Day 3 - Bonfire!

This is the last night of our camping adventure and just so happen to be the only night that we successfully built a bonfire! The kids couldn't be any happier! . The temperature was almost freezing that night, about 33 degrees and this fire sure helps.

We roasted some marshmallows to make smores and we also went around the circle and ask the kids to share stories about their feelings; what was the happiest day of your life? the saddest? the scariest? favorite place? favorite ice cream? favorite teacher? what would you do if? Their answers are absolutely priceless! I had some teary moments here hearing their happy and sad stories. My sister learned that Treyton's stories are filled with spanking and a corner time out.

It is unfortunate that Treyton and his many cousins live so far apart, about 4 hours apart, and when we do get together, seems like the Xbox and Cartoons were frequent activities on the agenda. We didn't really get to spend time to get to know each other and these kinds of moments are always overlooked. Kids LOVE telling stories and the video games impedes that. I am not against video games. We own Xbox at home with many games but we don't make it exclusive in our house. That's why I love camping so much and we try to do at least twice a year to get Treyton out of the house and appreciate the world around him beyond Super Mario Brothers.

I also took this opportunity to learn to shoot a no-flash, night photos, a challenge for some photographers, like me.

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This is our tent. This is my first attempt on no-flash, night shots.

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The kids singing and sharing stories around the fire.

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Fire is hypnotic!

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Ivory warming up her toes

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This is Jacob's attempt to roast his bad guy figurines. On the picture is Zack and his mama Putri, my youngest sister.

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This was by far my favorite night shot, thus far. I asked ZZ if we could play a game with flashlights. My opportunity at a shot of no-flash night shots. Each kid was equipped with a mini flash light. Amazing how this simple thing brought such joy to the kids.

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This is Zack and his interpretation of scary.

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A night view of downtown Grand Marais from our camp.
I think I need to work on this more.

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Can you guess what's going on here? Email me or post a comment below and I'll give you the answer.


Continue to our last day at Grand Marais >>>>