Last weekend my family went camping for the first time in over 6 years. The last two times we camped were disasters, which led to the 6 year break. One of them involved a tent with a broken zipper and a snake visiting our sleeping baby. The other involved a monsoon, I mean rain storm, that led to me sleeping in the car with the little girls, I mean spending the night in the car, wide awake listening to the pounding rain and desperate for morning to come so we could go home. Good times.
I told Judd I was never going camping again without something more comfy to lay on and a proper tent that zips and doesn't leak at the first drop of rain.
Time passed.
We had more kids and never got a new tent, thus making our "4" man tent completely inadequate. So, for Christmas this year we got a new 8 man tent and bought 5 more sleeping bags and a car top waterproof bag.
We were ready.
We christened all of these items at the Currant Creek Campground, about 60 miles away from Heber, Utah.
The campers:
My brother Michael, visiting from Omaha with his wife Colina and their six kids.
My sister Rachael with her husband Dave and their six kids, plus two Chinese foreign exchange students and our cousin Thomas, visiting from California.
Myself and my husband with our six kids.
My brother Jacob and his wife Carolyn( came Friday to Saturday)
We got a later than planned start on Thursday, due to my brother going to the store to pick up a tarp and some black trash bags for rain ponchos. I wouldn't have brought any, which would have been a very bad plan.
We finally got on the road, stopping for free slurpees for 7-11 day, and noticed our check engine light turned on as we pulled out of 7-Eleven. Wanting to be careful, we drove to the car shop and had them pull the code- an O2 sensor needed to be replaced, but they said we could go ahead and make the trip.
We were off!
At 5:30 we arrived at camp and it started to rain. We quickly set up our tents, and let me tell you I was glad I bought an Instant tent that literally can go up in 1 minute, and then went to start a fire in the drizzle. My mom had given us some firewood and we sent the kids to gather more since we didn't know when Rachael would come with more wood. She was planning to arrive at 6.
Luckily, the rain stopped.
We built two fires to have enough room for a gazillion foil dinners. We cooked our dinners. And as strange as it sounds, we then wanted to eat our dinners.
Rachael was bringing the forks. It was 8 p.m. and she hadn't gotten there yet.
Luckily I had 8 utensil packs from Dickey's so we each got to use either a fork or knife
Rachael pulled in around 9 p.m.. She was also bringing the ingredients for dutch oven desserts. We opted to do smores instead since it was so late. The Chinese girls were fascinated by this strange American custom.
Injuries on day one:
One skinned knee- Emmeline
One majorly skinned face- Audrey
Moral: When Mommy tells you not to run at camp. . . . don't run at camp.
DAY TWO:
We all awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of more rain. I was pleased that our tent wasn't leaking and that it held through several hours of rain. Around 7 a.m. things petered off enough to go outside for cereal and yogurt. As we were finishing, the skies decided we all needed a bath.
We scattered to cars and tents. Around 9 am it let up enough for us to organize and go to different tents for games. Around 10 o'clock as I sat in my tent with Rachael, Judd, Tim, and Emmeline, it started to rain inside our tent. I said it was time to give up camping and go home. Rachael said to wait. The other tents were a lot wetter than ours and I was NOT going to sleep wet. Luckily, the rain stopped. At 11 we emerged and built 2 fires to cook our spaghetti and dutch oven desserts. Because of all the rain, it took a lot of effort, fanning, and prayer to get those fires going. No gasoline was involved, but only because we didn't bring any. And besides, girl scouts don't need gasoline to make a fire out of soaking wet wood. Cause, we're special like that.
After lunch, we took a hike in search of the gold mines that our camp host told us were somewhere nearby. We did not find the gold mines. We sent most of the people back and 6 of us continued on.
We did not find the gold mines. We did see a baby eagle that fell out of the nest.
The weather stayed dry until dinner time when it sprinkled some more and then was pretty nice the rest of the day.
Injuries: Michael- touched stinging nettle to his tongue. It does look a little like mint.
Casualties: Two broken Coleman lanterns.
DAY THREE:
We awoke to the sound of more rain. Oh goody! Fortunately it didn't leak and it did stop in time to get up and make pancakes. Lots of pancakes. It sprinkled while we cooked, but everything was fine.
After eating we played games and took another hike. The view was amazing and even Emmeline walked almost the entire mile, half of it going uphill. She got carried the last few hundred yards.
We came back and made our pyro fire, using up all the wood we had collected. It was so hot, people couldn't get close enough to cook their hot dogs. I held my cooker with my foot on the ground and leaned back.
Following lunch we played more games, cooked more smores, and sustained more injuries. Around 5:30 the weather started to turn again. Everybody packed up camp as fast as possible and got in their cars. A few brave and selfless souls stayed outside and made sandwiches and cut up apples for dinners on the go. The skies again decided to cleanse us and we got completely sopped while we spread peanut butter and jam. So, the boys decided to have a water fight. Why not?
INJURIES:
Wasp sting- Kyra
Burned fingers- Colina
skinned knee- Thomas
The camp host told us that Heber was only 31 miles away if we took a different road that had beautiful wildflowers . The crowd all agreed to continue the adventure and caravan out. The flowers were gorgeous and the view was serene. We all stopped like a collective Borg mind when we saw a snowy hillside. Doors opened and people swarmed out and up the hill for an impromptu snowball fight. How could we resist? It was AWESOME!
And when Asher, 15, kind of skied on his shoes down the snow, I thought that looked like a really fun way to get down. So, I did it too.
I got faster.
And faster.
And I couldn't stop.
The snow ended and I was on the muddy flower covered hill and I couldn't stop.
So, I ran. I hoped I could slow down and gain control.
I couldn't.
I lost control.
The next thing I knew I was lying flat on my back upside down on the hill.
Apparently I did some cartwheels and flipping, but my brain has blocked that thrill ride from my memory.
Apparently, I looked dead or paralyzed since I wasn't moving, compelling my brother and husband to run to me, one from the top of the hill, and one from the car.
I was just shocked and assessing my injuries. Luckily, I'm fine. I'm just scraped, bruised, and sore.
Summary:
We had a lot of injuries. We got rained on a lot. We had to lock all the food up in case of bears. There were 3, 254,897 flies buzzing around our bodies, biting us, and one even nestling in my, well, in a certain part of my shirt. Dave was not eaten by the bats that lived in the bathroom. Jacob and Carolyn did not sleep on cots under the stars. There were a lot of cows. I blame them for the flies. The massive ants only desired to eat my flesh, leaving everyone else alone. Foil dinners taste really good at 8 p.m. I enjoyed being able to tell Judd that he had a burr on his bum. There were a lot of stickers. We saw a potgut. We saw a chipmunk. We saw a hawk. We saw a baby eagle. We did not see a bear. We did see a lot of quaking aspens, yarrow, lavendar, daisies, flies, ants, dirt, rain, and sunburned faces and shoulders. We did have a snowball fight in July.
The kids bonded. Ages and genders blended together and fought against the elements, solved problems, and emerged victorious.
It was worth it!
We can't wait to do it again next year!
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