kids in the dirt

Only moments after we arrived.  She was still clean at this point. Notice the white parts of her shoes are still white.
By the day we left, those shoes were almost all the same shade of gray/black.

Aaaand, only an hour later.

These kids were filthy. I went through wipe after wipe after wipe, constantly cleaning tree sap off their fingers and dust/mud off their faces.
But oh goodness did they have fun.

It got so much worse when she'd cry, because she'd wipe her wet face with her dirt-blackened hands.
Sometimes she even had a perfect handprint on the side of her face.
It was pretty awesome.

My mom taught Nicholas about how her brothers used to pick these and use them to bonk her on the back of the head while they hiked.
Super fun trick.  
And as a note, I'm quite looking forward to being a grandma.  They get to teach kids all the really fun stuff.

Little girl tennis shoes at day three.

He sat down right where he was and took off his shoes and socks anytime he felt rocks or dirt in them.
Then he'd call for me to come to him because he doesn't know how to put them back on yet.
His shoes have mesh sides (something I didn't realize until this past week....)
We did this little shoe removal/replacement thing probably seven or eight or thirty times a day.

Camping with littles is no easy task.  
But oh how it is worth it.  They love it.  Rocks, sticks, dirt, and no one telling them to come inside?  Kid-heaven.