Camping in Parker, AZ

The kids were going camping with our Pathfinder club and this time, they caught me.

I couldn't come up with nary a single excuse to save myself from being dragged along.

"I have allergies" didn't work.

Neither did "But I'm not a Pathfinder."

Not even my big guns worked.

"But I don't sleep well when I camp.... Mommy gets really grumpy and mean when she's tired.  You don't want that do you?"

(Apparently I need to work on being mean!)  ;)

I pretty much knew I was going when I found out they were.  Even if it's not my choice of activities, I don't want the kids to grow up and remember me never being there at these "fun" events.

Jeremy and the kids put up our tents.
(Once our feet hit the soil in Parker, we saw glimpses of Abby, but she was much too busy with her friends to be bogged down by pesky family members!)

We stayed at a really nice campground right on the Colorado River.  The group camping site was super nice.  The view was definitely that of the desert.  We were surrounded on 3 sides by mountains, desert plants and animals (Quails and lizards, mostly).  But then the river was the 4th side.  Thankfully there was soft grass on which to place the tent and trees to provide some shade.  The best of both worlds!  The weather was beautiful, but the highs were in the high 90's, so it was a bit warm in the late afternoon.  The lows were in the low 70's... perfect camping sleeping weather.

Marshall has become quite the helper on these trips!

Man and ManCub working side by side

Amelia was happy as can be because one of her besties, Mabel was along.  They both are too young to be an official part of the Pathfinder club, but they get to participate in most things thanks to their older siblings.

Jeremy let Marshall, Amelia and Mabel have turns tapping the tent stakes down into the ground.

The girls have so much fun together.  I am so glad that Amelia has Mabel for a friend.  They get along so well together.  They treat each other with respect and kindness.  Unfortunately, from what I've seen, that's not a quality always taught to kids.

I have to admit that it was a nice campsite.
Jeremy and Marshall took the yellow tent while Amelia, Mabel and myself were in the gray one.

The Colorado River
In the heat of the day, the air felt like a blast from the oven and the water was as cold as ice water.  BRRRR!
That didn't stop the kids though!  On Saturday afternoon, after the tents were put up, the big kids took a nature scavenger hunt.  Amelia, Mabel and I walked down to the water to put our toes in.  Or so I thought.  They both ended up soaked!  ;)
Sunday morning, we came back to the river and the big kids practiced their canoeing.  Marshall was able to get in some fishing, aka worm drowning.  Amelia just enjoyed playing in the water.

Not a bad way to spend your retirement years.  I could certainly live with the scenery!

Some homes on the California side of the Colorado River.  I could also live with this!

There were campsites right on the water, but you couldn't reserve them for groups.  We loved this  tall cactus.  You didn't have to worry about any spiky things on it!  Some very imaginative person carved it out of a tree!  And look at how wet they got putting their toes in!  Amazing!

Sunset on the mountains with Moonrise right behind!
The nighttime was actually pretty interesting.  A few times when I woke up, I heard coyotes and even some wild burro's!

Ah, look!  It's a rare Abby sighting!

God is so good!

I hate to put the words here in a form that can be used against me in the future, but I really did have fun!  I told Jeremy that I thought that I could probably do a family camping trip.... Well, maybe with a few requirements, of course!