it all began with Ben and a bbq: evening-camping

Colorful, smoky Colorado

I recently gave a girlfriend lots of grief about her blog post on "day-camping." I told her there was no such thing and that it was merely picnicking. Well, now I eat my words because Saturday we joined some friends who were camping at nearby Chatfield reservoir for dinner and revelry but did not stay the night with them. I guess I'll call it, "evening-camping."
We hadn't committed to camping because of Pratt going on the market and spent the morning there preparing for an open house. The boys got haircuts and I, a bang trim, and we headed home to relax. No sooner did we sit down to lunch than the wheels started turning that we could indeed just pop out to the lake and join them for dinner. There were actually quite a few people there with only two families spending the night. This group has done this annually for several years now and after some backyard camping this year, next year we might have to stay the night. My parents were so hard-core in the camping department, backpacking with Molly only months old, but no part of baby+camping is appealing to me.
Anyway, it might take a year for us to find our gear in the storage closet. :)
We took Tom Ohrt's famous layer dip to share, a simple fruit salad and hot dogs for the grill. Of course the hot dogs were nitrate and antibiotic free but I'm happy to report that Ben is now eating meat with regularity. I can say he's had burgers, hotdogs, and chicken all in the last week without much fight or fanfare.

Ben was entirely enamored with 9 yr old Zack and was inspired by Jay's truck in the background to say truck correctly for the first time. Thankfully the F is back replacing the TR sound. Ryan and I aren't quite done with giggling over that as parents.