Bear Den 2011

We had a great time in the NC mountains this year! I think this is the fourth year we've gone to Bear Den Campground, and we love it. We teamed up with about four other families from our church ward, and it was loads of fun.

The best part is just getting away, and taking family time together. Samuel seems to be our fish whisperer, much to Mason's chagrin. He seems to always catch the "big one."
Here he is reeling it in.
This is the only picture of some of the others that came along with us.

We enjoyed driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Lo and behold, there's even a town called Matney, NC.

The sleeping arrangements were great this time. Mason and Lizzy together, Samuel alone, and Lucy with Matt and I. It was great, everyone slept well! Lucy is the best bedfellow ever, she's almost like a corpse, she doesn't move at all. It used to give me a heart attack when she was a baby.
Our kids are addicted to Activia yogurt, we buy it in droves. You'd think our kids would have diarrhea, but they don't.
The bad news was that our favorite orchard had a meager year, and the apples were pretty much gone. The good news is that we explored Linville Caves instead, which was really cool!
I am only a little claustrophobic, but I suppressed it for this trip. Isn't Matt the cutest dad ever? And I'm always so thankful to Liz for the hand me down puffy coats.
Lizzy pointing at something.
Lucy loves nothing more than getting on a big rock. It makes her feel like a cheetah looking for prey.
There was slime on some of the rocks (we're back at the caves, sorry to be out of order). The slime looks like boogers.
OK, before you think we've lost it completely, these are candy cigarettes. I know, I shouldn't even allow simulated smoking, but I did it as a child and turned out OK. Sometimes it just feels cool to pretend smoke.
Here are the happy kids outside the big general store. They each got a huge bag of candy. The store has all kinds of candy that I hadn't seen in YEARS. Strangely though, you can't find cinnamon bears anywhere here. Believe me, I've looked. Sad.
Well, that's it, folks! Totally fun trip.