Camping Trip (with Mom!!!)

Over the weekend Braeden, Griffin and I (mom) went camping in the Mirror lake area. Given my history with camping many of your jaws will most likely have hit the floor. I just want to say "I made it!!!!" I survived a night of camping by myself in a tent with my two oldest boys. The bears didn't eat us, the cows stayed away and the cold (it was very cold) didn't keep the boys from sleeping. It looked like we were going to have to leave first thing in the morning but I was able to unwind from a night of very little sleep (I woke up to every little noise and my panic slowly tried to creep in) and make through to a very enjoyable and memorable day.



As you can see the boys were all smiles. They were a little cold after I dragged them out of their sleeping bags at 5:30 in the morning (I couldn't lie there in the dark anymore so we went for a drive in the nice warm car and looked for the sun) but once they had some hot cocoa and pancakes in the trailer with Grandma and Grandpa they were fine.


They spent a little bit of time in the morning around the fire, but unlike most camping trips the bulk of the morning was spent in the trailer warming up. Once the sun came up over the mountain things warmed up nice and quick and coats, gloves and hats were quickly disgarded.


Much like their father they can't resits fire. Check out Griffin's smile as he realizes that the end of his stick was on fire. Little pyro's.

Grandpa built a little boat out of wood, tree sap and a paper towel. We set it sail on the lower provo river and enjoyed chasing it downstream for awhile. At first it got stuck on every rock it passed but after a few good rescues, we found a deeper part of the river where the current picked up and the little boat took off. We even lost it after it passed under a bridge of fallen trees we had to walk around but Braeden came up with a scientific experiment to "estimate" where it went and actually found it. It was funny cause we had all been looking and looking at this one area where we just couldn't see how it could have gone past with out getting stuck but no one could see it anywhere. Braeden let a stick go and watched the path it took then found the base to the boat stuck on the rocks. The mast was missing and we found the paper towel sail on the side of the river but we did manage to recover the boat which made our cousin Josh very happy (he hadn't wanted to let it go).

For lunch we headed to mirror lake and enjoyed some delicious food and more family fun. Above Griffin is being a bug and crawling over the fallen log replica they have on the side of the lake. See the trip was educational as well as fun.

Like I said it got cold at night. The night before we arrived it rained in our campground but up the road at mirror lake it snowed. The snow was still in all the shady spots and the boys had some fun stomping through it.

Griffin smiling at mirror lake, waiting for his turn in the water with Grandpa.


Braeden got to paddle the Kiak because Grandpa's arms couldn't fit around both of them without hitting Braeden in the face.

Griffin got to go way out into the lake with Grandpa. He loved it, despite the wind picking up just as they went out. We sure had a fun time and can't wait to try it again sometime it is warmer. We plan to head up that way again soon for a drive to see the fall colors. The hillsides were already starting to change and from the look of it the colors are going to be beautiful.

And yes, Kevin survived his time at home with Finely as well. They had some good bonding time and Finley wasn't even that clingly when I got home.