camping: the lesley way.

it's no secret that i love summer. i frequently forget what day it is and get to vacuum my house to my heart's content.

it's pure bliss. 

{oh, and i've just started a dawson's creek marathon on netflix, so i've really taken the good times up a notch.}

in addition to staying in my pjs for as long as possible, photographing babies {i have a website now, so you should probably check it out}, and using the bathroom whenever i please {aka a teacher luxury}, nick has insisted we clock in some good camping time this summer in order to help him reach his goal of climbing all of colorado's 14ers {he's currently at 40 out of 53. yeah i'm impressed too.}

our first excursion a few weeks back included throwing sir winston in the back of the jeep and heading out for a quick car camping trip to aspen. nick wanted to get up in the elevation and do some hiking, so we set up camp, drank beer around the fire, and woke up at 4:30 am and headed off for the trail.

in our 2 years of marital wisdom, we devised a pretty good plan for hiking together. i take sir winston and start off with nick until the trail gets too "mountainy" and sir winston and i head back to the tent to go back to sleep and nick takes it the rest of the way.
so that's exactly what we did.

this also gives me the opportunity to take photographs at my leisure on the way back down.

everyone wins.

our second camping trip of the season was a little more…involved.

this time we were backpacking, uphill the whole way, and with a lot of big rocks covering the trail.

fortunately, we brought our friends matt, kandyce {who is responsible for some of the beautiful photos below, and she was kind enough to let me steal them} and jonathan along because misery loves company and they are pretty great company.

after our car tried to die on us in colorado springs, we finally made it to the blanca peak trailhead, put on our packs, and set off for our 7 mile hike. 

{i can't help myself with the heart rocks.}

when we finally made it to the top, completely exhausted, the view at the lake was completely spectacular and made all the misery worth it {mostly}.

the next morning, while kandyce and i were sleeping, reading, walking around the lake, and talking about family, marriage, and general life things the boys were taking it to the next level and summiting mount blanca.

they learned a valuable lesson on the cleansing effect of apricots that day.
only the strong survive climbing mountains while eating handfuls of apricots.
and they made it back to us in one piece, mostly.

we headed back down that afternoon to meet our friends james, sarah, mitch, and whitney who were staying at a campsite nearby.

they spoiled us with a delicious dinner already prepared, the perfect campsite location, cold beers for everyone, a hilarious game of cards against humanity, and hours spent around the campfire.

and they even endured me talking about how beautiful the sunset was for at least an hour.
i couldn't help myself. 

sunday morning we decided to visit the sand dunes before heading back to denver, and i'm so glad we did.

primarily because i got to see what happens when you tell a group of people to do a jumping picture, in sand, and you put your camera on continuous shooting.

enjoy.
{maybe we'll get it next time guys.}

i'm really thankful that camping has become a summer staple for us.

it's a beautiful, challenging, and always hilarious adventure.

snowshoeing on a saturday.

even though my heart is welcoming spring with wide open arms, it was nice to get away to the mountains for a few hours this weekend.

it felt good to breath the fresh air, stomp through the snow at a leisurely pace, and admire the breathtaking mountain views.

my snowshoes are janky, i can't always keep my footing, and i opted out of the more challenging course, but, all in all, it was a great way to spend a saturday afternoon.

trading my sweat pants for my hiking shoes.

mr. lesley and i decided to celebrate thanksgiving this year in a less than traditional way.

instead of stuffing our faces, laying on the couch, braving the black friday sales, and setting up our christmas tree, we road tripped it out to the utah/arizona border to camp, hike, and visit the wave.

my sister and brother in law and their two friends justin and heidi (and their wonder dog) were so kind to let us tag along on their adventure and use two of their permits to see the wave (this place is legit. you can't just show up and hike to it. you have to have special permission. they only give out twenty passes a day and a lot of people want them, so this was a once in a lifetime sort of thing).

after arriving on thursday, we made ourselves the best camping thanksgiving you could imagine, complete with cornish hens, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie to top it all off! it was delicious. 

although the temps were pretty frigid, the campfire kept us warm and with all the beautiful sites surrounding us, there wasn't much room for complaining. 

we spent friday hiking through the slot canyons at buckskin gulch and all day saturday at the wave.

words don't do justice to the beauty we saw, so i will let the photos do the talking.

i couldn't have asked for a better thanksgiving!

a little atypical? 

maybe.

worth it? 

totally and completely.

just call me a pilgrim of the desert.