The Great Outdoors

Well, we finally did it. We mustered up enough courage to take Kaiya camping. It is something that Jamie & I have loved doing since we were first married, and it was an exciting prospect to share our love of camping with Miss Kaiya. We started planning the trip with the Churchwells months ago, and decided to go to Palo Duro Canyon, which is the second largest canyon in the United States. It is located about an hour outside of Amarillo (aka the middle of nowhere) so to save gas, we loaded all of us up in the Pilot & got a U-haul for all the gear.

The Intrepid Explorers

The canyon is gorgeous and we had a beautiful campsite. Here is Haylee climbing around on the boulders in the middle of camp, it isn't hard to see why Kaiya learned a new word while we were there, "Rock!" They were everywhere! Haylee loved to climb to the top of the rocks & boulders, and then say "You can see the whole universe from up here!!!"


Jamie & Rick set up camp, I had purchased us a new tent, since our old one wasn't big enough for 2 grown ups & a pack & play & I was so excited to try it out. Here is the picture from the website...
The first night we were there, the weather was beautiful, the temperature was in the mid 60's and there was a little rain, but the tent fared beautifully, and in the morning we were ready to start a fun filled day!


We took a lovely hike out along the "river" which mostly a bunch of red mud with a little bit of water.

On the way back to camp, Kaiya was so exhausted, we put the screen on the buggy down to help keep the sun off, and she fell fast asleep.
Here we are in front of an extremely scenic view from the visitor's center (please try not to be distracted by my beauty...I don't wear makeup when I camp, which is a policy I am seriously questioning now that there is photographic evidence).

Another uh, "interesting" part of the trip was seeing my first tarantula without the benefit of protective glass between us. I consider myself a fairly cool headed individual, however, I admit, I freaked out when a tarantula crawled right through the middle of our camp. We surely are in Texas now...here's the proof.


The later that evening, the park host rode up on his little gator and warned us that there was some severe weather rolling in, and we could expect winds up to 50 miles an hour. So we started to batten down the hatches.

Unfortunately here is where the fabulous bargain I got on our "family tent" turns out to be not such a great deal after all. The winds started kicking up, but were probably only gusting to 10 or 15 miles an hour, and the "front porch" part of our tent collapses & bends one of the poles. Scoutmaster Jamie fixes it up with some extra rope and super special knots, but unfortunately the design of the tent...well, it stunk. In the end, there was nothing to do to prepare for the coming storm other than take the poles out of the front porch part and lash it down at an angle. Unfortunately this essentially made our tent a giant sail.

Here is a picture of Jamie & Rick trying to rework the tent (with Hannah & Haylee acting as job supervisors of course) as the sky begins to look a little less friendly.

The impending storm also brought with it a beautiful, if not somewhat menacing, sunset.

We put Kaiya down for the night, and hoped for the best. The storm didn't get bad until after 10 or so, but when it got going, holy moley! Our whole tent was basically one giant wind funnel, and the wind would whip the tent sides in and out. There was thunder and lightning, but the scariest part was our crazy tent. I kept waiting for it to collapse in on us! During the worst of the storm we were being blown around so hard, that while I was laying on my cot next to the tent wall, the tent bowed in so much that it would completely cover me. I can't even explain it. The whole time, Jamie & I kept saying to each other, well when Kaiya wakes up, we will just run to the car and wait out the storm there. We packed up what we would need and prepared to go as soon as the storm woke her up. Well, she slept like an angel through the WHOLE THING!!! The storm finally let up about 3:30am and we were able to get a little sleep. It was crazy. Needless to say, our dastardly tent is being returned to the store ASAP!!!

Kaiya really did amazingly well the entire time. When we started planning the trip, we assumed that Kaiya would be walking by now, which of course, she is not. So we spent a lot of time like this...

And surprisingly enough we only had one "incident". Kaiya did one spectacular face plant, right in the dirt, but she shook it off pretty quickly.

Overall, this was a fabulous trip, and I couldn't have wished for a more fun family to go with. We always have fun with the Churchwells, and Hannah & Haylee are so sweet to Kaiya. It was a perfect first camp out for the Kaiya-bird and family.