"baby, did you pack the sleeping bags?"

over labor day weekend dave and i went camping in rocky mountain national park with 6 other families from our ward (14 adults and 8 kiddos). we were about 15-20 minutes away from the campground when all of the sudden i couldn't remember if we had packed the sleeping bags. after asking dave, we realized they were still on our balcony back in denver. nice! luckily we were one of the first families to head up, so we scrambled a little, contacted our apartment complex and anna and chris were all-stars and picked up our sleeping bags. it's a good thing too, because it would have been a *long, cold* night. but we stayed nice and toasty in the great double sleeping bag that dave's parents got us for christmas. it was awesome...but not made for tossing and turning.

an elk viewing spot on our way to our way to campsite

dave hanging with carson and calvin

the girls...minus mindy since she was taking care of kids and stacie because she was still enroute

carson was so sleepy and decided to curl up on the ground with his blanket

ezra helping dave get the fire ready for the dutch ovens

mmm, breakfast was delicious. breakfast burritos with the all the works! we even finally got to use the dutch oven we got for our wedding

payton enjoyed the great outdoors!

the ladies...and payton

the fellas

it was a fantastic hike and we saw some beautiful lakes

mindy...hard-core mom!

we sure love payton...he is such a great little guy!

how does this thing close?

lincoln decided he would walk on the way down and give his dad a break from carrying the backpack

lincoln crashed on the shuttle ride back to the car...and maybe i did too (just no one got a picture of it). dave was a rock star and managed to get us safely home even though we were all exhausted. we had such a great time and are happy to live in such a beautiful place with wonderful friends.