The kids first tent camping experience! {Bishop, California}

First of all can you believe these kids have never been tent camping? I mean, come on, they were RV camping a mere 6 weeks after leaving the hospital from birth. Yes, it's true. Well we have been wanting to do it and when our friends, Justin and Rachel, invited us along on their camping trip to a place with no RV sites left, it seemed the perfect time! What did we do with the RV? We found a local place that let us store it for two weeks for $20! Brilliant plan! (We figured two weeks so we could also make a quick visit back to Vegas without the added expense of pulling the RV there and back since we had the option of staying with friends.)

They made friends with our neighbors of course. 

Our first full day we spent in the John Muir Wilderness hiking to Treasure Lake.

The river is so clear!

Asher said, "Hey Mommy, take my picture on there." He's really begun appreciating having his photo taken.
He's all of a sudden more willing while his sister has become less willing to be photographed. Interesting.

It's a beautiful trail, but a very strenuous 3 mile hike when you are each carrying a backpack PLUS a nearly 40lb child. Especially when that child is sleeping! The 11,000ft elevation didn't help either since we had been at sea level for about 9 months prior. In any case, I would not recommend this trail to those with small children. I may have actually threatened Asher with the possibility of becoming a tasty little snack for a bear if he didn't keep walking. We nearly turned back a few hours into the hike, but I'm so glad we pressed on.

Isn't that grass ridiculous?! I love it!

Once we reached the lake, we joined up with our friends and broke out the MREs (military "Meals Ready to Eat") for lunch. I had never eaten the hot dinner packets before and was shocked that they are seriously burn-your-fingers-hot after you just add water! We ate pasta with meat and red sauce, chicken, spice cake and a strawberry milkshake. Surprisingly good considering we've had it sitting in a box for years.

Learning to fly fish has been on my bucket list for years, so I was super excited when Justin offered to teach me at Treasure Lake. The water was so clear I could see the fish and cast to them. I actually caught five fish, golden and rainbow trout, in a short amount of time! Asher was my fishing buddy manning the net. It was so much fun. Our friends were there for a few hours and caught a ton, like 45 fish! By the way, it's $15 per day for an out of state fishing license.

I showed both of the kids how to do it too. 

Silly boy!

Since it took us so long to get up to the lake, we didn't have a lot of time to spend there. I would love to return and get a backcountry permit to camp there by the lake for a few days. Instead we started back down, this time enlisting our friends to help carry the kids down the mountain.

Yep, she's was out pretty much as soon as we started down!

The wildflowers were really pretty. Unfortunately we just missed their peak. Justin was here
two weeks earlier and they covered the ground. Now they are sporadic, but still beautiful.