Camping

Katie has been dying to go camping since the first of summer. We kept putting it off because John was too little. Then we were putting it off because he cries so much. It seemed there was always something. Finally, we picked a weekend and decided to give it a go. We decided to stay close in case of a disaster and we also had a "trial run" one night for family home evening. We headed up Millcreek Canyon to roast some marshmallows. Joey was really nervous about the fire and stuck pretty close to me the whole evening, but he was a serious smore fan. On the way home he kept talking about how much he loved the "outdoor fire dinnerhouse." We were so confused. Finally, we figured out he was referring to the campfire! That kid is such a crack up.

The "outdoor fire dinnerhouse"

So, the next weekend we headed off for our first camping adventure as a family of five. Todd and I were both a little apprehensive. We worried that no one would sleep including all those in the campground. Todd thought we should go to this campground up Little Cottonwood Canyon. He has checked to see if we needed reservations and it looked like you could reserve, but that there were some sites set aside for first come too. So, we figured at 11am on a Friday we'd miss the rush. Boy, were we wrong. Apparently, you have to reserve your spot in FEBRUARY!!! That's right, February. Lame! So, of course, Katie is bawling because we might not be able to camp now and John is crying like he normally does and Joey is chattering away about who knows what. We were a sight!

We decided since we were there we would at least go on a nice hike and then look for other options for camping. We hiked up to Catherine's Lake and did some fishing. Katie absolutely loves fishing. Joey remains terrified despite our best efforts. I did actually get him to hold a rod with a fish on for a few minutes. But, as soon as it got close to shore and started flopping around he was racing off screaming.

So, while Katie and dad were fishing I tried to calm John who was crying again and entertain Joe. Joe kept picking up sticks and swinging them around. And, being the peds nurse I am I kept taking them away from him to avoid eye injury's. Well, I wasn't quite fast enough with one. Katie caught a fish and it started flopping toward Joey and he panicked and took off running up the embankment, tripped on a critter hole and fell right onto the stick in his hand. Yep! He scratched his cornea. So, now we have Joe AND John screaming and we are a 2.5 mile hike back to the car and a 30 minute drive to the ER. This "camping" trip is turning out to be AWESOME!!! Once we were able to calm him down and really look at his eye we decided to just play it by ear. He didn't seem too bothered by it.

After we got back to the car we told Katie we would attempt to find a camping spot on Big Cottonwood, but it really didn't look good. So, now she is crying again. Todd and I are starting to feel like terrible parents at this point since we had gotten everyone so excited about camping and it wasn't going to work out now. Of course, there were no camping spots left there either. So we drove over Guardsman Pass and hoped for some random campground as we headed toward Heber. And, SCORE, a campground with one spot left. I've never seen a more happy little girl. She was absolutely elated. It seemed we had turned a corner. The rest of the trip went smoothly and everyone, but me, slept quite well. Camping trip was a success! Both Todd and I decided all in all it turned out much better than expected!

Joe's face says it all in these pictures. The kid really loves fish! (extreme sarcasm here)