Camping and some horse trekking with friends

For Ian's graduation trip, he wanted to spend some time out camping and riding horses with our boys. So, this past week they all did that. It was quite a fun trip and we started it off with some white water rafting in Chong Kemin, all together!

We got to meet up with our usual rafting guides. They were able to use their new raft and some of their new suits with us. Also, just like us, they've been a bit short on clients with the borders being closed so they were super excited about us coming and rafting with them. We might try to go again in a few weeks.

At the end of the trip.

The whole group.

Excited to be back on land after a terrific trip.

Clementa (who has a broken foot right now) drove along and took pictures as we went down the Kemin and then the Chui rivers and did our rafting trip.

This is one of my favorite shots that she took.

Getting ready to start our trek.

As everyone was getting ready to get in the boat.

That night, the girls went back to Bishkek and the boys spent the night in Chong Kemin and got ready to start their horse trek the next day. Up and over the mountains from the forest and down to the lake by Balykchy.

Camping spot for the first night.

Camping spot the second night.

They definitely had some wind problems at night...and during their trek, some hail and lightning storms as they were going up and over the pass.

Some beautiful views, some scary weather, special time together as friends, and meeting new people that live in Chong Kemin and that shepherd in the mountains between Chong Kemin and Balykchy. Definitely a good trip and a time for making memories!

Camping in Chong Kemin

For our last weekend of summer 2018, we planned a camping trip to Chong Kemin National Park. We had been to this location back in June and had met some really great local friends that told us about some beautiful horse treks in the region. Indy brought some of his Taigan Expeditions' clients here in July and when he came home told me, "Yes, we need to go back, it's lovely!"

The weekend got cut short though by an accident with our pup, Vera. Turns out being raised in suburbia, away from horses, has got her a bit anxious and excited about these larger animals. Our local friend brought up 5 horses, plus the one he was riding, and Vera was not thrilled. She started jumping and barking and wouldn't go with us on our horse trek when we were sure she would follow right along as she does on hikes and other walks. In her exuberance, she jumped on our tent, breaking one of the plastic extension poles. Indy tried to fix it and another pole broke. We really liked these easy pop up tents, but the lighter weight, plastic poles aren't as sturdy and now we're afraid we're without a tent. It put all of us in a foul mood unfortunately and we had to pack up on Saturday evening and head home to Bishkek. We learned a few things about grace and forgiveness though, so for that we're thankful for our time out in Chong Kemin.

Our little corner of the wilderness with our tent all set up.

There were so many different kinds of wildflowers, I just couldn't stop taking pictures.

Purple in my color, and this area was covered in purple wildflowers.

Part of the path we took to get up to our campsite.

The tall trees surrounding where we camped.

Our puppy, Vera, now 8 months old and weighing 53 lbs.

Yeah, yellow, a different color from purple.

Walking around the valley, you can see Vera on the path on the left, following the kids. I was always falling behind to take pictures.

A view from our horse trek.

Cresting this hill and looking down in the valley was just beautiful.

Indy stayed behind to clean up the camp site and the kids and I went on with our friend for a couple of hours of horse trekking.

A family driving up in the mountains for a day trip.

There they go, down the hill to return to the village.

The dark trees on the hillside reminded me so much of Colorado.

Sissi took this and many more pictures. She likes to take close ups and layer her photos. I might have her do a post at some point sharing some of our photography.