Ward Campout

Our next trip was actually our Ward Campout.  Each year the ward host an overnight camping trip to Morgan at Whittier Farms.  Last year Kevin and I were in charge.  Luckily, this year we were just spectators.  We arrive Friday afternoon, the ward provides yummy fried chicken for dinner and everyone else brings a pot luck item.  There is an outdoor movie that night, we sleep, and then in the morning the ward provides breakfast, and we go home.  Even though it’s so close to home, since we don’t have to cook for ourselves and it’s only a 14 hour trip, we like to tent camp this one too.  It’s a lovely area, and always a really nice trip.  This year’s movie was Facing the Giants.  The girls loved playing with friends in the sand and sagebrush, and we love visiting with friends.  Next year I’ll have to take pictures!

Snow Canyon

Our first camping trip in 2012 was to Snow Canyon, near St. George.  We have a great friend, Jennifer Mortensen, who is so good about planning these neighborhood camping trips each April.  The past two years we’ve gone to Goblin Valley, which we LOVE.  This year, she decided to shake things up a little and we headed further south to Snow Canyon, near St. George.  Though for us, not as fun as Goblin, it was a great place to visit and a lot of fun to go someplace new.  We had a really good time. 

Oh, I guess I should preface things by saying that we almost didn’t make it on this trip.  We’ve  been having car problems with the Saturn forever, and Kev finally determined that though it still runs, there’s no way we can take it 600 miles to St. George and back.  I was kind of OK with that.  I was working and the thought of planning and prepping for a camping trip seemed exhausting.  Taking the burb wasn’t even an option.  We don’t take it, or the trailer, long distances like that very often.  It costs way too much in gas.  At the last minute, our friends Kaydee and Darren Phillips insisted that we take their car and come on the trip.  I was still opposed, but then they went out and got the oil changed and a tune-up, ready for us to go, and I felt roped in.  Plus, Kev really wanted to go, so we did.  It was incredibly generous of them and in the end we’re glad we were able to go.  It spoiled us though.  Kaydee has a really nice, much newer car than ours.  We might as well have been in a limo, as comfortable as the drive was.

So, I got us ready, Kev took off early on Friday and the girls and I left as soon as school was over  We picked up Kevin at his office in Draper and off we went!   The drive was uneventful, and after some words between Jen and I over which tent spot we should take (she’s the sensible one and I’m the sass in our relationship ; ), we got settled and made dinner.   Since we were camping in a tent, rather than our beloved camper, we kept things very simple.  Oatmeal for breakfast, hot dogs for dinner, that kind of thing.  It’s different, but still fun.  I like the girls to be able to experience both kind of camping.

Six different families came on this trip besides us  – the Mortensens, Phillips, Richards, Hattaways, Kesslers and the Moss family.  We generally camp together, but are usually on our own for activities.  Oh, we’ll do some things together, a hike or two, but generally we do our own thing. 

On Saturday morning, we all got up and hiked the Lava Flow Overlook Trail.  I think the trail is several miles long, but I don’t know if anyone actually hiked the whole thing.  We were mostly interested in seeing the Lava Tubes.   The trail starts out pretty flat with traditional desert brush, but then patches of volcanic rock begins to appear.  Keep moving and you’ll see caved in areas.  Some of these open into lava tubes. If you have a flashlight with you, you can walk down into the tubes and explore underground.  We hiked to a couple of different ones.  It was a lot of fun, and a little freaky too.

After lunch our family decided to do some Geocaching, which is a family favorite.  There was one within about a mile from camp, so we decided to walk.  All fine and good, but I wasn’t really thinking and we didn’t take water.  This is Southern Utah and it was dry and blooming hot!  We had fun finding the geocache, but were so hot and thirsty by the time we got back. Holy cow!

Kaydee’s parents have a condo in St. George and while they were camping with the group, they also went back and forth to the condo a few times.  On Saturday afternoon they invited us in to swim at the condo pool and we went.  Straight from there we grabbed dinner out and stopped to do some rapelling off Dixie Rock.  We met Darren, Jennifer and her daughter Millie there.  It was just a short rapell.  I did it, Kev did, Jen, then Millie.  Then we tried to get Brinkley and Lily to go.  It was a scary rock because it wasn’t a straight drop, it kind of curved under, which was harder.  Lily wouldn’t go, but Brinkley decided she would.  She started getting really stressed though, almost immediately.  Kev was with her at the top, and Darren was spotting at the bottom.  It took like 15 minutes to talk her over.  Brinkley was crying, and Kev kept telling her she didn’t have to go, but she kept saying, “I want to!” tears flowing the whole time.  It was awesome!  She finally did it though.

Sunday we packed up and our family decided we wanted to geocache more before we headed home.  We ended up hitting 9 more in the canyon and right outside the canyon.  It was so fun!  We found everyone that we looked for.  Success for The Cache Hounds (our geocaching family name!).  We finally left St. George in the late afternoon, and didn’t make it home until late evening, but we had a great trip thanks to good friends!

(Pictures to come.)

I'm Baaaack!!

Truth be told, it is not really April 1^st.  It’s the end of July, well into the 2012 camping season.  I intended to blog this year.  We’ve only been on 2 trips so far, and are currently on our 3^rd, but I’ve discovered that it’s hard to do while here.  It’s time consuming.  I have an old, slow, laptop.  The internet connection is pretty crappy.  So last summer I spent a good deal of time writing, then trying to upload pictures, etc.  I don’t want to spend my camping time on the computer.  I want to swim, read books, play games, and relax.  But I’m now back to the blog, because Kevin requested it.  I’m going to try to type up the entries on a daily basis, but then wait until I get home to post.  We’ll see how that goes.  I do like the idea of having an ongoing journal of our camping adventures.  Sometimes life is exciting out here, sometimes boring, but these are without a doubt moments that I want to remember.  Life goes too fast, kids grow too quickly, so like it or not, here I go again.

Campfires

Another confession . . .I hate campfires.  The smell, the bother, helping little kids roast stuff.  What a pain!!  When Kev is here, being the pyro he is, he builds them, minds them and even does most of the roasting for the girls because he's such an expert.  But truth be told, he's NOT here most of the time.  Mostly it's just me, so I have to deal with it.  Luckily, we camp so much that the girls don't ask for one every night.  When we're up here for a week or more, we mostly reserve them for the weekend.  This trip, I told them that we'd have a fire 2 out of the 4 nights we were here.  We did have one on Friday and we were going to have one last night, but I lured them away from that idea with the promise of dinner in front of a movie, plus popcorn.  What kind of a mom am I?  Tempting my kids out of the fresh air and great outdoors, into a camper to sit and watch movies and eat.  I'll tell you what kind - smart! 

Oh, and want a tip on what NOT to buy in an effort make the whole experience a little less painful?  Giant Roasters Campfire Marshmallows, that's what.  Have you ever had them?  My kids have been begging for them, since they were introduced last season, but I've never brought them.  I broke down this time though because they were on sale for $1.99, so I thought we'd give them a try.  What a big freaking, disgusting mess they turned out to be!  They are just too dang big.  Too big for s'mores, and when you try to roast them they don't melt all the way through.  If you want to sit there and peel them off layer by layer, roasting as you go, they work, but that's really your only option.  And even then the kids end up a big sticky mess (way worse than usual) when it's all over.

Campfires are a pain.  Will I try to get out of them using movies and popcorn and candy and any other means I can think of?  You bet I will, and not feel a bit guilty in the process!

Brinks, Lils and New Friends

Caramel Apples

Made Caramel Apples today and wanted to share my favorite recipe (that I got from my sister Beth) with ya'll.  Mine turned out a little firmer than I like (caramel is so tempermental), but they're still yummy, and the girls had a great time decorating them.

Caramel Apples

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 c. light Karo syrup

1 stick butter

1.  Combine all ingredients.  Stir constantly over medium high heat until soft ball, about 240 degrees (in Utah, due to sea level, this is actually about 230 degrees).  Allow caramel to cool to 180 degrees.

2.  Dip apples that have been washed, dried and chilled.  Or dip pretzel rods.

Please, Don't Hate Me Because I'm With HIM

The new camp managers hate Kevin, and therefore, hate me by association.  Unbelievable.  We had a really nice friendship with the old camp managers.  Kevin would talk hunting with him.  I would talk kids, church, camping, movies, and on and on with her.  They are one of the reasons I loved this place so much, and losing them has been hard this summer.  And now, this.

July went fine.  We both tried to be very friendly, lots of smiles and hellos.  Inside, I was actually very resentful that they were here, but I know what side my bread is buttered on, so on the outside, I was very accepting and pleasant.  Then August and the hunting season arrived.  The 2nd weekend of the bowhunt, Kev comes up with a friend.  Check-in at the park ends at 9pm.  If you pull in after that, you're supposed to pull in somewhere by the office and stay until morning, when you can find a site.  They don't want you disturbing other campers by trying to hook-up and level out at midnight, or running over spigots after dark when you can't see anything, which makes total sense.  So Kev pulls in just before 10pm.  He's actually just in the suburban, and doesn't even want a camp site.  He just needs someplace to park until 4am, when they'll get up and head out hunting.  There's a big street light at the entrance of the park, so he decides to pull all the way to the back of the campground and park in a big open area back there.  He does this, they quietly roll out some sleeping bags in the back of the burb, then get up in the early morning and leave. 

Well, apparently, unbeknownst to them, someone out walking their dog sees them and gets freaked out.  Even now, I'm not sure why.  You're certainly allowed to drive your vehicle in and out of the park all night long if you'd like.  There aren't gates that lock.  They just don't want you pulling your camper in after hours.  So, this "incident" is reported to the new camp managers, who are new and over-zealous and on a power-high, and by the time Kev has pulled back in the next night, right before 9pm, they are fired up!  Gary, chases Kevin down and is ready for a confrontation.  "You really freaked my campers out last night, " he says, automatically on the attack.  Kevin doesn't get upset, thankfully, and they have somewhat of a conversation, where Gary also said, "You're not even a member here, are you son!?"  I'm not a customer service pro, but I'm pretty sure it's not politically correct to call your customers/clients/members "son" or "boy" or anything close.  So Kev has to flash his ID and credentials, which cools Gary down considerably, but the damage has already been done.  We have been blackballed.  And each visit since, there has been something.

"You can't park your car here, you'll have to move it.  You can't put the fire pit there, you'll have to move it.  You can't have a clothesline to hang wet bathing suits on, you'll have to take it down."  Just pick, pick, pick at things we've always done, or things that we see other people doing all the time.

So, it wasn't a surprise when he chased us down, upon our arrive last night because he had a problem with the spot we'd chosen.  "I have a bit of a mess back there behind your camper," he says, referring to the leaves.  "That's OK," I said.  "We don't mind, and we won't let the girls spread them around."  "I just can't figure out why you picked this spot," he said.

I honestly think that he thinks we picked it just to tick him off.  Really?  Maybe he'll develop amnesia over the winter, and by spring he won't remember us, and we'll get a fresh start.  One can only hope.  In the mean time, I think I'll take him a couple of homemade caramel apples in an attempt to sweeten him, and thaw his wife, the ice queen.

We're Back!!

We're back and I'm really happy about it.  I confess that I was really toying with the idea of not coming up this weekend.  I've been planning, since the beginning of time, to come up for my last camping hoo-rah of the season over UEA (Utah Educators Association - not sure what it is, but I'm happy for the 2 days we get out of school for it every year).  But last week was such a busy week for me, that I started thinking it would be too much.  Monday morning I was still thinking that I wouldn't come.  Then I asked the girls what they'd like to do and they said CAMP!  I'm raising them right, aint I?  Once I decided that I was coming, I started getting really excited.  And oh, aren't I glad to be here.  It is absolutely beautiful up here and the weekend is going to be perfect.  It dropped below freezing last night, but today dawned sunny and brilliant.  We're wearing sweatshirts right now, but I bet we'll just be in shirtsleeves by mid-afternoon.

I promised the girls that I would let them pick the camp site this time.  I know that they love #48, which is a nice little spot, but during the summer when it's busy, it can get a little crowded, with people all around us.  This weekend though won't be busy, so it seemed like a good time to park here.  As we backed in, they spied about 15 big leaf piles that had been raked up, but not picked up yet, and as you can imagine, that brought squeals of delight.  They spent the morning playing in the leaves (though not spreading them back out too much), establishing their clubhouses, making poo-stew, and most recently making a new friend, Victoria.  And me?  I'm about to bury myself in a good book.