Fine Dining in the Mountains

One thing our family hasn’t done nearly enough this summer is spend time in the mountains, so on Thursday, July 31st we headed for the hills to spend the evening enjoying the great outdoors. We had prepared tin foil dinners packed full of chicken and vegetables from our garden, and those things can take forever to cook, so the first thing we had to do was build a fire and get some good coals going. While we waited for the fire to burn down the kids ran around the forest looking for treasures and seeking out the perfect hiking stick. Among the discovered treasures was an old rope and a tent stake. Caleb wanted to use them to make up a game, so we put our heads together and voila, pinecone hockey was born. Look for it in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Here’s Joshua on the verge of scoring a goal.

And here’s Amanda after taking her first swing at the pinecone and promptly whacking herself on the knee. She may have to redshirt this season.
Once the fire had burned down and our dinners were cooking, we headed out for a walk. Unfortunately, Bill’s usually keen sense of direction failed us and we ended up getting lost. It probably took about 15 minutes of wandering (and listening to Amanda moan and groan about how tired and hungry she was) before we ended up back at our campsite, and that was 15 minutes too long for our dinners. Mmm, mmm, good … charred chicken and black green beans! Some of the meals were borderline edible so we just made the best of it and it actually wasn’t too terrible. Despite our culinary failings, it was a nice way to spend the evening.