Delightful picnic and camping trip

Ben's school, Wee Creekers, has a picnic every year for staff and students and we were delighted to be invited. It was held at some campsites in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, just up the road from us. The campground is called Aspen Meadows, and with all the rain we've had, the aspens are beautiful, so you can imagine it was a gorgeous setting. It was great to meet other moms and get to know Linda, the director, better. It turns out there was an extra tent site, so we ran home to get our camping gear and came back. Ben had a blast playing with his friends. I would say Martin is his best friend right now, and Martin is such a sweetie. He's four, I think, and really takes care of Ben. He and all the kids say "MarTIN" instead of the usual "Mart'n." I think his parents actually pronounce it that way too, therefore that would be the correct pronunciation. Ben puts extra emphasis on the TIN. Our neighbor, Mattux, was camping too, and Ben ran around yelling, "Maggots!! MarTIN!! Lightin Ween!!" (Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars). He loved visiting other people's tents and spent a lot of time inside "his" tent and our tent. He couldn't really keep up with the 4- and 5-year-old boys as they ran around fighting over guns and climbing on rocks. Ben also insisted on being barefoot, oddly, and got lots of comments about having tough feet. Below are photos of Tim at the picnic, Ben in someone's tent, Joanna with Oliver in the Moby Wrap, and a group photo. MarTIN is in the reddish baseball cap looking at the camera, and Mattux is squatting and has red pajama pants on. The lady in the cowboy hat is Linda, the Wee Creekers director/owner.