I love camping! I especially love camping when my family can get together and come camping with me!! This last week Marc, Rome, Brock, Millie, and I loaded up the car and headed for Nevada to visit my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike, or, as Roman would call them, "Nana" and "Papa." Who says that you cannot adopt other family members as "grandparents" when both of your parents have passed away? It was such a nice trip out to Nevada. Whenever I am out there I immediately recall all of these memories that I have of me and my sisters as little kids playing out in the sagebrush and running across the runway between Ginny's and Grandpa and Grandma's houses. We got to see my Grandpa Gentry and Aunt Virginia (actually my mom's Aunt Virginia) as well, and I love hearing all of them tell stories about my parents; it always reminds me just how special their relationship was and how much they were adored by everyone, and it's just nice to be able to tell and hear such happy and funny stories about them. That is just one of the many reasons that I am happy that Romey gets to see my family, so that he can hear from other people just how wonderful his Grandma Linda and Grandpa John were. We're actually just about a week away from their wedding anniversary (the 25th of June) so here's a picture of them on their wedding day.
Oh, and here's a great picture of them:
And since I am feeling a bit nostalgic from the trip with the fam, here's one of all of us:
Is there really any wonder as to why we were all such jocks... I mean, here we are taking our family Christmas photo, and Erin is holding a Raider football. That makes me smile.
Okay... back to camping. We drove out to Nevada Friday night, picked up Erin and Rick from the airport Saturday night, and then headed out to the Bootleg campground in the Walker River Canyon (just about 30-40 miles north of Yosemite) Monday morning. As we were driving we passed through the small town that my dad and his family grew up in (Coleville); I don't think I have ever really seen it, and it was fun having my Aunt Nancy point places out to us. Erica and the kids came out too, and we had three days of campfires, horseshoes, s'mores, stories, and fresh air. I had a wonderful time. What is it about camping that makes not showering for three days actually seem appealing? We just relaxed and ate (and drank) around the campfire for most of Monday and Tuesday. It was so nice to see everyone; I don't think that Erica, Erin, and I have all been together since Christmas, and that just seems like a long time. Erin was amazing at kid-wrangling per usual; she is DEFINITELY the fun aunt. She took the kids hiking, played baseball, collected firewood, whatever they wanted. And I think Erica and I were both so thankful that there were plenty of helping hands when it came to holding babies. Rome and Gentry got to hang out again, and once again Rome was a little put off by having to share his toys... I am hoping that this will get better. Brock and Millie were fantastic little doggies the entire time. Millie LOVED being able to run through the sagebrush at Mike and Nancy's, but Brock the scaredy-pup never wandered very far, and they were very happy to be camping with us. Then Wednesday we went fishing in a nearby river... The plan was actually to fish in a lake that my Aunt Nancy had been to as a child, but it is no longer really a lake, so we switched to plan b. I haven't been fishing in at least eight years, and Erin said she hadn't been out since dad died, so we were both pretty excited about it. Here's a picture of all the fish we caught:
Oh wait... We didn't actually catch anything, but I still had a good time drinking beer by the river and telling Rome about when Grandpa John used to take us fishing and reading him a story with Nana, although I was upset that I couldn't show off my fishing skills. The river was just far too high and fast, and we simply didn't have the right equipment, but next time those fish better look out!
After fishing Erin and Rick taught us how to play Pass the Pig, and then we taught Mike and Nancy how to play Catchphrase. I wish I had taken more pictures; I am still pretty bad about remembering to take pictures when I go out, so here are just a couple of pictures that Marc took while we were out there... I am not sure how Aunt Nancy got away with not being in ANY pictures we took, but I must remedy that next time... I think Erica and Rick must have taken some; I will have to ask them to send some my way. Oh! And check out Uncle Mike's super-sweet chair. I may have to get one of those before we go camping again!
