Camping, outdoors and honeymoons.

I was typing up my great grandmother's history when I discovered a possible reason why I love camping so much. My great grandparents spent the first three months of their marriage living in a tent (because great grandpa hadn't finished building the redwood log cabin- which my grandmother Patricia was born in). My grandmother Patricia wrote, "Mother set up an outdoor kitchen and began canning stuff from the garden on her wood stove. Dad went hunting and fishing and brought home salmon and venison, which she also canned." I find this funny, considering that I've always wanted to honeymoon in a tent or cabin.

The outdoors make you feel alive! Like you could do anything...

I love Red Cliffs- it's always fun!

And so, this discovery of my great grandparents living in a tent got me thinking about how much I love camping. I just love camping. I love hiking. I love walks. I love cabins and lakes and beaches. I love the feeling of soil and dirt, or in the case of the salt flats- salt.

I am terribly fond of laying on the ground, and listening to the Earth.

Camping is super- especially when you get to cuddle to stay warm!

A few months ago one of uncles asked me why I thought I loved the outdoors so much. I responded that I did not know why. But I think now I can safely say, aside from just loving it all on my own, it's a part of my genetics, and it's a family tradition.

Camping with the family- the ultimate in fun!

Hiking in water with booty shorts does not turn out well for those of us with giant thighs...but that's another (awkward) story. 
The outdoors are amazing- they are what inspired me to kick my getting healthy into gear! I want to not only keep up on the hikes, I want to lead the way!

Caving is fun- my favorite part is the bats, my least favorite part is the chance of death

As much as I love the desert red, I love being swallowed up in green!

Although I am afraid of it, I love water

I love typing up my grandmother's histories. I love reading all of the funny little stories. I love discovering that who I am didn't just poof into weirdness. My mother's a kook, my grandma's a kook, my great grandma was a kook, her mother was a kook, and her mother- and her mother joined the crazy Mormon's, or in other words- she was kook. I love the outdoors. I can do anything! I am a strong, kick yo' face in woman. I am an artist. I am Laura, and I didn't just appear into thin air.

I made this for grandma Patsy for Christmas 2009. We love to joke about grandma marrying other men...I wonder how grandpa Chuck feels about it.

This hike was hard for me, but it was amazing!

Dad and Jeremy with some mondo fish

Though dad didn't always go on our mega camping trips to Richardson's Grove, he loved the outdoors- and apparently he loved fishing. I've never been fishing, but I'd love to go. I don't know if I could kill the fish- at the moment I feel that I could. Hear that boys- date idea!

Dad and Josh in the great outdoors

Haha, I guess you can see where I get my exhibitionist tendencies...but that's another blog (I will say this, said blog would include a great-grandma in a nudist colony, and a whole lot of shenanigans). That's my dad on the far left, the bootiest one of the bunch.