You wondered where I've been?

It was our annual family camping trip to Alexander Lake.

The numbers tell the story:
3 months planning
3 days discussing menu options
12 conversations (each 10 e-mails long) about what camping food is best
26 hours packing (ok that might be a lie - but it FEELS true)
1 hour making pizza dough. Then punching it down in the car and in the mountains every 25 minutes for 7 hours.
45 minutes driving from here to Salt Lake and back because of crap we forgot and "cannot live without".
1.5 hours driving to our actual destination
24 diapers packed 19 diapers used
15 minutes hiking in the easy stuff
30 minutes whirley-ing the hard stuff over the hill
5 canoe trips across the lake
2 times wrestling Tommy into a life jacket against his will
6 tents
20-something chairs
8 kids (10 and under)
8 adults (with 2 who hadn't arrived yet)
1 walk around the lake
1.5 rolls of toilet paper
17 oversized roasted marshmallows
20+ gallons of water
1 half-mile swim
3 hours hiding in tents from the rain storm
6 rounds of Name That Jelly Belly Flavor
10 baby ducks watched every time anybody left shore
3 massive pirate wars with lilies and lily pads as ammo
5 "guys" made out of googley eyes glued to nature
2 sleepless nights
1 fantastic family camping trip

You wanna know what I came home to? 
3 loads of smokey laundry
4 loads of non-smokey laundry
209 blog posts to read
1 pair of clean underwear (good planning or divine intervention? you decide.)
45 personal e-mails and 14 work e-mails
1 bottle of leaky lighter fluid in the gear box (what are you supposed to do with that?)
2 handsome tired boys

I call it a success.