To the Moon and Back!

Last year, I was reading a FamilyFun Magazine, and saw a story on "Cousin's Camps". Most of the families featured in the magazine had a grandparent who took the grandkids for a few days and did activities with them and called the week "cousin's camp". I wanted to do a cousins camp after reading that article, but with a different take--I wanted to take my kids camping with their cousins!

As a child, I felt like I didn't get to see my cousins enough; we never lived by any of them. Once a year, I'd get to visit my Crouch cousins overnight, and a few times a year for a few hours at a time, I'd see my Rose cousins. I want my children to know their cousins and have fun memories with them!

I approached Jen, my sis-in-law, with the idea early this year, and she liked the thought! We set the cousins camp date for the last weekend in June and the place--Craters of the Moon near Arco, Idaho. I'd never been to Craters before, and neither had Josh (even though we've driven by it numerous times). It's a 2 and 1/2 hour drive for us to get there, as well as my brother's family, so it seemed like a good mid-way place to meet and have lots of adventures at!

Craters of the Moon is an old volcanic area chock-full of:

volcanic rock and lava formations:

caves and lava tubes:
& volcanic ash and wildflowers:

Upon arriving on Day 1, we set up camp and had lunch before starting our adventures in the park.
We looked through the Visitor's Center and headed on our first activity--walking along the caves trail and visiting the Dewdrop Cave, Indian Tunnel, Boy Scout Cave, and Beauty Cave.The Indian Tunnel was my favorite, because it wasn't too difficult and we all walked/hiked through it: Seeing the caves was the perfect activity to do on the hot afternoon--their darkness and coolness and dampness felt so wonderful!

After the few hours of cave exploring, we headed back to camp and had dinner. Then we set out again to see the Cones. We hiked up the Inferno Cone (which is even taller than what can be seen here):

And then we saw the Snow Cone and the Spatter Cones:
After that, Josh took Ammon on an evening 3.5 mile walk along the North Crater Trail along with Jen, Tawna, and Aspen. That was Josh's favorite part of the cousins camping experience:And I took the younger 3 boys on the much-shorter .25 mile North Crater Flow Trail:
That night, the kids designed and colored their official "Cousins Camp" T-Shirts. And we all marvelled at the beauty of the moon and its orange-hues before heading to bed:
Day 2 started off with breakfast in the morning and the cousins all wearing their hand-made shirts. The front says 'Cousins Camp 2010' with outlines of all the kids' hands:
Everywhere we went that day, people commented about the kids' shirts and how adorable they were! The back of the shirt says 'Craters of the Moon' and everyone drew their own pictures:

We set out late that morning for a 2-mile hike along the Broken Top Trail. The Buffalo Caves were located a 1/2 mile into the hike, and Josh and Jen especially enjoyed spelunking those! The last leg of the long hike was downhill, and the panoramic view of miles and miles of lava rock was so beautiful:
Our last activity in the park was walking along the easy .5 mile Devils Orchard Nature Trail:
Then we headed back to camp, ate lunch, and packed up our camping gear. Before we said goodbye to the park (and each other), the kids showed us their special "fort" that they'd discovered and played in near the campsite:

I felt like our 'Cousins Camp' was a success. In just 24 hours, we saw all the major features at Craters of the Moon! And the kids had fun being with each other, camping together, and exploring the unique features of the park. I think we made lots of good memories, which was my whole goal for the experience. I think we might just do it again!

The Tolman Family:

The Perkins Family:

Aunt Tawna with the cousins: