really likes to not do much of the camping thing (thats ok Bonnie we still love you!) and they had never really experienced very much of it. First off we gathered everything together and packed the truck up real nice. Notice that there is only one sleeping bag in this picture... that presented a big problem later on...Before we could get on the freeway we had to stop of at Moss' dad's ranch and pick up some wood so we could have a fire to cook all our food on. Madison and Porter were so excited to help load the truck and made a great assembly line.
We then headed out and as you can see Porter and Madison were all sorts of excited about what was about to happen.On our way there we saw something black in the middle of the road and it looked like a taranchula, so Moss pulled over the truck and we all got out to see what it was. It turns out it was a wolf spider but they look exactly the same. Madison and Porter said they had never seen a spider so big. Moss threw a little pebble at it so we could see it move and it started to walk away very very slowly. Madison asked why it was walking so slow and Moss told her its because it was cold outside and since its a cold blooded animal it can't move very fast. Madison seemed content with that answer and for the rest of the trip she kept asking how far we thought the spider had made it and when we went on a walk later she stated that she was walking slow because she was cold, oh Maddi...
Once we got to a sweet camping site were Moss spent a lot of weeks doing Timberline we all unpacked the truck and started to set up the tent. Madison was a really big help and was excited to see how it all worked and Porter... well he walked around a lot and climbed on top of everything in site. Pretty typical for the two of them.
By the time the tent was up the kids were getting hungry so Moss started the fire and we cooked up some yummy hot dogs. Now most of you know I am not the most patient person in the world so the way I cook things is pretty much just stick them in the hottest place until they look black enough. Madison and Porter were a little scared of them but I told them that's how they were suppose to look when you were camping, luckily they believed me and ate them. Moss then cooked me and him some really good ones, but it did take a lot longer than my way! haha
After dinner Moss decided to take us on a walk and show us where things were when he used to go up there. Madison and Porter had lots and lots of questions. Porter just liked it whenever Moss would say Port-a-potty cause it sounded like his name. Madison kept saying how much she loved hiking and pretty much held on to Moss' hand the whole way. Moss looked pretty happy about that.Moss then showed us a "landing pad" and I thought it would be a good place for a group photo.The leaves were so pretty up there they we all different colors and were so bright so we took a couple pictures by them. Porter kept grabbing random things and insisted I take his picture with them, what a crazy kid...After our little hike we headed back to camp and just sat around the campfire and chatted about stuff 5 and 6 year old enjoy. We talked about all the states and Madison ask Moss to tell them to her. We talked about the spider we saw earlier and Moss said that real taranchula live in Australia and that he thought they lived in Africa too, Porter was confused and said why do the spiders live in Australia but think they like in Africa, we had a pretty good laugh about that. We then got the smore stuff out and dug in. One thing I learned about Porter this trip was he has like zero coordination when it comes to walking on unleveled surfuces, there were about 5 times he almost feel in the fire and about 5 other times when we dropped all sorts of stuff in the fire that wasn't suppose to be in there. Good thing it was messy already out there so he fit right in. They all fought about who got to sit next to Moss, don't worry I shared him.
Before it was time for bed I said well we better get ready for bed before the Dancing Fish come out to dance. Porter was like: "what?" and Madison just shook her head and rolled her eyes and said "oh, Christie". I guess there is no fooling Madison. The funny part was that the next morning Porter told us he had a dream about the Dancing Fish haha! Good thing we didn't tell any scary stories.

We all got ready for bed and I got Porter and Madison all tucked in nice and tight so they wouldn't be cold. Porter is there I promise he just was so tucked in you couldn't see him. They kept asking Moss why he was putting on all of his clothes if he was going to bed. I guess they didn't quite understand that it gets really cold in the night especially when you forget a sleeping bag.The night was o.k. Porter would randomly talk he said "Madison" and "Mom" a lot and a lot of other words we couldn't decipher. Madison mumbled a bit too. Moss and I tried to stay warm in our one little sleeping bag and when you are 6 months pregnant its hard for much to fit into one of those, poor Moss almost froze to death cause he let me have it all to myself poor kid. I told him to make it up to him tonight we can cuddle all night, he really likes that:)

In the morning Moss got up and got the fire ready and then we all came out and had some hot chocolate, sweet cups huh? Thanks Bonnie! Don't they all look so pretty?
Moss and I cooked up some good pancakes and Bacon and then we all sat downed and enjoyed our meal.
Afterward we packed up and headed home. Overall it was a fun little vacation and I think a good experience for the kids, they said they wanted to do it again sometime, that's always a good sign!