Life of a Teen: Camping\Hiking

Wednesday 1st Day
We took these pictures after an interesting fun little adventure with Oreo. We were all getting the last things into our packs while Amber was getting Oreo ready by putting her saddle on; She had just finish that so it was time to put the saddle bags on now and that is were things went wrong. I remind you Oreo had only been on one other trip so this was still new and this time she had a bigger saddle and more things in it, well Amber had them all packed so now all she had to do was put it on Oreo's back as soon as she had got the first one on Oreo got fidgety and by the second was moving around so half way through buckling the bag on Oreo tripped on a rock and freaked herself out. Oreo started running in circles while Amber tried desperately to hold on, thing went flying out of the unzipped bags - food, belongings, sleeping gear, etc. But that wasn't the worst of it because then by of a small mistake (Amber forgot to tighten the straps around Oreo's belly) the saddle slipped down to her haunches and got tangled up around her legs. (I think you can see were this is going) Oreo started rearing, bucking, spiting and making a loud shrill and very high pitched llama noise with her ears pinned back. I mind you Amber is still bravely holding on, but now she has her head bowed her eyes shut and mouth glued shut because of the spit. Dad tried helping by yelling instructions to Amber, but he could only do so much; one thing Amber did get was, "Don't let go or you'll never see her again!". Well after quite awhile Amber got Oreo back into control and that is were these pictures start.

At the trail head

Ready for a new adventure

We love hiking

Crossing a stream with Oreo

Beautiful streams

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Dad a proud hiker

Another pretty stream

Amber and her llama Oreo

Amber trained Oreo and she loves her

Hiking up and up

Oreo

There were at least 15 streams that we crossed the first day

Amber and I, happy hikers

Natasha

Reed doesn't seem to get that he's supposed to open his eyes when we take a picture.

I don't think he gets the smiling part either.

Dad's, Trevor's and Reed's tent.

Trevor caught a fish!!! Just kidding here's the real story behind the picture: every
Trevor went fishing every day but he never caught any thing so finally our neighbor fisher gave him one...but we forgot about it and left it floating in the lake after we left for our new campsite.

Our campfire

Dad and I love (as we call them) swamps or marshmallows!

The girl's tent

Some how Dad got hold of the camera at night.

Dad took some pictures, when they were all too tired to smile.

I must say Dad and Trevor look pretty good, I don't know what came over Reed.

I woke up around 5:40am before anyone else

and watched the sun as it lit up the mountains

putting their reflection on the lake

giving the best scenery picture ever

so I woke Dad up and got the camera from him

Isn't it beautiful!!!

Hiking some more

Oreo and I in a nice green area

Trevor

Reed and I found some newts/salamanders next to were we tied Oreo in the meadow

They are plain gray on top, but a bright red on their bellies

They are pretty cool little creatures

After awhile Reed and I decided to head back to camp, but we both noticed that Oreo was starring into some leafy plants so we followed her gaze and low and behold in front of me was the cutest baby deer I ever saw!!!

It tried to hide behind a log and pretend it didn't exist.

I ran back to the camp site as fast as I could, grabbed the camera, told the rest of my siblings to hurry up or they would miss a chance of a life time then ran back to the meadow to were the fawn was now laying. But I couldn't find Dad.

Me and my siblings all complimented the cute little fawn.

Mean while dad heard a bunch of ruckus and thought some thing bad was happening so he grabbed his gun and ran over to the meadow to find us looking at a baby deer.

My dad is positive that it is only a couple days old and that the mom must have been here with it, saw us coming, so put it in the leaves and ran ( by the by I saw a doe running away from the meadow when we first entered it.) We decided to take Oreo to a different spot so that the doe could come and get her baby.

This picture and the picture before are the best shots I got.
Isn't it so cute!!!

Reed testing the glacier cold water.

Reed

Amber and I climbing to get a better view.

Trevor king of the mountain

What a view

All those mountains

Yep there is still snow were we are.

I love this picture were you can see the glaciers flowing into the lake.

These are two cool plants that we found

!!!This next part is were we climbed up and ran into some snow!!!

Trevor is still working on staying on his feet while sliding down the steep, slick, snow bank like the rest of us.

Natasha our drama queen and Reed who used to be doing all sorts of crazy stunts but that all changed on one occasion when he stopped to cut over and slipped into a tree well and hit a tree in a full bear hug......... ouch! He's let us say a bit more careful now as you see here in this video clip.

Trevor slightly bumps a tree. If you look close you will see me and Amber way back there-Amber's in an orange sweat shirt and I am in a blue sweat shirt. I must admit we scream alot when it comes to sliding.

Us three girls going through the snow.

Reeds injurys from hitting a tree

I guss you could say that Reed got a little carried away with getting up close and personal with the tree.

This is a fresh water spring that we found on our way down from our snow adventure.

It is so pretty and clear.

We filled our water bottles with it and then drank our fill of it. I think Dad loves it the most.

It is such a perfect little spring.

Me, Amber, Trevor and Reed all trying to warm up after the cold snow slidding advevture.

Look at that white boy!!! King of the water!!!

Like father like son their both white as paper.

Testing the water.

Ready to go into the water.

COLD

The first time to acctully get into the water. As dad says, "cold and refreshing". Dads they can be weird some times.

Reed and Dad swimming in the freezing cold water!!! Reed swims better than me, but thats not hard to do.

Dad did a lovely dive in with the mountains in the backround...

then swam right back out!

Brrrrrrr, I did evuntully get in.

You can't see it in the picture but I did dunk my head and then after I got out Trevor snagged his hook so I had to wade back into the water and save it for him.