Without Further Ado...

I give you a photo essay of our first camping trip as a married couple. (Don't judge, the first and only time we were engaged and went with cousins, in separate tents. Of course.)

We camped in Oak Creek Canyon just outside of Sedona. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it, absolutely breathtaking. Below is our camp site.

Our handy tent, purchased the day before at the beloved Bass Pro shop.

My manly man chopping wood for our physical well-being, bodily warmth and necessary s'more making. I happen to like this angle of the shot. :)

One would be remiss to not capture the delightful nature found all around. Phil loved playing National Geographic photog. (please oooh and ahhh appropriately)

Our fellow campers getting ready for the West Fork Trail. Another must do.

We spent a good hour or more at the mouth of the trail where there are some old ruins and ivy covered everything along the creek. We fell in love with the lighting and practiced our skills. Both Phil & Liz were shooting, my own personal paparazzi!

Phil captured this HUGE bumblebee making his rounds to all the sunny flowers. See his wings flutter?

Along the West Fork Trail, a fun reflection shot. I can't rave enough about this place.

There was one tragedy that occured. And unfortunately befelled our littlest camper, on his first camping trip. Here is Mr. Kyle before, happy little boy, traipsing around the campsite.

And the After. He met up with a nice little boulder. The boulder won.

More of the locals.

Phil has a talent of befriending people where ever we go and camping was no exception. Phil was minding his own camping business when this little guy came up to him and informed us that it was his birthday today. We congratulated him and wished him well. He came back a few hours later and invited us to his party. We obliged and became friends. They turned out to be great camping neighbors, lent us an ax and various camping tools we forgot. Phil & I followed the boys to a hidden pool of water along the creek and gave them a photoshoot of cliff jumping and messing around in the cold creek. The picture below captures his personality perfectly.

I remarked what a "ham" he was, meaning a goofball. Phil thought I was referring to his girth, as in a piece of meat.

(A shot documenting my future smile lines, crows feet and horrendous wrinkles to come. Botox anyone?)

We had a great time with our friends and hope to make this a recurring event.

*****Interview Update:*****

Phil went to U of A Tucson campus yesterday and had a great time. He was lucky enough to interview with the Assistant Dean (his options were a 4th year med student and various other faculty) and got a few envious glances. They talked for an hour and Phil felt it went really well. The interviewer got a great glimpse of who Phil is and we hope he made a lasting impression. They talked about our recent camping trip since the guy is taking his family up to Flagstaff soon and Phil of course recommended our beloved Oak Creek and talked about his interest in photography.

He sent him a thank you email and included pictures of our trip. I'm sorry, did you say "brown noser"? No, please, he just did as any polite young man would do, of course. Because that's what we are. Polite people.