First Family Camping Trip

Back in June I started thinking about how much Marie (mother-in-law) is ALWAYS coming down to Utah to visit with us and we hardly ever go up there. This year things are a little complicated with taking time off, but I remembered Larry and I both had Labor Day off so maybe we could go visit her then? I text her about it, but she mentioned they already had plans to go camping that weekend. I told her that was a bummer, but we'd figure something out another time. Then she text me saying we could always just come camping with them. I asked Larry, but he was VERY iffy about it (he wasn't sure Pierce was ready and we didn't really have a tent or anything that would fit all of us). Eventually I remembered my Mom had this big tent we used to use growing up that should fit all of us (and she has a nice camper now so I doubt she needs the tent) so I mentioned it to her around Lucy's birthday and she said we could totally have it. Marie mentioned she even had a bunch of sleeping bags that she didn't use and we could have. Mom even gave us some blow up mattresses as well (I LOVE hand me downs!). The only thing we really needed to get was more camping chairs (we only had 2 and I knew the kids would fight over them), but that's not too bad. With that, Larry was convinced...enough that he couldn't really fight it at least, haha.

Our car all filled up!

So now Labor Day weekend was upon us. We drove up Saturday, right before lunch, we decided to stop at a Cafe Rio on the way up to make it easier, and ended up getting to the site before her (around 3 ish). We were able to get our stuff unpacked and mostly set up as they were getting their RV parked. The bathrooms, unfortunately, were REALLY gross. I guess I've been spoiled with KOAs where they have bathrooms with showers...that was not this (the toilets were basically glorified holes in the ground)! BUT we were in the middle of a forest and it was just so peaceful, since we had an RV bathroom with us I was okay with it. There was even a really awesome overlook nearby that we could walk to and see out over the canyon/Pocatello city in the distance. It was really just so nice. That night, we made burgers for dinner with some yummy sides and then had s'mores for a dessert. I'm so glad Marie brought so much food (we packed what we could, but with only a cooler it really limited what we could bring), we mostly provided buns and some fruit (plus snacks we knew the kids would eat if they wouldn't eat anything else). Larry absolutely loved building the fire and showing the kids what to do. There was even a point where it started to die down and Larry breathed on it a bit and it roared back to life, we joked he could breath fire like a dragon!

The kids loved playing the games Grandma brought

Before this trip, we decided we should grab some glow sticks for the kids to use as night lights. We had a new Wal Mart open up near us so we went to check that out and found these fun handles with glowing fiber optic strings coming out, which I thought would be more fun than just regular glow sticks. Unfortunately, it turns out they have a button you have to hold down to keep on OR you can switch it to always on, but then it just strobes! NOT ideal for trying to sleep, so they were shut off. The kids kind of freaked out with the darkness. The tent was set up with Lucy and Pierce in one room/area together, Larry and I in the middle/entry area next to them, and Gwen and Cara at our feet, in their own room/area. Pierce didn't like being where he was, so Cara offered to go sleep with him (so freaking sweet!) and Lucy wanted to hold my hand while she fell asleep (which might have been my favorite part). Gwen got nervous being alone in her area so she kind of reached out to touch Larry's foot, haha. The kids took so long to get to sleep Larry almost dragged them out around 11 to go see stars, but I'd say around 10:30 they were all quiet enough. Then we ended up having to get up a bunch throughout the night to help Gwen find her lovey and found out the forest has cows that love to moo - a lot! There were a bunch of them all around us starting up around 2 AM (and apparently throughout the night, but I didn't hear them). 

I was worried about not having our white noise (fans) from home to help us sleep (plus I forgot to grab my eye mask, which I usually NEED in order to sleep), but luckily there were LOTS of crickets around us that helped me relax and I ended up getting a decent amount of sleep. Not fantastic (and definitely not the best sleep I've had), but I imagined it to be way worse. Once that first morning started, though, I thought I heard someone awake (outside the tents) so I decided to get up and see who it was, but then it turned out one of the trees was kind of raining down pine cones (which was probably really a squirrel knocking them down, but I didn't see anything...it was a really tall tree). No one else was up so I just sort of soaked up the quiet. I realized later I should've grabbed my book so I made a mental note to do that the next morning. Eventually, everyone got up and we had breakfast (we forgot our cream cheese for a bagels, so we had to have them dry, but Marie also had some really yummy muffins and made hot chocolate and cider for us). After that we got ready and the kids played some outdoor games that Marie brought (she brought so many and I'm so glad, the kids really entertained themselves a lot with those). 

We went out for a nature hike before lunch time. The trail started at a campground across the way, which had another really cool lookout. The hike was pretty easy and I think the kids really liked finding the signs that named some of the wild plants (their favorite was snowberries, which looked like yogurt covered raisins, haha). We spent some time there and at this little creek, which we called the island because you had to cross the creek to get to this other, small forest-y area. The kids really liked playing there. When we got back to the camp site we played a lot of card games (Apples to Apples Jr and Uno). I ended up getting a bit of a headache so I decided to take a small nap. Larry also rested here and there, so we'd kind of switched off. The kids were so good at entertaining themselves I was able to read a lot of my book (which was really nice). Larry had also taken the kids out to show them how to cut off fire wood from some of the fallen trees (which they loved!). We had been collecting wood all throughout the day so that we'd have enough for our fire that night, I think that was one of our smarter plans. Marie even had some fun craft kits she did with the kids, too. It was just so nice and peaceful and perfect for slowing us down and just enjoying the moment.

That night we roasted hot dogs on the fire for dinner and had more s'mores (Marie doesn't like graham crackers so she brought some fudge cookies for us to use). We decided to keep the kids up late to see the stars this time, but they were so very ready for bed (we originally wanted to keep them up till 11, but by 10:30 they were ready to crash so we went to the overlook area at that point). The stars were cool, but the moon was about half sized so we didn't see a ton (but still quite a bit). It was fun to share that experience with them. We decided to sleep with our flash light on at night that night (on, but on the ground, not pointed at anyone, so it wouldn't keep anyone awake) and they ended up falling right to sleep (however, Lucy still wanted to hold my hand. She said it made her feel brave). This night was okay for sleep, again. Not the greatest, but could've been worse.

Tried to capture the sunset here

This morning Larry got up and I decided I needed just a bit more sleep, so I waited until the last of the kids were up. It was kind of nice, honestly. There really wasn't a rush to get out of bed anyways, so it was nice to take our time. We ate a quick breakfast, got ready for the day, got everything packed up, and headed out. Marie wanted to hit up this nature trail that was nearby (I guess they camp here a lot so it's kind of tradition to do this walk each time they stay here). It was a nice 1/2 mile loop with some fun trails off the main path. Some had secret garden areas or hidden HUGE trees that were so cool.

The creek and "island" area

When we were done with that, we got some pics, and then said our good byes. We were lucky we were able to drive home without stopping (and I finished my book!). We got unloaded and went grocery shopping (I made the list before we left) and I even got all our laundry done (though I also did half of it before we left too, to make it easier).

I'm also so glad the tent mom lent us worked out (it's a very old tent and they hadn't used it in MANY years...like 2009, probably, so we weren't sure the condition). Parts of it are "broken", but the overall integrity of the tent is just fine. Though Larry says he'd like to get a new one for any future trips. The sleeping bags were also great. Marie had a couple brand new ones that had never been used and some older ones. The older ones don't really zip together, but they are heavier duty so they were warm and comfortable (at least for me) so I think we'll be okay with those for now.

I'm very glad we were able to do this trip. It went so much better than I expected. It was really nice to spend time with Marie and Jim, we joked a lot, played a lot, and just had a lot of fun together. I'm definitely looking forward to more camping trips in the future (I'm thinking Yellowstone and Moab next year!), but I definitely have to make sure we pick places with better bathrooms, we couldn't shower this whole trip so we were pretty dirty and, well I can't speak for the rest, but I was DESPERATE for a shower when we got back!