Camping!!

Thursday night we prepared ourselves to go camping with our good friends, Ryan and Natalie Jones. I spent a good chunk of Thursday carefully preparing and packing, making lists and checking them thrice. We left my house 2 hours later than I wanted to, 9:00pm. We exited in Springville to head up the canyon and I casually said to Sam: Did you grab the sleeping bags? Sam quickly replied: No, I did not.

An hour later, Curtis and Shandy hooked us up with sleeping bags and I think we gave Curtis a big laugh. I felt kinda dumb until he admitted that he and Shandy went camping one time and forgot sleeping bags AND their tent. Phew, I guess it runs in the family....wait, that isn't a good thing....crap.

After our stressful Thursday night, the rest of the weekend was so much fun. Lucky for you (I hope) I had my camera handy!

Why can't Carson just eat pudding and not get it all over his face? Well, it goes back to those genetics...I remember Curtis eating a chocolate ice cream cone and getting ice cream all over his forehead and the backs of his ears! At least we know what Carson will look like with a goatee!


This would have been precious, but then Parker had to shove his finger to his nose...


Ryan and Natalie's daughter is Ivy. Here she is with Parker. Parker is going to hate my guts (and I won't blame him) when he is a teenager and sees this picture.


Recipe for getting a toddler to take a nap while camping: Stay up really late, run around in the hot sun, play in the creek for a few hours, lay in hammock with a wet shirt over face. SUCCESS


Of course, Phase 10 is a great game to play while camping. Sam has reason to look upset here. That is a crappy hand...where are the other 4 cards Sam-I-Am?


Here is a cute picture of Carson and I. Well, "cute" is relative. I stink and I have a sweaty face and Carson has apparently been eating dirt. I felt so bad, Carson has Hay Fever, a recent discovery, and his allergies were awful the whole weekend. You know those cute little cotton pieces that float around in the Spring? Those are evil specs that cause Carson to have swollen itchy eyes and a stuffy nose that makes it impossible to breathe normal. Benadryl didn't help either so if anybody has a suggestion I'm all ears!


One morning a really pretty black and white butterfly flew into our camp. Carson casually sat next to it and pretty soon he had charmed the butterfly onto his hand. Of course, he breathlessly said "This is the best day of my life!!" I called him the Butterfly Whisperer the rest of the day.




Since we weren't very high in the mountains, we got hot. In the valley the temps were in the upper 90's. EVERYBODY should know by now that I hate being hot. I was starting to feel the crankiness monitor rising when somebody suggested we go check out the creek that ran next to our campground. It proved to be a winning suggestion! We brought our camping chairs into the creek and hung out here during the hottest part of both days. Brilliant!! The first picture is hysterical because Sam snapped the picture right as Parker fell off a rock and soaked himself!




Parker spent most of his time finding rocks underwater, then throwing them back into the creek and making big splashes. He literally did this for a couple hours!


Whose legs are these?


Here is Parker waking up on Sunday morning. Isn't he a cutie? He loved sleeping in the tent! I think he felt pretty grown up. Sam slept in there as well, he has already put his sleeping bag away by the time this picture was taken. I felt the need to explain that because I knew somebody was going to think I let my 2 year old sleep by himself...although the thought did cross my mind....


So that was camping. It was so much fun, I want to do it again soon with a larger group of people from my neighborhood. I would also like to find a campground that is higher up in the Uintas because, again, this place was a little warm!

Today was also Father's Day. Happy Father's day ya'll! We had the yummiest dinner at my parents house...Filet Mignon! My dad was a tiny bit bitter because he had to grill his own Father's Day dinner. Trust me dad, you'd hate for me to try it and ruin your nice meat!



Sam got some stylin' shirts and some sweet "thongs" as my dad calls them, even though we keep reminding him that the kids these days call them "flip flops".



Well, now you've had your 20 minutes of reading for the day, Laura Bush is proud of you. I'm so tired and I'm going to sleep good in my own bed tonight! Don't let the bed bugs bite.......................