Our Camping Trip

Finally, the day of our long-awaited camping trip arrived! The boys have been looking forward to this since the last time we went camping...7 months ago! They play "camping" all the time and had been talking about this weekend for ages. To make it even better, we arranged to go with some of our dearest friends from our BYU days. We get together with Bennetts and Virgins a few times a year and it's always such a blast. The weather was gorgeous- and so was the campground- it was the recipe for an amazing weekend!

We have yet to actually buy a tent, but we borrowed one from our generous neighbors. Whenever we talked about going back to our tent, Hudson would always remind us that it was, in fact, "JESSE'S tent." The kids were giddy as we set it up and anxious to play in it!

 We got to camp at 4:00 on Friday afternoon and had the rest of the evening to enjoy! We had a fire, ate dinner all together, the kids played and played and got super filthy, Ben made dutch oven cobbler for everyone, we passed out a bunch of glowsticks (hours of entertainment right there) and eventually we all headed to bed. Our boys were completely giddy to be sleeping in the tent. They snuggled right in and fell right asleep!

Then around 2 am Hudson woke up, out of his sleeping bag and cold. And screaming. I quickly pulled him into mine with me and he fell right back to sleep. I didn't get as much sleep the rest of the night, but Hudson slept great! We eventually put him in between me and Ben and that worked out pretty well. When we all woke up around 6:30 in the morning, Hudson had a huge smile and said, "It's morning time everyone!"

Ben cooked us all a delicious breakfast in the dutch oven, the kids played around our campsite a little and then we headed off for the first hike of the day: Donut Falls. It was a great, child-friendly hike that was absolutely gorgeous! I love being up there in the mountains- I think I had a perma-smile on my face the whole time. To be hiking, with my family and such wonderful friends, chatting and laughing was amazing. There is one spot in the hike that involves climbing down a steep and slippery rock face. We formed a line and handed kid after kid down, like a bucket brigade. I couldn't help but think what a great group of kids this was and how much I love all of them!

Brooklynn, Ryder, Hudson, Chase and Kynlee. Ella was a asleep, and I'm not sure where Drew was. These little friends are so darling! This little group below, along with Brooklynn, made sure they were the trailblazers on our hike. We had to keep reminding them not to run and get too far in front of us. They had so much energy! Hudson, who was the littlest hiker (Ella and Drew were backpacked/carried) was pretty slow going- but HE DID IT! We keep pushing Hudson to do stuff like this and he's getting better every time! He firmly held a cookie in his hand the whole hike, insisting he would eat it when we got to the falls.

You can barely see the falls up behind us. Unfortunately, the water was really high and there wasn't a feasible way for us to cross the river and get closer with so many little guys in tow. The view from here was fine though. Also, Hudson did not want a picture taken and pretty much refused to look at the camera. We had to trick him to tell him we were "done" to get this one.

We headed back to the campsite for lunch and naps for the little ones. The older kids played and played in the little stream that ran right through Bennett's campsite, while the grown-ups got to sit in the shade nearby and relax and talk. Hudson, of course, was the first kid to fall all the way in the stream, head first. It was only a few inches deep, so he wasn't in any danger. But it did hurt and the water was freezing. I stripped his wet clothes off him while he was crying, and then he just started screaming "HUDSON IS NAKED!" over and over. That's when we knew it was definitely time for a little nap for Hudson.

After the kids rested we headed out for hike #2- Silver Lake. I had heard this place was gorgeous, and really the pictures do not do it justice. It was breathtaking.

At one point, Ryder, Chase and Brooklynn climbed up this rock face. They were super proud of themselves. Chase kept telling me how great it was that "there is a rock climbing wall that is safe for children to climb."

After another yummy dinner, s'mores around the campfire, and cleaning up our camp it was time to head back home! We all decided that this was the perfect amount of camping for us right now. We came home exhausted, filthy, and super happy! I am so glad we made this trip happen, I think it might need to be an annual tradition.