Each February, our little family packs up the trailer and travels down to Arizona for a week of primitive skills camping with many of our friends from all over.
The kids and I cleaned, carved, gutted and oiled gourds to take them from this...
To this! A bowl and a cup from the same gourd.
While we were making our gourd bowls, Dad took Cash and Grant over to our friend Jim's wagon to make some bows and arrows.
Before we left, the kids each took some time to make some things to sell at the main camp after classes. Kurt made corner bookmarks and pop-up Valentine cards, Vance made catapults and pencil holders and Ava made elastic hair bows for the girls.
I loved watching them interact with the kids and adults at camp. There was a lot of bartering, trading and selling going on and I didn't have to do any of it!
The week was mostly cold and partly rainy, but there was one beautiful sunny day that even though it gave most of us a pretty bad sunburn and some even heat stroke, it was worth every bit of warmth!
Dad was in charge of Kids Kamp again with some friends of ours. Ava loved helping with the little ones. I see a lot of babysitting in her future!
The kids loved "Mr. Chase and were so enthralled with his stories of Paul Bunyan, the day he got hot sauce in his eye and how he got his hat.
Some of the kids were so wiped out from fun and playing that they fell asleep anywhere.
Even in a field of mallow.
I love the community of these gatherings. The adults came to the kids blankets and asked them about what they were selling. They bought more than I thought they would and let them know how valued they were and that they're work is valuable.
The kindness from everyone in the camp just blows me away.
This truly is a world away from the world we live in today!
Kurt sold his valentines all within one hour! He was very proud of his "primitive" cards and so were we.
No stitches for this guy this year. I call that a success!
Careful Dad, you're in the danger zone!
It rained so much that the kids had a blast running through, jumping in and even sitting down in the large puddles around camp.
And then desperately tried to warm up by the fire.
Once again the skate crew, "Elemental Awareness" came to teach the kids how to skate. They had so much fun. They were such a wonderful group of guys and we were lucky to have them give us pointers.
Grant probably had the most fun of all. The skate crew loved his happy attitude and his willingness to try anything new or dangerous. Yep. That sounds about right!
The guys were just a bunch of big kids themselves so they fit right in!
We loved our week of fun, mud and learning. Even with the cold, the wind and the rain I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
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