Another Memorial Day to Remember

Last year I wrote about my Memorial Day Weekend tradition of camping with my family.  I mentioned how the weather usually never cooperates with our plans of camping yet we decided to tough out the weather and go camping anyway.  Last year my Memorial Day Weekend was summed up with the picture below of my tent and my Jeep in our camping area.

Camping Memorial Day 2012

Fortunately this year, the weather was a lot more cooperative and was actually one of the best years for weather we have had in a long time!  Last year my wife was about 8 months pregnant and misserable the whole time.  This year was probably one of my favorite times camping because I was able to share it with my daughter who is 11 months old now. 

The area we traditionally camp at for this weekend is not necessarily the most remote area but it is away from the majority of people.  We camp next to a little creek and spend most of our time hanging out by the camp fire catching up with all of our family members.  We also spend a lot of time with family members fishing in the creek catching small Brook Trout.  My daughter loved this part of the camping trip because she decided she liked the feel of squeezing a slimy fish in her hand. 

The look on her face should tell you how much fun she was having

Of course at her age, she puts everything she can touch into her mouth... everything.... yes including the fish...

The look on my face shows you I was grossed out while laughing :)

I think the nicest part of any camping trip is not necessarily in the location, the activities, the weather, or length of time of the camping trip but rather it is is who it is with and how you spend that time.  While I went up in the mountains to one of my favorite spots since childhood, this camping trip is special because it was the first one with my daughter.  When I would have liked to spend more time maybe shooting guns or fishing in the creek, I enjoyed the time sitting next to the creek with my wife and daughter picking flowers and playing in the grass. 

I don't want to make it sound like that is all we did, but I never thought in all my perivious camping trips in this location that I would spend a good portion of my time picking flowers and playing in the grass while camping.  We did get to enjoy some good fishing trips in the creek and we also spent a lot of time with family around the campfire.  Life does change when you have kids yet the change is more of a refocusing on what really matters rather than changing. 

 

We ended off the weekend by visiting my grandpa's grave site which has been part of our family tradition for Memorial Day weekend.  We usually take up something my grandpa would have liked such as a pine tree or some other outdoors item.  This year we took a shed antler from a deer and placed in on his headstone. 

I am looking forward to more camping trips with my wife and daughter this summer where I will be able to share with her some of my other favorite areas such as taking her backpacking into some of my elk hunting spots on scouting trips and other hikes into the mountains.  I know this trips may not be my most successful in sneaking around the woods looking for wildlife but as I spend my time wisely with my wife and daughter I have come to the conclusion that the man upstairs makes up for the less successful scouting trips in the end.