Our First Backpacking Trip!

 

Warning this post has an insane amount of photos!

We've been planning a backpacking trip for about 6 months now, but last weekend we finally packed our bags and left modern civilization behind.

 

We knew hiking in with two smallish kiddos was going to be tricky so we prepared as best we could. Everyone got a pack. Mom and Dad got really big packs. Will, the pack he fell in love with at REI and would see none else and an itty bitty pack for Ben. Will and Ben had some water in their watertubes (aka camelpacks) as well as a beloved stuffed animal that couldn't be left behind.

 

 The original rule was everyone walks the whole way, but can call breaks whenever the want.... yeah that worked for about 1/2 a mile. Cue superdad! btw his pack weighs about 45lbs and Ben weighs 30!

 It took us about 3.5 hours to hike in 2.5mi. Slow and steady won the race, and we made it! (Found out later we stopped at the wrong lake and our goal was about 1mi further, oh well. We went on a dayhike out there the next day)

 

 Our tent and View from our tent!

 I recently bought a new dehydrator, so I made all of our backpacking food. Everything was dried and cooked simply by adding boiling water and waiting for it to soften. Sounds awful huh? It was actually pretty good. Our favorites were Stroganoff Soup, Bean & Rice Burritos, and Strawberry Shortcake!

 Will had a stick in his hand pretty much the entire trip! It was everything from a pirate sword, to a gun to shoot the old trees down so new ones could grow, to a walking power stick.

 There was some climbing, but...

 Mostly a TON of this! Ben loves looking at dirt, just not having it on his hands.

 Picture taken by Benjamin

 Ben's pretty proud of his seat.

 The scenery was beautiful, but my favorite was seeing all these boys, and holding their hands.

 When you ask Will what his favorite part of the trip was he'll say, "Sitting on the big rock with Dad"

 We packed up a day early to miss some bad weather rolling in, but everything else was pretty much perfect!

Lego hair and the Infinity of Space

We were at the church Saturday morning for primary program practice. After the practice the kids were hanging out, outside the church waiting for their parents. I was helping one of my primary kids find his dad, while Will was playing on the pile of boulders with some other kids. 

I came over to collect him to go home and found a swarm of concerned kiddos. Something about a missing Lego in the cracks between the rocks? I looked for a minute or two but couldn't see anything and Danny was already heading to the car so I grabbed Will and left. 

Once we got to the car, and on the way home, we discovered that Will was the one who had dropped it. The fuss was created because it wasn't just any Lego but THE Wildstyle! I took it in for a moment and realized in four-year-old land this was a big deal! I suggested we needed to do something to make it up to the person, since Will was the one who lost it. Will wanted to go to the Lego store and buy a new one, I convinced him he didn't have enough money to do that. Then, he wanted the girl to go buy a new one and I explained it wasn't fair for her to have to use her money. Last, he decided we should go find it. (mom's thought: yeah a needle in a haystack, go search the church grounds for a Lego person?) what I said though was, "maybe we should say a prayer and ask for help" what followed was one of the cutest most faithful prayers I've had the privilege of witnessing. Will asked for help, described in detail Wildstyle's clothes, hair, and hands, and his desire to find it.

So I said a silent prayer of my own to be a good mom and teacher, we grabbed a flashlight and some poles and walked back up to the church. 

We found it! Within probably 2 min, of looking. It wasn't until then that I found out we weren't looking for Wildstyle we were looking for her hair. we found a piece of Lego person hair that was lost somewhere outside the church!

We sat down and said a prayer of thanks right there. Now to find the owner.... I wasn't paying that close attention before and had no idea who's Lego it was, everyone had left by this point, and Will didn't know the name. Some girls I recognized from before came out and we asked them, but they didn't know. Then, 30 sec later our owner walked out. Her dad had been cleaning the church so they were leaving late. She was just about in tears as we handed back the hair plus a little treat to apologize. So relieved that her Lego girl was no longer ruined by the lack of hair!

Later that night we went to the planetarium and watched an IMAX on the vastness of space. As I watched I couldn't help but think that of the billions of galaxies we know of, we haven't began to touch the vastness of space. I pondered the multitude of people in the universe and was awed by a loving father in heaven who is mindful and so loving to a four-year-old boy with a lost Lego. One of the other moms remarked when it was found lost, "well that's a life lesson" yeah, I definitely hope it will be for Will it was one for me.