Same Trip, Different Year

Labor Day Weekend, the end of summer and the family campout in Pagosa Springs. Ah, the good old day with the kids, rafting on the river, bonfires at night, and maybe even a dip in the local hot springs, at the end of the day. Even got our yellow, camper van teepeed 1 trip. Crazy, to get teepeed while you are camping out of town! But Tanner had a little girlfriend who was up in Pagosa visiting her grandma for the weekend and of course there was no mistaking the Barbers' '75' camper van. We had a good laugh at that 1.

We had several traditional trips that we took with our kids each year. Usually, the day after Thanksgiving, we would pack up all the leftover turkey and pumpkin pie and head down to Bosque del Apache to catch all the snow geese and cranes by the millions. There would be a white blanket of birds until 1 took to flight and then all of them would take off in a whoosh. Our kiddos had fun looking through the binoculars for that lonely coyote trying to stalk its next meal. Luckily, we never had to be witness to a kill. My favorite bird is the great blue heron, so it was always exciting  when we spotted 1 or 2 on our journey. The only drawback to this tradition was that we had to get up in the middle of the night practically to get the really amazing photos at sunrise. Brrrrrrrr it was so cold at that time of year.

Several years, we joined up with Ron's whole family to head down to the beach in Mexico the day after Christmas. The kids had a blast blowing up everything in sight with bottle rockets and firecrackers. They dug bunkers in the sand and had wars with their cousins and uncles. When it got dark and 4 wheelers came screaming down the beach, they charged the drunken drivers to help pull them out of the holes they had dug. Enterprising! On New Year's Eve, everyone would head to town to shop for weird trinkets and get the best shrimp ever. Then we would all come back and cook our own special recipes to share with the whole bunch. It was delicious so everyone stuffed themselves. Next, we would have a white elephant exchange around the bonfire.

I could go on to talk about all the fun we had camping in San Diego every year, but this post is getting so long.

Such great memories were created on these trips we took consistently with our families each year. Sometimes they complained about going back to the same place year after year back then.  Now, they just talk about the good times we had, whenever we all get together and share highlights from their childhood trips. Thankfully, Ron always had the cameras ready to capture the kids on film and on video.

In Him,
Joyful
9-3-2010