bon-d-fam-back

well. we made it through last week. whew. sure glad to be home. we left early last monday morning, drove six hours, about three of those on gravel road. we got there and started our seven mile hike. it was a hard hike. it took us a number of hours. but it felt good to do a hard thing carrying someone on my back. i guess i got lucky getting to carry avery since my pack weighed only like 20-25 pounds and trae's was double that. i was most worried about avery. what if she hated it. that would mean that i was hiking for three hours with a screaming baby on my back. but she loved the hike. loved it. she cried for like ten minutes, probably cause she was hungry, so i fed her while walking so that we could get there before dark. i was so relieved that she did so well. then came night time, which meant bed time. oh, i dreaded bed time. imagine a tiny mummy sleeping bag on a very rocky surface with a baby laying on your stomach all night . all night except for the 5-10 times i was up with her each night. i think the hardest part for me was worrying about waking everyone else up so i picked ave up everytime she started to cry. but that's okay cause morning finally came each day. and thank goodness for that. except that meant night time was coming again. ahhh. anyways, we ate great the whole time though. our first night we actually had steak and potatoes (yes, on a back packing trip). on tuesday the boys fished, we took some hikes, some went swimming. that kind of stuff. avery got pretty sun-burned this day. she woke up the next morning all puffy-eyed and swollen. she was not a happy girl wednesday morning. we got up, ate cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, packed up camp, and headed out to camp at a different spot. Since ave was not so happy i was not looking forward to the hike but she did AMAZING. she loved it again. she took a few good naps in her back pack. i should have kept her in her pack all day. we hiked back to the trail head and decided to camp at the main camp site instead of hike to a different lake and stay the night. so, naturally i bagged the sleeping in a tent and decided to camp in the car. i set up avery's pack-n-play in the back of the subarban and was praying for a decent nights sleep. turned out that this was by far her worst night yet. she froze in the back of the car so she ended up sleeping on my stomach again so we both could stay warm. avery lost her voice almost completly. it almost made me cry every time she tried to cry. it was the saddest little voice ever. she is still trying to get it back all the way. anyways...it was hard with a little one. but overall we had a pretty good time. back-packing is not a easy thing. dont think that i will ever be an avid back-packer but i did enjoy it. the nights were difficult, but the expereince was good and made me really appreciate home. however, there are some absolutely gorgouse places hidded deep in the wilderness. i still can't get over how beautiful it was. that made it all worth it.

on thursday we packed up, again, and headed to mackay, idaho to go stay in a cabin. we were all looking forward to showers and toilets. 'roughin it' took on a whole different meaning to me after back-packing. the cabin was beautiful. my mother in-laws siblings and parents came up and we had a little family reunion. we had a good time. over the course of the week avery turned into an utterly and completly momma's girl. she certainly had an eventful week and enough stimulation to last her another six months. it is good to know she i loved and that so many people are willing to watch her and play with her all the time, however. we had a great time at the cabin but were certainly ready to come home. my father in-law dee had shirts made for us for our back-backing trip. he named our trip the "bon-d-fam-back". i really have to give it my in-laws for pulling this off. the planned everything so perfectly and went through so much hard work to make it fun for the rest of us. thanks!

we'll, thats how it went, kinda. avery is now sick so we are still trying to get back in the swing of things but our beds sure feel fabulous.