Same Spot.....Different Year

This past weekend we went on our second annual Ryan family camping trip to Woods Lake. We are lucky enough to have Dusty's kids close by and are thrilled that we can now do this kind of thing fairly easily. Joe and his family....his wife, Jen, and their kids, Juliana (8), JT (5) and Jack (18 months) came from Grand Junction. And Lori even made it up from Denver. And so the 11 of us (including the two dogs!) descended on the Woods Lake campground for a couple of days of relaxation, visiting, playing, cuddling and laughter!

BEWARE....many pictures were taken! We took 200 pictures, and that doesn't count what Jen and Lori took!! There were so many good ones and I'm having trouble deciding what to share here. So here are a BUNCH of pictures, including my favorites!!!

When we arrived at Woods Lake, the first order of business was to set up our camp. Rain was in the forcast for the whole weekend, so we wanted to make sure that we had our tent and canopy set up ahead of the rain! A few years ago, we discovered a particular spot in the campground and it has become ours. It's always been available each time we arrive and it's "home" for us! Up in the aspen trees, it's quiet and peaceful. Joe and his gang settled into a spot across the road from us. We do everything as a group at our spot.....cook, eat, visit, have campfire. They just sleep and change clothes at their site. It works well, being together but we have the space when we need it.

Here's Dusty trying to figure out how to assemble the canopy. We bought it a couple of years ago, to give us more space if it does rain. Tent camping in the rain can be the pits, as there's so few places to be. This offers us another place to escape the raindrops. But we've only used it a couple of times and it came with no assembly instructions, so it's a challenge each time! About the time I took this picture Dusty was saying, "There's got to be a better way to do this!!!"


Once it was set up, the kids settled in!


Lori hadn't arrived yet when I took this family picture, but it was cute! The next time we're all together (weekend after next for the Corn Festival!) we will take one with everyone in it!!


Last year, Jen had fleece jackets for each of the kids. This year she had denim jackets and bandanas for each of them!! They looked so darn cute!! This is our own "biker gang"!! Thanks, Jen, for always being so generous and including James! He LOVES his denim jacket and bandana!!!


My favorite picture of Jen.....


James, being goofy!!!


Sitting around, being silly....Jen, Juliana and James


That night, just before we started the campfire, Jen pulled out glowsticks for all the kids. James and Juliana had fun with them as we got the campfire going.


This is my favorite picture of Lori and JT together. They have a special bond and love to cuddle!


JT giving "Auntie Lori" kisses...


Juliana giving their puppy, Chloe, love.


We were all enjoying each other's company, when we looked up to see Jack drinking out of Chloe's bowl of water! It was funny and disgusting at the same time!!


One of my favorite pictures from this weekend....of me with my step-daughter and step-daughter-in-law!!!


And the boys cutting wood for our campfires.....


The dogs of the group! Chloe and Lacey did extremely well and make great camping dogs. Having them with us adds a different dimension to the trip. They certainly were entertaining to watch!!


On Saturday afternoon, a thunder storm came through. The timing was perfect for an afternoon nap, so everybody retreated for a couple of hours of rest and listening to the rain and thunder. Dusty and James laid down briefly, but decided that they would rather go up to the lake and fish in the rain! I took this pictures from inside our tent, looking out at my guys, sitting around the campfire pit. It must not have been raining very hard at that point!!!


This was the sunset on Saturday evening. The lake and campground are in a narrow valley and so the only sunset we can see is actually the light being reflected on the mountains to the east of us. It was so pretty, through the aspen forest!!
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James loves to whittle and he enjoyed showing JT the "how to's" of it all.....


Papa Dusty with JT


This is my favorite picture of James from the weekend! I'm having fun with the "color accent" function on my camera and LOVE the contrast between the B&W and yellow in this picture!


Papa Dusty with Jack. Jack was very interested in showing Papa Dusty something way up in the tree!!


On the way home, James decided to take a nap in the back of the truck. He had his denim jacket over his head and Lacey thought it was a great idea to use James as a pillow! LOL


It was a great weekend and we're already looking forward to next year at Woods Lake! On the way home, I realized that I never made it up to the lake!! Having been there several times and not being the fishing type myself, I'm just as happy hanging out at the camp site and enjoying the trees! I just love being up in the forest! The fishing wasn't good this year, and James was the only one who caught something and it was too small to keep! Oh well, there's always next year!!!