Camping, Retro Style

This summer, we decided that with the addition of our dog that our camping trip would happen at home, in our back yard, and that we would day trips around Spokane and our neighborhood. We took a long hike both mornings, swam in the afternoon, once in the river (Haden only) and the next day at our neighborhood pool. We slept in tents in our very treed backyard and cooked and ate outside, and allowed no technology, except our phones, which we mostly ignored.

So off we went, hiking at a local favorite spot...

And after, Mark, the boys and Rudy plunging in the cold of the Spokane River under the Bowl and Pitcher foot bridge...a welcome reward after a two hour hike. Finn enjoyed throwing rocks, and I love the feel of the sand under my toes.

The super cool vintage cowboy chairs I picked up this spring just for camping...

And, Haden using the vintage chairs in a way the designers never imagined...some sort of Star Wars flyer action. The boys also thought they were footrests.

Liam eating a smore, which we did both nights of camping, over our fire pit. Being that Haden has food allergies, we modified the boys smores and used Enjoy Life brand chocolate bars, Enjoy Life crunchy Honey Graham round cookies and an assortment of marshmallowss (He was allergic to beef so we used fish gelatin marshmallows for 7 years-he and we think they taste better!) We also cooked our hot dogs over the fire to make it feel more like camping.

My retro tablecloth served up a campy setting for provisions.

A very retro chair reclaimed for our camping comfort.

The retro cot I kept from my junking this year turned out to be a fabulous way to lounge the afternoon away in the yard. Of course, with three little boys, lounging lasts about 15 minutes and Cot-scapades takes up the rest of the time.

The awesome book the boys and I read on the cot together. They badly want a camper now, more than ever.

Stargazing at the backyard sky. The boys loved seeing the stars "pop out" as it dusk turned to inky sky. We used a stargzing chart to find constellations, Liam (our 5 year old) thought we got to actually find animals in the sky like the pictures in our book illustrated, but we did find some wonder.

Mark found his old card games to entertain the boys while I cleaned up Rudy's inside carpet mess from the day before (the one time we left him to go swimming). Definetly the more fun choice, Mark.

So, the last morning, the boys learned to play old school card games with Daddy before we broke our backyard camp.

This is what it's all about; little hands connecting with the real outdoors. Little people connecting with big people, without distractions. And big people learning to breathe again.