Camping

I love camping. We went camping these last two weekends. The last time I went before that was before Brad and I were married, so it's been 8 years! I used to have all my camping gear in my trunk and almost every night that I had off of work, I would head up to "my" spot up Squaw Peak road in Provo Canyon. Lots of times I'd get up there at 2 or 3 in the morning, make a fire, have some marshmallows, and go to sleep in my sleeping bag under the stars, then wake up with the sun, the birds chirping and the sound of the weeds and trees in the wind. I think my favorite childhood memories are of camping for a week every summer at Lake Shasta with my moms side of the family. I loved being with my family and boating out on the lake. It was just so fun. I think that's why I want a boat so bad, too. Just good memories.
Camping is a bit different when you are the parent. Still a lot of fun, just different. We went to Mona last weekend with Katie and Micah and their 2 nieces and 2 nephews. It was a blast. Katie brought glo sticks for the kids at night and the lifesavers that spark when you crunch them in the dark. They brought a bag of treats for each of the kids. The front of their truck was the designated crying and whining spot. If you wanted to cry or whine, you did it in there, then you could come out. Brilliant idea. They brought their catamaran. I took each of the kids out one at a time. I took Josh first. He steered while I paddled. He LOVED it. He said "This is so fun, this is just so much fun" about 10 times and he said "I want to do this every day." Connor and I had fun paddling out by the ducks and guessing where they would resurface after they dove into the water. Kaytlynn didn't like it at first, but ended up loving it after successfully maneuvering the boat under the bridge. We had fabulous pulled pork sandwiches made by Micah. The kids had a little trouble getting to sleep. There were cows mooing that sounded like they were dying all night. Josh said he couldn't get to sleep because the fire was too loud, so could I please just go and put it out?
We played soccer and baseball. Brad and I also went out on the boat. It was so nice. I laid down and steered and looked at the snow covered mountains and the clouds while Brad paddled. :) We took a couple of rides in the back of Micahs truck through muddy puddles of water and off the road. The kids absolutely loved that, too. They kept begging for another truck ride. They brought their two dogs, which the kids loved, of course. They found snakes, a mouse type thing, and a crawdad. Good times.
Thursday was Josh's last day of 1st grade, so we headed down to Moab to meet the Brusiks. Brad couldn't come because of work, so it was just me and the kids. We made it in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad! We made it back in 2 hours and 38 minutes. Even better! All the campsites were full because it was Memorial Day weekend, so we were just an extra car at Greg and Malas RV site. We stayed at the Moab Valley RV Resort. They had a bunch of activities: A swimming pool and hot tub, mini golf, life size checkers, chess, and chinese checkers, horseshoes, a playground, and tetherball (yes!) Mala absolutely killed me in tetherball. Back in the 5th grade maybe things would have been different, but we'll never know. Caden and Lola are some of the kids favorite friends, so they had a lot of fun playing together. So me and the kids slept in the van (I wrote can there at first. The van is better than the can.) It was funny because the boys totally wrestled around laughing in the back. It made me smile. Kaytlynn was being a total B R A T. She refused to close the door. I left the van keys in Mala and Gregs camper because I just knew I would lock myself out of the van. I closed Kaytlynns door and locked it, so she unlocked it and opened the door and set off our alarm around 11 p.m. I ran to the RV and knocked on their locked door to get the keys and turn the alarm off. I swear that child is going to kill me off. Soon, too. How can such a cute little girl be so conniving? She can also be extremely sweet. We ended that trip with a bumpy car ride and short hike to a beautiful waterfall. My computer is all messed up, so I haven't got pictures on here yet, but I will try to add them later. Thanks Petersons and Brusiks for the camping fun!!