Adventures in Bennionland

We heard of REI’s Passport to Adventure program through one of the blogs we read. The program is designed to get family spending more time out of doors. Kids keep track of their adventures in a journal and submit them REI. REI then sends a reward for the activity. This year the boys got a fantastic hiking tool that combines binoculars, a compass, a magnifying glass, and a mirror.

Eric took up the challenge and planned out hikes all through the summer. The first one, pictured here, was up a local canyon that follows a train route. Walker, of course, loved it! Every twenty to thirty minutes a train would run by adding to the excitement of the trip.

The boys always took their journals, water and their cameras. Eric encouraged them to take lots of pictures and make notes in their journals. They loved it!

What better way to kick off the summer than with a camping trip! We were thrilled this year to be invited by Lyndsy and Jon (my sister and her hubby) to a site they had found a few months before hand.

June 12th-14th

We spent two nights in June at Los Prietos. It was a gorgeous area and one we’d never been to. And it was a much needed trip.

Flashlights, check?

Ready for adventure, double check!

A sight for city eyes:

Night #1 – stories around the campfire:

Relaxing with Jon in the hammock:

A visit to the local watering hole:

Yes, he is licking a rock:

A hike before dinner – we only ended up with a little poison oak!

Night #2 – Yahtzee!

Gluten-free S’mores!

Getting all packed up:

They look so little now…

…busy!

It’s busy folks. This is the first summer that I can say has slipped through my metaphorical fingers faster than warm beach sand.

Oh but what a summer it has been. Obviously since we haven’t been around much.

So, I’ve popped in a disc of 30 Rock, grabbed a bottle of water, and written down my list of needed posts. I thought about just moving forward, but my cousin Andrea said it best “I just couldn’t.”

And by the way, our Cool Summer Days calendar was a hit! We didn’t end up using all the entries…but it sure helped spice up the boring days!

Here are the boys working on one of our projects, a Nature Hike collage: