LAUREN LIVES

A couple of weeks back, I went camping with a group of friends in Joshua Tree! While this won’t really be a wordy blog post by any means, I thought I’d share some of the photos I took over our weekend spent there!

One goal that I’m working towards this year is utilizing my DSLR camera more often than my iPhone. While I think the iPhone takes nice photos, it still just doesn’t compare when you hold it next to a nice camera’s photos. I’ve never known too much about photography — but I’m reading blogs and trying to teach myself a little bit about aperture and light and shutter speed — and what I’ve found is, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose! But nevertheless, it’s a learning process! And I thought Joshua Tree was the perfect place to keep practicing!

We set up camp — seven humans, and four dogs — and we spent a lot of time around our little campfire, drinking beer and cooking up all of our meals! I’m talking eggs and bacon, steak and corn on the cob, pasta salad and breakfast burritos…we definitely didn’t starve 😉 This was also Marty’s first time camping ever! I was a little concerned that he would go nuts over every little sound that he heard, but he was actually pretty perfect! Good enough for me to say that I would 100% definitely take him camping again 😉 He was a good little tent partner…

Another cool thing that we did while in JT was Off-Roading! Our friend, Josh, has a FourRunner, so he took us out in the off-roading territory and let it rip! It was so beautiful and serene and completely barren out there. We had so much fun traversing through the mountains and rocks and just stopping when we felt like it to make sandwiches and let the dogs run wild. (You know that feeling deep down in your heart you get when you get to see dogs just run wild outdoors like they were meant to do? It’s the best). The views out there were unreal…it definitely makes you feel small.  Our off-roading experience led us to this really cool back entrance into the park too! For me, it was a brand new way to experience a park that I’ve been to a couple of times already…I loved it!

Overall, I’m just feeling super thankful to live in a place where these weekend trips are just a short drive away! Sometimes it’s just nice to get out of your own space for a little bit…

thanks for stopping by!

xo!