Jeff and I had a fun night on Friday going camping. We have tried to have a lot of traditions between us but most have just fallen by the wayside or we just got too busy to do it again this year. Luckily we still were able to continue our oldest tradition of going camping overnight each year one weekend in August. It all started when I first met Jeff. My friends and I were going camping the very next weekend after I met him and we invited Jeff and his friends to come along. It ended up that all of Jeff's friends bailed on him except Klint, and I didn't think that he was really going to show up, plus I had decided that he liked my best friend at the time and that I didn't really have a shot with him anyway. Well he surprised me and still came along. That was probably the first time we really let on that we liked each other. We spent the whole night sitting by the fire or in my car talking. I think we got about 1 hour of sleep that whole night. Well ever since then we have been inseparable. It was a great camping experience. So Jeff and I have done it every year since. The first year we had no trouble finding a place to camp. Last year we were a little late heading out and we tried to go camping over Labor Day. That was not a good idea. We drove up the canyon quite awhile but every camp site was full, so we finally turned around and camped out in our back yard. It was fun for me, but we live by the freeway and it was really hard for Jeff and I to sleep. Needless to say we weren't about to do that again. This year we thought that if we went at the beginning of August we would have more luck. We headed out Friday at about 5:00 and thought that we were giving ourselves plenty of time. We got down the canyon and realized that we were seeing a repeat of last year and that all the campgrounds were full. We didn't want to give up on our oldest tradition so we ended up driving all the way up to Monte Cristo (which by the way was where our first camping trip was). We saw some hope when they didn't have a campground full sign. We drove on in and found only 2 plots left. Boy were we lucky. After that things were just great. We talked by the fire and Jeff played with some matches(he used the whole box making towers and such). Then went to bed, got up the next morning and headed home. We don't do anything special, but I sure enjoy the time we have just sitting and talking by the fire. It really gives us a chance to feel closer to one another. I hope we can continue this tradition forever and eventually with our own family.
