to the sand dunes and back in 13 hours...

one time it was 8:30 on a friday night.

next thing i know we're on our way to the sand dunes.

a little convincing and a tent plus sleeping bags always on hand in my trunk go a long way.

 we headed to "little sahara."

and saw this pretty sky and scary train on the way.

how it went down.

marlee:  what are those bright lights?

josh:  not sure.

me:  no clue.

all of us:  hmm...

josh:  oh my gosh, it's a TRAIN!

we quickly stopped at the crossing, which definitely had no arm rail things.

when we got there we couldn't find anyone we knew.

and there were like 30 people we knew were going.

we said a prayer to find our friends which was answered instantly. [amazing.]

the next step was locating the campground.

which took a couple hours.

so we took pictures while we waited.

upon arrival at the campground [at midnight] we made a fire.

and s'mores.

and we even made some friends.

we finally got to bed about 2:30.

and then woke up at 5:30 scared to death of giant wind gusts and pattering rain.

plus all the other people talking and laughing who were wide awake.

marlee and i turned to each other and said, "really?  it's 5:30!" and went back to bed.

until 7:30.

this is marlee trying to ignore the world in her sleeping bag.

there is a lot, a lot of sand.

 there may have been a giant bonfire in the morning.

we're just a couple happy campers.

for the record:  last minute camping trips are my favorite.

i couldn't stop thinking about hilary the whole time.