Backpacking in Paradise!

There is nothing that makes me feel more alive 

than being out in nature with my family!  

I LOVE it so much! 

When Tracy informed me that he was taking two days off work so we could have a 4-day weekend together, we decided to take the boys backpacking to somewhere that we have never taken them.
It was the first place that Tracy and I went in Summer 1990 on our first ADVENTURE as husband and wife...The gorgeous Upper Palisades Lake.

The scenery was breath-taking and made me think
"Who Needs Cancun, when we have this in our backyard"!

We slept under the stars because the weather was SO nice.
There were thousands of butterflies that kept us company the whole time we were there.

We caught fish, lounged on the beach, swam in cold mountain lake water,
   hiked, hiked and hiked some more while we enjoyed great conversations and breathtaking beauty around every corner!

Here are the photos from our adventure.

Checking the map 
before we head off on the trail...

AND off we go!


Butterflies were in abundance...

Sweet 10-year old SO excited to be out 
on a 2-day backpacking adventure!

Love in the woods...


And it even looks like bugs like to eat holes 
in leaves in the shapes of hearts as well!  

Enjoying some cool refreshment!

 
Lunch Break...

Look what gorgeous place 
I was enjoying my lunch at...

Filling up water...

Up we go...

Snack Break...
(I am always amazed that this position is comfortable to Ethan!)

The stunning beauty of the 

Lower Palisades Lake...

And off we go again...

Classic...

OH and our adventure included watching this snake, carry this mouse and realize that it had bitten off a little more than it could chew!

Stopping for another water refill...

The never ending task of 

refilling water at every stream we come to!

This creek at Chicken Springs 

was absolutely gorgeous!

And we're off up the trail again...

wow, Wow, WOW! 
The Upper Palisades Lake was gorgeous 
with "take your breath away" beauty!

Who needs Cancun...

this is what you call Heaven on Earth!

Such a gorgeous one and a half hour hike 

around the upper lake!

No sooner had they dropped off their backpacks,

and my boys were off to JUMP in and enjoy the cold refreshing lake water!

Ethan and dad fishing...

SO excited!!

BRRR...

While my boys were out fishing, I wandered along the shore line, enjoying the beauty of the water, butterflies and rocks...

(YES, my boys are in their "undies"!)

YES, more "Love in Nature!

WOW, those are some 

DIRTY feet and calves...

I stayed on the beach 

until the sun had finally set behind the mountains!

I came back to a 

toasty fire made by my boys...

Tracy carefully released ALL, but one of the fish they caught. Ethan was SO excited to see what it was like to cook a fish over a campfire, so we saved one and split it 4 ways after it was all cooked up. 
It was SO delicious, I wished we would have kept a couple!

"Home Sweet Home" for the night!
Since it was such a perfect night, 
we decided to sleep under the stars...
SO, we laid down our rain ponchos,
rolled out our sleeping pads and bags 
and had a wonderful nights sleep!

Kimmie was the first one up (as usual), 

while my men are still cozy and asleep!

I didn't know how the mosquitoes would be, 

so I slept with my head-net on!

Journal time...

(My boys thought I looked funny!)

Too Cozy...

Do we have to get up?!?

Breaking camp...

One minute hug by the campfire!  

Breakfast...
yummy hot ZOOM cereal!

Our energy drink...

Fill our water bottles half way with water...
then add in DARK Chocolate Instant Breakfast + 

Powdered Milk + Malted Milk Powder =

absolutely delicious!!

Down by the creek... brushing our teeth...

Washing our hair and dishes...

WOW, talk about refreshing!

One last photo of our campsite 

before we head out...

Jade caught this gorgeous butterfly 

while we were crossing the bridge...
(yes, as soon as we snapped the photo, 
Jade let the butterfly, FLY away!)

 More butterfly beauty!

Time for a quick rest and a moment for 

Tracy to write some more in his journal!

We found the swing that Tracy had remembered when he had come here with one of his buddies from high school...

ONLY the water was way down and it was too dangerous to safely "Jump" into the water...

HOWEVER, Tracy wanted to give it a try

(I'm just grateful he didn't actually "JUMP"...

we definitely had a stressful moment at this point in the trip!)

  OOPS... 

Tracy got a little scraped up after swinging back from the swing....OUCH!
Thank goodness he stocked his first-aid kit with plenty of "wound care" items because we definitely put them to GOOD use on his feet.

WOW!!!

AND as soon as we got to shore, 

Ethan was stripped down and running to enjoy the water on this side of the lake!!

More butterflies everywhere we looked...

This is the life!  

Enjoying some meditation...

LUNCH on day two!

This is what you call PARADISE!

My boys in front of the campsite 

where Tracy and I camped 22 years ago!  

Bye-Bye Paradise! 

YAY for fresh mountain water!  

A moose...

SO sad that our hike is coming to an end...

down, down and down we go!  

Hope to be back here again SOON!

(OH, and you'll have to excuse some of the photos...they are "kind of hazy", as Tracy yelled at me to grab my camera while I had fish goo all over my hands to snap a photo of my boys eating fish before they ate it all gone. Sadly, I didn't realize that my lens got something on it until we were half way through day two!)   :-(


(as a side note... 
Tracy pulled out his photo album to show the kids the photos of him jumping off that swing and so we scanned them and I thought I would share them as well...they were taken summer 1986)

High School buddies Tracy and Jason...
enjoying a multi-day camping adventure 
at Upper Palisades Lake
 summer 1986!