Call Of The Wild

My three Chinn’s survived the elements and arrived home safely Thursday night. I’ve never seen May May quite so filthy! I spared us all, and passed on taking photographic evidence of the dirt buildup. Their 2nd Annual Big Bear Adventure was a rounding success! Both M & B have expanded their food repertoire to include hamburgers (if they were absolutely starving) and smores. Yes my children are Americans … Unfortunately I can’t explain their lack of epcurious patriotism. Nor does it make sense that every New Years our family celebrates by making smores and only Bill, me, and Kat eat them. But I digress – Each morning my three sweeties hiked up a huge mountain for 3 hours - earning May her first blister. Their goal was to make it to the top, but each morning they tried they had to turn back before reaching the peak. Bill was impressed with the little Chinn’s stamina, but apparently towards the top you practically need to be on all fours to keep climbing. Finally on the last day, with Baden on daddy’s shoulders for much of the way, the mountain was conquered by three very tired, very thirsty, and very proud Chinn’s! I’m told the mountain was so tall that everyone they encountered on the way down congratulated them for making it to the top. Way to go!!





Joe Awe, my brother, was a great host and executive chef. I credit his mad culinary skills (along with Bill’s “Special Camp Consumption Rules”) with May and Baden’s newly found eating achievements. More of the new foods include an eggs, sausage, and potato mixture (shown below) and potato wedges (which are “NOT french fries, thank you very much!”). Great job, Joe!





Random stories I’ve heard: The whole group went kayaking (no pictures cuz of the wet camera thing) and the girls, Ashley and May, were in their own kayak! Girl power! Also, Uncle Joe rode Baden around the lake on his handlebars, which was quite the treat. And the Awe family could often be found reading books. Yes, this is how I grew up. Everyone in the family reading, and I mean everyone! I didn’t start reading for fun until after college. All that wasted time…what a pity. Some of us are late bloomers I guess.









Well we hope to see the Awe family here in Texas soon. It will be our pleasure to host them – and great for me because it will be indoors!