Gurmeet and I used to backpack (a little) before we had kids. And then I got pregnant with Asha, and then we had a little baby, and then I got pregnant with Kyra. Then we had two little ones, and then we bought a trailer and camping became a very different experience then it used to be. Although I absolutely love camping in our trailer (even though I never even knew that was really a thing before we moved to Idaho and had kids), we’ve always talked about starting to backpack again. 

So this summer, now that our kids are 9 and 13, we decided that we were ready! And so we did a little girls trip—just me, Asha and Kyra and their cousins Simi and Leila. I wanted to keep it simple—just hiking to Fourth of July Lake and staying one night. The goal was to just keep it fun and pretty easy. It turned out to be a blast, and on the way back, the girls started talking about when we would go again, so mission accomplished!