Roughing It (Really)

The next morning both of us anticipated different aspects of breakfast, all of which included one thing: utilizing our shiny new pots and pans.  Unfortunately, two hours and a sunburn later, we had neither coffee nor pancakes, but had instead reached a new level of frustration with camp fires.  Pretty sure we even stopped abbreviating "EFF!"

But, that's what being married is all about - rolling with the punches.  And in the end, I exclaimed "Let's just take the wine and leftover cheese and accoutrement and eat in our chairs in the river.  Screw pancakes!"

So that's exactly what we did.  It was closer to lunch time anyway, and heck, it was 5 o'clock somewhere.  Not that we cared - we didn't have anywhere to go.

Just behind the fire pit was a hill that led down to the frigidly beautiful river...

 And a man-made enclave in which our chairs fit like gloves.

 So fitting.

So that's what we did.  We sat in the river, ate cheese, drank good wine, and talked.  About everything.  Plans, dreams, camping, life, school stories, living wills, money, dogs.  Literally, all day.  It was A-MA-zing.

Here's a different view of said awesome campsite.  Because you really do need to appreciate.

The dogs were so beyond tired, because camping doesn't allow for napping most of the day.  Also, Kona exhausted himself pulling his stake out of the ground trying to get to us by the river and eventually another pair of dogs.  Thank goodness he's friendly...

We kept waking them up when they began to attempt to nap beside us; we wanted them good and tired for that night as we didn't want a repeat of being woken up at 4:30 because, and I Dog Quote, "It's Time."

Yes.  I read tail wags.

Once the shade moved away from the Peace Sign and back to our camp site, we moved up to enjoy the river and the puppies at the same time.

I should've taken a photo of the perfect brats and s'mores we enjoyed that night, but I was too relaxed and frankly too tired to care.  We took the pups for a potty-one-more-time, and were snug in the tent before it was even totally dark.  Good thing we'd planned ahead and packed everything we could in the car; the Ranger came by to let us know there had been a bear spotted in the area...so we were slightly concernicus that night.

The dogs, however, couldn't have cared less.  I'm pretty sure Keebler was in dog heaven getting to sleep so close to his Mom.  He'd rearrange himself stiffly throughout the night, but always, always, his head was either right against or on top of the air matress.

And when we did hear what could've been bear rustling in the middle of the night, it was Keebler who growled in defense.  For all the hellfire burning in him, he's a closet sweetie.  Love that dog.