Labor Day Camping-Treehouse style

For the long weekend we were invited to go camping and we jumped at the opportunity.  Most of us love camping and we were excited to get out and explore.  The group grew and it ended up being 6 families that went from the ward.  The place is only about 30 miles from our house but it takes forever to drive places.  The top speed we have seen so far is 60 km which is about 38 miles an hour.  It is crazy!! The roads here are so tiny and dangerous so you have to go slow.  They are small and then they have ditches right next to the edge and big telephone poles that are actually in the road not at the side!  Anyways, back to camping...we got lost a few times on the way there but eventually we all made it.  We stayed in these little tree houses.  Not actually tree houses...more a cabin on a ladder that is shaped like a tree!  It was super cute and fun.  It poured rain on us when we arrived but we could pull under our treehouse and we had a table under the house so we could stay out of the rain.  A few of the other families joined meals with us so they cooked dinner and breakfast and we provided drinks and treats...easy for us!  We had great food, the company was good and it was beautiful!  The next day was nice and sunny so we played around camp...since we were up BRIGHT and EARLY!  We hiked up the hill to a huge dragon thing for the kids to play on.  We went to our first shrine.  It was cool and pretty.  Mostly I loved the outside trees, bridges and water.  I need to learn more about the shrines so I can appreciate them more.  Then we hit a super great market on the way home.  After that we went to the mall that is only 20 minutes from our house.  Some of the kids had McDonalds and the rest of tried a new place that was recommended.  It was pretty cool, they had super thin slices of meat on your skillet sizzling with rice, corn, and pepper.  You take it to your seat and it keeps cooking and you have to turn it.  Pretty fancy food for  a mall food court.  After you eat you clean your own table with some rags provided.  At first ordering seemed scary but they have pictures for most things and a lot of things are written in English. So, if you can point and nod your head you do pretty good.  At first I would just hand them my biggest bill of money and hope it would cover it, but now I get the yen concept and do great with money.  I am getting so grown up!