{ Fresh Mountain Air }

We took Lincoln up to the Sawtooth Mountains weekend before last for his first camping trip!  We weren't sure if we were going to go or not because he felt so crummy after his vaccines on Thursday but Friday he seemed back to his normal self so Saturday morning we loaded up and headed out.

Our initial plan was to camp at Bull Trout Lake outside Stanley but we never reserved a spot because we weren't sure if Link would be feeling up to it.  We decided to try our luck and hope there was an opening but on the road to Bull Trout we stumbled on a little no name lake with a fantastic camp site right on the water.  It was pretty much the perfect camp site - and it was free.  Awesome.



Our view from the tent.  Pretty sweet, huh?

We set up camp and then headed out to hike around the lake with Lincoln in the front pack.  After protesting for a bit he eventually fell asleep and Casey and I enjoyed exploring the area under a beautiful blue sky with big puffy white clouds.



So pretty!

Lincoln's first hike!

Link snoozing (still in his front pack) after the hike.

Once evening rolled around Casey made a delicious one pot dinner with ground beef, potatoes, and veggies. It was the perfect camping dinner and definitely hit the spot.  I am so spoiled that he not only cooks when camping but cooks at home so often.  He takes such good care of me =)

While he was pretending to be on Iron Chef, I kicked back, put my feet up, and read a book.  It was soooo relaxing!  (In case you're wondering I was reading What Alice Forgot - I would definitely recommend it.)  Nothing beats sitting in the middle of nowhere with a great book while the love of your life makes you dinner and your baby peacefully sleeps.  Heaven!



Iron Chef Casey

The only thing detracting from the bliss of the evening was the mosquitos.  They were awful!  It's been so wet this year it's no surprise that they were out in full force, but ugh were they annoying!  I decided to not let Lincoln leave the tent if they kept up all evening like they did during dinner.  At any given time there were at least 10 mosquitos on each of us with dozens more swarming around the table.  We didn't want to use traditional bug spray because I didn't want Link exposed to the deet so we bought some natural stuff that was pretty worthless.  We also lit a citronella candle and put it on the table.  This next picture shows how effective that was...



Apparently it ATTRACTED these two mosquitos.  Ugh!

Luckily the wind kicked up and blew most of them away so Lincoln was able to come out and play for the evening.  As you can see he was pretty excited about this!

Once it started getting dark Case put those old Boy Scout skills to work and built a great campfire.

While the fire was roaring and producing some awesome marshmallow roasting coals we soaked in the scenery and as evidenced by this next picture forced Lincoln to enjoy it with us.  Clearly he was thrilled.

He eventually warmed up to it  =)



Such a beautiful view.

We had a great time sitting around the campfire talking, looking up at the stars, and making s'mores and hot chocolate.



"Don't burn my marshmallow Mom!"

Lincoln did pretty well overnight.  He woke up several times to eat (normally he only wakes up once at home) but he wasn't fussy and he seemed plenty warm snuggled up with us in the sleeping bag.  Sunday morning we slept in as late as he would let us then made a tasty breakfast of bacon and eggs with fresh blueberries.  (Again all prepared by Chef Casey.)  Against my better judgement, we then packed up, bid farewell to our new favorite campsite and headed home.

What a wonderful camping trip.  Lincoln did great and Casey and I had a wonderful time.  It was so nice to not know or care what time it was.  There were no phones ringing, no emails to send, no TVs to watch.  It was just lovely.

I can't wait to go again.