day camping

Levi and I took the girls and raided my parents campsite out at Kettle River yesterday.  We packed up just enough for the day and it was a perfect mini getaway.

The beach down by the river, while tiny, has the most beautiful, smooth sand.  We weren't prepared to swim since we knew the water would be too chilly, but Avery loved wading in up to her bottom and hauling buckets of water back up to her mud pies and sand castles.  Levi stayed at the site with Ella so she could have a hot and sweaty nap in the trailer and so he could take advantage of a nice nap, too.  Nothing like the hot sun and a lucky day off to induce sleepiness. 

(Ella's version of the summer peasant dress.)

Levi showed Avery how the ponderosa pines smell just like warm vanilla if you get your nose right into them.  It's not a trick.  The first time he told me to check it out I was sure he was planning to smack my head into the tree.  He's not the malicious sort, but I am perhaps the untrusting sort.  They do smell delicious and on a hot day the whole air seems infused with a spicy sweetness.

 (Go ahead ... smell it.)

Other than soaking up the sun at the river, we just enjoyed spending time with Mom and Dad, having picnic lunch and supper, roasting marshmallows over a fire (or "marshing marshmallows" as Avery said), trying to convince Avery to sleep so we could stay late, and playing a little rummy after the sun went down.

I had to laugh at this picture.  It was taken at the end of the day and you'll see that Avery has a tiny speck of moss in her hair, a freckle of sand on the bridge of her nose, and a few smudges on her shirt.  If her cousins had been there with us, they'd look like they'd just been working in the coal mines compared to her.  This is one girly little girl.