Well known fact: camping is hard work!
After you’ve spent two entire days planning and packing…driven 12 hours round trip…set up and taken down two tents packed with sleeping gear…made up that labor intensive bed in the back of the van for the fourth night in a row…spent 3 full nights scratching mosquito bites on your left calf and right ear instead of sleeping…eaten your twenty fourth peanut butter sandwich on smashed, too-warm bread that’s been in the car for 5 days…held your breath in sweltering and pungent outhouses every time nature called…and now you’re home with nine piles of laundry in your living room and a van that looks like you’ve lived in it for a year instead of just purchasing it a month ago ….you can’t help but wonder to yourself…is camping really worth it?
Coming from a family that never camped, my instinct would be to answer emphatically…NO WAY! Give me a hotel with indoor plumbing, air conditioning and a fancy restaurant any day!
But, then…
I think back and remember eating Grandpa’s fluffy, camp chef pancakes each crisp morning…gazing up through the sunroof and seeing thousands of bright stars in a clear night sky as I drift off to sleep…watching my filthy-and loving-it children having the time of their lives catching minnows in the lake, scaling boulders like mountain goats and playing Ghost in the Grave Yard through the tall pines…belting out songs from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers while driving the winding roads of our nation’s firsts and oldest National Park…meandering through steamy West Thumb geyser basin at dusk and spotting a massive bull elk in a clearing…hearing a crowd of hundred’s collective “Ah!” as Old Faithful shoots a massive spray of white water into the air right on schedule…taking the sacrament in a chapel of quiet pines (the best way to do it I’ve decided)…and best of all…spending time with some of the greatest family a person could ever have in a place that God created just to please and bless His children from all over the world…
…I change my mind completely.
Camping is hard work, but the memories are totally worth it!
As soon as I got home I download my pictures from our trip. The kids gathered around my computer as I clicked through each shot. Just ten clicks in Jeffrey blurted out, “Oh momma, I wish I was back at our camp right now. I loved it so much!”
Yep…totally worth it.
I took over 400 pictures on this trip of ours. It was hard to narrow down which ones to post. These are my favorite…a good overview of all the best memories…sorry there are so many, but I can’t help it.
The eight year olds
Breakfast: Colter Bay camp ground style
Grandpa’s got camping breakfasts down!
Old Faithful…so faithful
Midway geyser basin
Ivy-Divy and Cami-Shami
The three beauties
Climbing like mountain goats is in the Dickey blood
The beautiful Teton mountains and Jackson Lake
Mike and Lance out for a swim in Jackson Lake
Why they call it “Yellowstone”
Jeffrey is map obsessed
Mammoth Hot Springs
Tired toddler, tired teenager
West Thumb geyser basin at dusk…a Dickey Family tradition
*To those Dickey family members who weren’t with us…you’re absence was keenly felt. We missed you terribly!
*To Dave, Lynette and anyone else involved in the planning and executing of this trip…THANK YOU!
Dickey family…you’re very pleasant people to hang with, no doubt about that. Thanks for being awesome. Thanks for the memories.
