American Fork Camping Trip

We decided to head out and take the kids camping.  We went two years ago, it's taken us that long to decide we were willing to do it again.  The kids LOVE it but it is SOO much work!

 Tara and Ben came with us.

It wasn't supposed to rain. This is right when we were starting to get set up.  I was not amused! :O)

Our campsite. It was a site we could drive to but still really rustic....like we got to teach the kids how to dig holes to go to the bathroom in the woods.

 Getting ready for marshmallows

Campfire fun!

Getting ready for bed in the tent

So cute!  Remember...he's 2...she's 4

Paul made everyone a yummy breakfast

Enjoying pancakes

The dogs barely fit in the back of the car on the way home

We went hiking at Cascade Springs

Mt Nebo Camping

This weekend we headed out camping for a night with Tara and Ben(minus Tara, she was sick), Theresa, and Jason and Lindsay.  We went up to Mt Nebo near Payson.  I had picked this area because there are some mountain biking trails that I wanted to try.  Theresa did some research on camping areas.  We headed up around noon on Saturday and ended up camping in the Blackhawk Campground.  We ended up with a great site that had picnic tables, a fire pit, and running water.  The only problem was the storm clouds!  It started raining shortly after we got there.  It was quite the thunder storm. The kids were afraid of the thunder for awhile but then got used to it.  The rain was pretty light so that wasn't too bad.  At the last minute we had decided to throw in our sunshade and it came in handy protecting us from the rain.  

Putting up our tent

Playing in the dirt.  The kids had a lot of fun doing this.  Audrey was SO dirty, but it was okay, because we had water to clean her off with. 

Building a fire

Coloring

The dogs spent some of their time tied up here. There were 5 dogs on our trip and they definitely had to keep their space.  Simba put some work into making the area comfy and dug up the dirt for hours.  

After the rain; Ben, Jason, and I went for a bike ride.

Campfire!

Our sleeping arrangements: Audrey was in the pac n play, the rest of us slept on air mattresses.

Since we were on a group site there were lots of trails going throughout the site to all the tent areas.  The kids had a lot of fun exploring the site. 

On Sunday morning, Ben and Paul went out for a bike ride.  Afterwards, Tara made it up and we went to the Payson Lakes area to play in the water a bit. It was really nice.  The lake isn't too high so the water was a little warmer than we're used to.  It's small, so no motor boats.  I really liked the area and the kids had a great time. 

After the lake we headed to "the grotto" for a hike.  It was a half mile hike to a really cool waterfall.   On the hike, Paul and Colin startled a flock of turkeys.  There were like 15 of them.  It was so loud when they all took off. I was a ways behind them and I thought a moose was running down the trail.  I scooped up Audrey and jumped off the trail as I saw the turkeys fly away.  

There were a bunch of times that we had to cross the stream on these walkways.  The kids liked the bridges

Waterfall!

Audrey ended up falling in the water and got soaked!  She wasn't too happy.  The kids had a great time.  Saturday was the first time they have ever skipped a nap. Then they went to bed late that night at 9ish and still got up at 630 with the sun the next morning.  We didn't finish this hike until after 2(way past nap time).  I was so impressed with how good they did on little sleep during this trip.  They were great.  

Putting everything together to camp for 24 hours is a lot of work, but it was SO worth it.  We had a great time, the kids had a great time, and even the dogs had a great time.  

Promise Rehab Camping and Boating Trip

Last weekend we had our annual rehab boating trip. This year Barb and Kevin offered their cabin as a place to stay on Friday night. We were excited to get the kids out camping for the first time while still having a toilet and refrigerator available. It was a lot of fun. Their cabin is out near Oakley but way out in the woods. They have a 2 bedroom cabin with a fire pit, frisbee golf course and a tent area in the woods. We decided that we would tent so we didn't have to worry about the kids waking anyone else up during the night.

In the tent at 6am

Our tent site

Campfire

Overall camping went pretty well. It was a lot of work though. It was a lot of work getting packed and putting up the tent for just one night. And it was a lot of work because anything that we do with Audrey is.

On Saturday we got up and went boating at Rockport Reservoir. It was COLD water. It took a lot of preparation to get in the water.

Paul wakeboarding

Watching Preston....the kids really enjoyed watching him because he did a lot of tricks

Colin waving the flag

Colin and Paul went out on the tube first, but then Audrey and I joined them

All of us on the tube

I was able to make it up on the wakeboard but then was a little lost at what to do once I was there. Apparently everyone was really surprised I made it up and I was pretty funny to watch trying to figure out what I was doing.



Colin had so much fun telling us we had to go pick someone up from the water after they fell.



Colin really liked the boat and kept asking to go on the boat again. The kids were exhausted after the trip. They slept the hour ride home and stayed asleep while we carried them to their beds. They then slept another 1 1/2 hrs and we had to wake Colin up for dinner.

We all had a lot of fun and I know the kids loved it all. However, I'm not sure how soon I'll be ready to take Audrey camping again. She is just not very good with changes to her routine right now and she is definitely awful with strangers(pretty much anyone other than Paul and I).