camping, the gift of wilderness

TRAVEL

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“I love cooking in nature,” Liam tells me. He tosses the scrambled eggs around the pan gently with a fork. He’s carefully improvising the spatula I have forgotten. Nearby, two trees cradle Olive and her blankie. She has climbed into the high hammock by herself and smiles at us as if to say, Look at me! Look what I can do. And the trees echo her as they release a torrent of color into the air, swirling deliberately, gathering at our feet. The fire pops another acorn where Burke and Blythe sit flipping cards and planning our day: a long hike? explore a cave? play in the river? S’mores? Yes. All of it. Knowingly, Mark hands me a cup of hot coffee as he does most mornings, only today he doesn’t need to rush off to work. This morning he stands with me between the fire and the fog lying over the hills.

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We camped on the Frio River last weekend–a little belated celebration for my birthday. There were no candles or wrapping paper. Still, it was the best of gifts.

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  1. Pingback: here and there – cloistered away | enjoying simplicity

    1. Hi! I recently set up an Instagram account, and stumbled upon yours (“based on other things I’ve liked”☺), and now I’m here reading this and feel like I’ve found another amazing virtual friend! We’re in our first year of homeschooling and have been living simply for some time now, despite the static we sometimes get for it. ? Anyway, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen on here, but finally had to comment when I saw this post – My birthday is November 3, and for my thirtieth, in 2013, I convinced my family and my parents to camp at Cheyenne Bottoms, near Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. It was the best, most amazing birthday of my life. Tons of migrating birds (I love birds) and completely awesome, uninterrupted time in the trees with my favorite people. I woke up to being thirty sandwiched between my one year-old and my three year-old in a tent, and my dad stoking the fire. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I like and appreciate everything I’ve seen on here. Thank you for sharing your experiences in such a beautiful way, I will continue to follow and keep nodding and saying, “Yes!!”. ? Have a great day!!
      Sheena

      1. Author

        Thank you so much for taking the time to share, Sheena. Camping is one of those beautiful experiences that doesn’t always make sense. It seems illogical to stay in unregulated climates on the hard ground, and yet there’s something beautiful, too. I hope you you have many more adventures with your family and thank you for following our own. Warmest wishes to you. x

  2. Gosh I love this! Do you mind me asking who does your web design? I love how you have your instagram and pinterest feeds scrolling on the blog and how every photo has a rollover feature for the reader to pin onto pinterest! Its great! Also, I’ve basically spent most of my morning perusing your blog. I love it, I was born in Texas, have lived in the UK for the past decade and am about to move with my hubs and three kids and dog back to the Pacific Northwest to be close to my younger sister and her 4 kids! We home educate and love Jesus and simplicity as well. Feels like a gift from God to find another woman with a similar heart and life! Love, Sarah

    1. Author

      Oh, I can’t wait to make a trip to the PNW. It’s on our TO GO list, for sure. I can email you the contact for the person who did my graphics and web design. I added the plug-in for Instagram and Pinterest myself using Google search. :) Thank you so much for all of your encouragement. I’m so happy to “meet” you here.

  3. these photos are gorgeous bethany :) looks like you had an amazing time!

    1. Thank you, Kaci! It really was such a gift of a weekend. I only wished it were a day longer–but that’s usually the case with weekend get-a-ways.

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