Camping at Taylor Park Reservoir

Justin and I went camping again this past weekend, and boy was it a trip. It actually almost ended before it even began!

We were supposed to leave work at 4, and be on the road by 4:30, and then hit the campsite by about 7:30 pm. What we didn't calculate was the fact that we had to toss our bags with toiletries in the car and stop for groceries. We didn't get on the road until 5, didn't hit Walmart until 5:30, and weren't even on our way until 6 pm. At that point, we had to decide if we wanted to drive 3 hours in the rain to a place we'd never been (mostly on unpaved country roads), and then set up camp in the pitch blackness. We voted no.

So we had 2 options - drive all the way back home and go up the next day or find a campsite near where we were and camp for the night. We figured since we'd already packed everything, already had all the groceries, and were already about halfway there to just camp. So we drove to a nearby campsite we'd been to before and enjoyed and then our trip started!!

Here's Justin working on getting our dinner started - we hadn't eaten since about noon, and that's another reason why we didn't want to drive 3 hours and then set up camp. Who knows when we would have eaten?

Bailey would not wind down! This is one of those rare moments where he wasn't up and alert. I LOVE camping!!!

When we finally made it the next morning, here was our amazing view!

It was a bit physically demanding to set up and tear down our tent and equipment twice in one weekend, but it was worth it!

This is my new desktop background - Bailey and I went on a hike after we set up camp.

There were some amazing flowers all around - this was my favorite shot!

I took a picture of myself just so I would have proof that I was there, and Bailey just happened to turn up in the background!!

The guys getting dinner started on Saturday after they went fishing.

Here are the "kids" - Cooper, Bailey and Shelby!

Saturday night Bailey kept pacing back and forth by the tent and wouldn't relax. Turns out he wanted to go to bed. So I let him in the tent and went to check on him 10 minutes later. He was passed out on my cot with all the blankets and pillows. So I helped him out by throwing a blanket on him and he never emerged!

Check out this first video for my discovery of my silly dog:

The next morning, we had the car all packed up - I think Bailey wanted me to know he was ready to go home!

We stoppd at a lake on the way home so the boys could go fishing one more time - Bailey wanted to run in the water of course!

I had Bailey tied up next to me so he wouldn't take off after Justin. He didn't like it at all:

He vigilantly watched after Justin and wouldn't stop crying!! Here's where he was...

And here's where Justin was.

So for fun, I let him off the leash to see what Bailey would do. He TOOK OFF after Justin like a bat out of hell! I caught some of Bailey's trip back to the shore:

So I finally had enough of the crying and put him in the car. He remained alert for a while...

And then he finally got sleepy after he lost sight of Justin and took a nap...

Camping really takes it out of him. But what he doesn't know is that I'm the one that has to clean up all this mess!!!!!