Thankful I can slow down

I recently got back from a camping trip with my dad and my brother. We went to the China Meadows campground just south of Evanston, WY. My dad camped here many times throughout his life and it was his favorite spot to camp. I have never been here before, but once we got there, I saw why it was his favorite spot. It is such a beautiful area.

My dad and I drove up together and got there a little earlier than my brother. Once we got there, the sky turned pretty ominous and I had to hurry and get our camp set up because the rain was on its way.

The rain didn't last too long the first day, but I was worried how the weather was going to be for the rest of our trip. We were planning on staying for three nights and four days out there and I was not prepared for a wet camping trip. Plus it was getting really cold at night. Northern Utah in the high Uintas gets pretty cold towards the end of the year.

This was my fourth camping trip of the year. I have learned a lot about camping with each of my trips. I realized that I never camped as an adult because I didn't want to live like I did when I was out in the field or deployed in the Army. So I missed out on so many opportunities. But camping is so much different than my time in the military. When I am camping, it is like time stops and I am just able to be, if that makes sense.

I love spending time with friends and family when I am camping. This trip, I got to know my dad on a much deeper level than I ever had before. It was nice just spending time with him without any plans or places to go.

My only concern while I was camping was to make memories with my dad and brother. We never got time like this when I was growing up and once I joined the military and left home, I never had the time nor the desire to do anything like this.

I am grateful that I was able to capture these pictures. I know my dad doesn't have a whole lot of time left before he passes, so it was really cool for me to be able to take him camping. He hasn't been able to camp in over 20 years, so this was a very special camping trip for us.

We spent majority of our time fishing or just hanging out around the campfire. The scenery there was so beautiful and peaceful. This year, I have really loved getting out in nature and spending time healing and finding myself.

I used to hate leaving home and being away from my wife, but this year has taught me how important it is for me to do this. I never realized how scary it was for me to be away from my wife. Being away from her was scary for me because it made me remember the loneliness and sadness I felt when I was deployed or stationed in Korea away from her and my kids.

But camping gave me a safe place to work through those feelings so I could realize that I dont have anything to be scared of when I was away from her. Every time I would leave for my camping trips, I had a feeling that something was going to happen to me and I wouldn't make it back home. I don't get those feelings as strong as I used to, which is nice. I still have work to do with this and I am going to continue with my healing journey.

My family has very strong military roots. My dad's father was military, he was military and both my brothers and I were military as well. Military life was very hard and growing up in the military was extremely hard and something I am still working through today. We all have so much healing we are working on it is so cool that my family is becoming closer as we heal.

It sucks that the camping season is coming to an end, but I am super excited for the future and for all the camping trips that I am going to go on throughout the remainder of my life. I am excited to make memories with Theo and go camping with him and the rest of my family over the coming years.