6 Year Old Birthday Camping Trip

We can hardly believe that our little girl is already 6 years old. For her birthday she requested that we go on a camping trip. We decided to try renting a forest service cabin in an area that we were unfamiliar with. Haylie wanted to take the horses and ride into some back country streams for fishing. (Seriously what 6 year old GIRL request this for a birthday? Tom sure is one lucky dad with a daughter after his own heart) The area around the cabin is known for great horse country. Unfortunately, due to an unexpected situation, we had to change our plans at the last minute and weren't able to take the horses. We decided to still give it a go and at least camp for the weekend. Since we were camping before her actual birthday date, we wanted to give Haylie our birthday gift early. Our gift was a nice Nikon point and shoot camera. Haylie has a nack for taking great pictures and catching things that I don't. We told her that for this trip she was in charge of taking all the pictures. I think they turned out quite well.

Happy Birthday Haylie! 

We were at 5435 ft elevation and the view all around us was amazing

A spring. Someone had carved a log into a trough and had the spring flowing into it. 

Godman Ranger Station. 

Tiny little creek that ran past the cabin.

Little pond just below the cabin

Early Sunday morning Tom heard some elk so Haylie and him went on a hike to try and spot them. They spotted 3 deer, 2 cows, 1 spike and 1 bull. 

The little spike

We had some very friendly birds in our camp that loved our breakfast biscuits. 

They weren't shy at all and would carry 3 to 4 pieces at a time. 

As we were driving along Haylie would yell; "stop dad, I need to get a picture of that"

The variety of wildflowers were amazing. 

Since we didn't bring the horses, we weren't energetic enough to hike down 5,000 ft  and then back up just to fish. So on our way home we stopped at the Snake river for a little fishing. Haylie got to show me how good of a caster she is. 

Both of them are in their element. 

Don't know if you can see her face but she just snagged a fish. 

A little small mouth bass. She actually caught 2 small bass. As usual she out fished her daddy who caught 0. 

It was 95 outside and standing in the blazing sun, she didn't want to stop.
(oh and obviously I took the pictures of her fishing, but all the others she took herself)  

Miss. Haylie Ann Wurtz Graduates

 June 7th marked the official start of summer vacation. Kindergarten was a success and now shes ready to take on the 1st grade. Apparently graduating from kindergarten is a bigger deal then I thought or remember it being. They had a full blown graduation; hats, diplomas, song performance, even the walk, and ice cream social afterwards. The place was packed to the roof. We were very proud of Haylie for all the goals she accomplished and all the hard work she put in. !!!! Way to go Haylie Ann Wurtz !!!!

She was so serious through the whole thing. 

Receiving her diploma and shaking her teacher, Mrs. Johnson's, hand.