Birthday Camping Trip

This year for his birthday, Owen decided he wanted to go camping and fishing instead of having a birthday party. We were more than happy to oblige.

We camped at Dead Horse State Park, which is outside of Cottonwood. It was a great campground-very quiet and a pretty landscape with lots of lizards and quails running through the campsite. We will definitely be back.

We had classic camping meals. A nice stew for dinner and pancakes and bacon for breakfast. And of course s'mores at night.

The campground had a couple lagoons for fishing. The water was getting warm so the fish were not really biting, but Owen still had a great time.

Bella caught the first fish of the trip. Can you tell how happy Owen was for her? No jealousy felt at all.

 Owen finally caught a little fish too (thank goodness!), and all was right in the world again.

There was a wonderful river close to the campsite which offered a nice reprieve from the heat. It was a perfect swimming spot. The kids and Roland loved splashing around. We let Roland off the leash for a bit and he was in heaven running through the water.

Owen found a snail in the river. The kids named him "Gary" and he hung out with us at our campsite. It was later decided that Gary probably liked the river more than our pool, so Owen and Bella took him back to his home so he could live.

When asked how the camping trip went, Owen gave it two thumbs up. He swam in a river, went fishing, cooked marshmallows over a fire, chased lizards, played for hours with his cousin, and hiked with his dog...really what more could a 5-year old ask for?