Second Anniversary Camping Trip

To celebrate our second anniversary on Monday, Ben, Bob, and I took a long weekend and went camping at the place we were married, one of the most beautiful spots in my slice of the world:

We brought my niece Chloe along with us, and a few friends came too.  This was a slightly more ambitious camping trip than our last -- we slept over the hill in a tent for four nights in a row and ate most of our meals at the campsite -- but Bobby and I also spent a good bit of time down at the house.  Makes camping with a baby totally doable.

Here's our trip in photos...

Chloe and Bobby test-driving the lawn mower upon arrival at the farm:

Bobby spent a good deal of time hanging out on this blanket at the campsite:

Pushing up onto his hands and feet:

Tim's camping bowl became Bob's favorite toy for the weekend:

Here's Bobby indulging in a cracker for the second time in his life:

Isn't it odd that bubble-blowing apparatuses for kids come in the form of all types of pipes?

Bobby's been doing a lot of spitting lately.

Here's my handsome love (with my cute love in the reflection in Ben's glasses):

Chloe had a blast catching as many of the tiny frogs in the pond as she could.

Here's Bubbs too tired for a photo shoot:

And Chloe not too tired:

This one makes me laugh:

Thanks to my Gramps' pup Bailey, Bobby picked up his second word (third if we count "dada") this weekend: "dog!"  He said it many times, but the best was when we were sitting at the table in the house, Bob on my lap, dogs out on the deck, when Bailey came up to the screen door and barked.  Bobby's head swung around and he said, "dog," clear as day.  We were all quite proud of him.

Bobby with his oldest cousin (this picture made me realize for the first time that they have the exact same ears!):

Another shot of Buena Vista from the top of the hill:

Chloe and I got to spend a lot of time together, which was very special for both of us.  This girl hasn't had an easy life, and she won't be having one anytime soon.  It was good to get a chance to love on her like crazy for a few days in a row.

Of course we had to do a little shooting:

Meanwhile, Bob took a nap in his personal resting tent:

At night, we put the pack 'n play at our feet in a four man tent.  The first couple of nights Bob spent most of the hours with me rather than in his crib, but by the third day he was used to his setup and slept comfortably there most of the night.

The little pond by our campsite:

Looking through the cattails on the opposite side of the pond toward our site:

Our camping friends:

Bob getting a feel for the steering wheel of the toad:

Chloe, by the way, had the time of her life driving the toad all over the place.  Maybe it was irresponsible of me to let her do it, but she was having so much fun I didn't have the heart to tell her no.  Sadly I didn't take a single photo of her driving.

Beautiful evening sky:

Fire is just so amazing that I always have to take a zillion photos:

The view from our site in the morning:

Jeep chillin in the woods in case of rain (which there was a little on the last night):

Chloe and Bob hanging out on the front steps:

Gramps and "Jeep":

Since I had Chloe with me to be the photographer, on our drive home we stopped at the lookout across from the Teepee to take a photo for our anniversary.

These clouds were smiling behind us:

We made two more stops along our way.  First at Gram's...

Bob pulling himself up:

Then at Tiny Gram and Grampa Sonny's:

He loved Grandma's swing:

The sunset on the lake was lovely:

And finally we came home, where we were all glad to be.