Camping Cousins

This last weekend we had a great camping trip with Joseph, Amy and their kids. It was a blast! We camped up Hobble Creek Canyon down near Springville. It was close enough for mom and dad to come up in the evening for dinner and so dad could make a double batch of peach cobbler - Yummo! Our campsite was in the shade right next to this great little spot the kids enjoyed climbing way too much (in fact that was the first thing they did upon exiting the vans), and a little area the kids dubbed as "The Pit."

Rachel was a pretty darn good climber going up but not so much coming down. She would get to a certain spot and yell "Help! I can't get down!!" So I would go up and help her walk back down the mountain. Eventually I told her that she couldn't go up there unless she could get down. I thought it would keep her from going back up but I was wrong. She found a way to get down...sliding on her bum the entire way down. I guess that kind of backfired huh?

We had an interesting time setting up the tent (it could have been worse if Brook and Benjamin hadn't of slept in the vans). We reserved a double site so we could put up our two tents but the area for the tents was kind of small. Either way we made it work. We had to move some big rocks for our tent to fit but we did it. Marc enjoyed taking the hatchet and chopping some firewood. Rachel had fun disappearing. I made the mistake of putting her in a shirt that blended right in with all of the leaves, There were several times I would say "where's Rachel?!" It was kind of like playing "where's Waldo."

For dinner we had tin foil dinners thanks to Joseph's mad cooking skills and the kids had a blast roasting their own hot dogs. Benjamin enjoyed the fruit salad more than anything. After dinner the kids had more fun playing around in "The Pit" with their sticks.

While the adults had 2 helpings each of dad's divine peach cobbler the kids were able to make s'mores. Rachel was the only kid who actually ate her s'more put together, the others ate their pieces seperatly. Let's just say it was one big ewey-gooy mess. After our treat, we said goodbye to grandma and grandpa so they could go sleep in their comfy bed at home, then we bunkered down for stories around the campfire. Aunt Amy told a pretty cute story called the "Blue Heron" which all of the kids enjoyed. Then it was on to PJ's, pottys and teeth brushing. All of the kids slept relatively well. Brook had a hard time going to sleep so she was up with the adults for a while. Joseph was holding her with her head on his shoulder when all of a sudden we heard this 'ping.' I hurried and got our flashlight from our tent (waking Benjamin up in the process) so we could find out where her pacifier went. As you probably guessed, it went straight into the fire pit (luckily it was only hot coals) but it was in there long enough to melt a little and become unusable. We always have 2 pacifiers with us for Benjamin so Brook used one of his for the remainder of the trip.

Other than Benjamin having some bad gas (he stayed in the sleeping bag with me because it was just easier that way) and Rachel rolling out of her sleeping bag and onto the rocks during the night, the kids slept well. Rachel woke up grumpy (as usual) and insisted on Aunt Amy getting her dressed. We had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausages, chocolate doughnut holes, juice, milk and fruit. Dad was the best and rescued us twice. Somehow in the packing Marc and I forgot to get propane for our new cook stove and the eggs for breakfast! I made a list but still they were left behind! While Marc made the eggs over the fire, I used our new cook stove and griddle to make some yummy banana pancakes and sausages. We sure ate well that morning!

Before we could leave though we had to take one last trip to Cherry Creek so the kids could throw rocks in the river. On our way to the river there were a ton of kids from the other campsites riding their bikes and Rachel got run over by a kid on his bike! Luckily she wasn't hurt bad, but what really got me was the kid was still trying to go when Rachel's ankle was under his wheel!! Anyway, after getting her settled and happy again we finally made it to the river. When the kids were done we loaded them up and headed to Joseph and Amy's where we let the kids play together some more, and bathed them all really, really, really good!