Holiday Weekend

We have just finished off a fun and adventurous holiday weekend. Ryan found out last Thursday he would have a nice long holiday weekend off work, getting Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off for the Independence Day holiday. So, we decided to get out of town and try camping at our favorite place up in the Uintah mountains. The place we likes to go is way up in the mountains about five miles of dirt road off the main road. The last three miles is very rocky and in the past we have only dared drive down it in a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Since we got some good tires on the van last year, and it seems to have pretty good clearance, we decided to pack up our camping gear and give it a try. We made it down and back without any MAJOR mishap (though Ryan managed to knock off the passenger side mirror when he went exploring in the van).

We headed out Saturday morning and brought Ryan's brother Clayton along for the adventure. We made it into the camp area by about 1:00 and started hauling all our camping gear across the dam. Apparently we haven't been camping there so early in the season before because we don't remember there ever being quite so many mosquitoes! We were able to get camp set up by 3:00 and then had a couple hours to go explore and collect firewood before dinner. We kept dinner simple and roasted hot dogs on the fire, then marshmallows for dessert. It cooled off after the sun went down, but it wasn't bad at all. We all stayed warm enough overnight, including the baby, and slept comfortably (mostly).

The next day the boys and the kids did more exploring and hiked down in the ravine to see the waterfalls and pools. I stayed at camp with Adalyn and Austyn where we read stories then prepared some chicken and potatoes to cook in the coals for dinner. Everyone made it back for lunch and then most of us rested for awhile. We did have the occasional clouds roll over with a few sprinkles and a little thunder, but nothing major. After dinner we had a little FHE/Church meeting in the tent where we sang songs and read stories from the Friend magazine.

Monday morning Ryan took Austyn and Alexia on a little hike to play in the waterfall, they were so excited to come back and tell me how they got to play in the water in their underwear. Andrew and Clayton went hiking/exploring after breakfast and didn't have any problems until they were on their way back. Andrew somehow managed to loose his footing in the rocky ravine and fell about 15-20 feet down onto a flat rock on his back. He luckily didn't hit his head and suffered only scrapes and bruises and was able to walk back to camp, though he seemed to be suffering from some shock when he arrived. After giving him a little ibuprofen I cleaned and dressed his wounds and he was feeling much better. It was kind of funny that Andrew's biggest worry was that Clayton would get in trouble because he had fallen. He is also a little concerned that he won't be able to play football this year.

We packed up camp and almost had the van totally loaded up when the rain really started coming down. The boys got pretty wet taking the tent down and bringing the last few things across the dam to the van. At least the kids were dry and didn't have much to complain about on the way home. We did have one tire that was low by the time we got back to the main road, but we were able to fill it up in town before we headed the rest of the way down the mountain. We made it back into the valley by 7:00 Monday evening, in time for everyone to get bathed before bed.

Tuesday we found out that Magna's Independence Day parade would be taking a different route this year and would go right by our street. Since it was so close, I walked with the kids down to a shady spot along the parade route where we enjoyed the parade and the kids filled their pockets with candy that was thrown to them. Later in the day I took the kids down to Orem to Mary & Frank's house for a barbecue. We enjoyed eating and playing over there for a couple of hours before we headed home to watch the fireworks. Since there is a fireworks show at the park just a mile from our house, we are able to walk just down the block and watch the show from the church lawn. Ryan & the baby joined us for the fireworks, then we all went home and got to bed, ready to start the work week. It was definitely a fun weekend!!