An Adventure with Water

Well, we had quite the adventure with this last camping trip.  We packed up and got settled in our camping spot after a quick game of "musical campsites" with the campground hosts.  When we got to the site they gave us, someone was parked there, but we couldn't find anyone in the area, so they gave us another site, but someone was there picnicking.  They gave us another site and as we were parking, the car that was in the first site pulled out, so we moved back to the original site.  Phew! It was worth the hassle, though, as site 16 in Tanner's Flat is really nice. 

We were going to go to a water cleanup project in the canyon but I just couldn't drag us away from the relaxation going on, so I cancelled the plans and we did our own little version of water cleanup in the water next to our campsite. 

 My brother Dan came up after he got off of work on Sunday night.  We had dinner, explored the area and played some games. We got the fire started and roasted marshmallows and played MadLibs.  It isn't a camping trip without playing MadLibs! 

Monday morning we went on a hike to "Cecret Lake".  The original owner of the land used the "c" instead of the "s" for secret and it stayed that way.  It isn't much of a secret anymore, though.  The parking lot was packed!

I need to back up to explain what happened before we started the hike.  Paul fell in the water up to his waist first thing in the morning, so he put on his spare shoes to go on the hike.  He went down to the water to tell everyone that it was time to leave for the hike and he fell in the water again, soaking his second pair of shoes.  He was really upset and wanted to stay behind while we went on the hike.  I told him that I couldn't let him stay here by himself so I would stay here and Dan would take Mark and Seth on a hike.  He didn't like that option, so he decided to wear his flip-flops on the hike.  By the time we got up to the trailhead (about 15 minutes up the canyon from our camp) he was in good spirits and ready to tackle the hike.   

 The water levels are so low- it is really quite sad.  The lake is really low but it allowed for more places to explore.  The boys found some salamanders and had fun following them around. 

Paul stepped into some mud and when he pulled his foot out, his flip-flop broke.  The part that goes between your toes popped out.  He was able to put it back in, but it came out every few minutes. 

Me and Dan

 After we played around the lake for a while, we headed back down the trail.  Paul was really frustrated with his shoes, but he didn't complain about it.  I felt awful that I couldn't do anything to help him.  We tried using some long grass to hold the plug in, but it didn't work.   About 5 minutes down the trail the two plugs on the side of his flip-flop came out.  The poor guy just couldn't catch a break! He'd have to stop every minute or two to fix one of the three plugs- and at times he had to put all three back in!  He finally decided to go at it barefoot.

It was at this point of the hike that things got interesting.  The weather had been cloudy and overcast but suddenly the clouds combined and we had lightning and thunder.  The thunder was so deep and loud that I could feel it shake me.  The rain came down in a hurry.  The raindrops were big and super cold.  One landed on my shoulder and it had little splashes of ice.  We were about 10 minutes away from the car, so we ran as fast as Paul was comfortable with and made it to the car rather wet.  I gave Paul my hat to wear, so I was soaked.  My hair was super wet and I was cold. 



 We made it back to our camp and set our things out to dry.  Dan left to go home a bit after we got back.  My hair and clothes had just dried off when I realized that the storm had followed us and we were in for another rainstorm.  I put all of the things away that were out to dry, put the firewood in the van, lowered the shade tent over the table to keep some of our things dry and we went into our tents to wait out the storm.  The rain came down fast and hard like it did earlier.  Seth and I played UNO and read books.  About 45 minutes into the storm, Mark came into our tent.  (Mark and Paul have their own pup tents and Seth and I share a larger tent) I asked him if his tent was dry and he said that he had a small leak in the corner, kind of like the leak in my tent.  What?  I have a leak?  Yep I sure did!  The tent had leaked all around the perimeter- anywhere there was a seam on the bottom, I could see little drops of water dripping out.  I had already moved everything to the center of the tent so that we wouldn't touch anything, so nothing got wet, but I had quite a few puddles to mop up. 

That was when I first considered going home.  I thought we'd just put most of our things in the van, go home and then come back up in the morning to take the tents down.  I was wet, I was cold and my happy camper mojo was gone.  It was 6 pm and the temperature was down to 60 degrees.  It was only going to get colder and I don't do well in the cold, especially if I start out wet.  I went to the van to get a few more umbrellas.  I sat in there and I started to cry.  I just didn't know if I could pull off a cold, wet night and function the next day.  I felt alone and so worried about my kids and our situation.  Mark came into the van and we talked.  I mentioned that I was thinking about going home.  He wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he was supportive.  The determining factor for me was how wet my tent was- if it was still leaking.  We decided to check out the tent and make a decision to stay or go.  We had to decide soon, as it was starting to get dark and I didn't want to pack up in the dark. 

When we got to the tent we discovered that the center of the tent had leaked all over my bedding.  Decision made- we are going home.  I didn't want to come back up the next day, so we packed up the tents while wet and threw everything in the van.  The boys were real troopers- they helped and we took down the 4 tents, and got everything in the van in about 30 minutes.  The rain had eased so that made packing up easier.  Mark was sweet and held an umbrella over me while I wrestled the tent into the bag. I was already wet, so the rain wasn't really bothering me, but it was a nice reprieve from the rain. 

As we were getting ready to get in the van, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  If my tent hadn't been leaking, we totally would have stayed and waited out that last 30 minutes of the storm and enjoyed the rest of our stay.  Everything was quite muddy, though.  We had big puddles of water everywhere. 

Since the weather had cleared a bit, we went down to the river to see how it had changed with the rainstorm.  It was fun to see how the water had raised a bit- places that were dry now had puddles and some of the logs had moved.  We paused for a group picture and got ready to go.  Paul's shoes were somewhat dry, but I had to tease him and tell him to be careful to not fall in the water.  He said "I've had enough with the water today!". 

My sweet boys

 

How sad are you to be leaving?  Check out the puddles behind them! 

We stopped off at Wendy's for an ice cream on the way home.  This is where we ate dinner the last time we went camping at this campground and had disaster strike (remember this?).  Mark thinks that we should avoid this campground in the future.  I'm not so sure that it is the campground's fault!  It is a beautiful area and we are creating MANY memories there! 

Tuesday morning we pulled all of the camping gear out of the garage and set it up outside to dry.  I had to hose things down because they were really muddy.  I bought some seam sealer for the tent, so once I need to apply that to the tent before our next outing. 

We went over to the middle school so that Paul could find his locker and his classes.  He was overwhelmed, but did a great job finding things.  He didn't want me with him as he explored the school- he said "you won't be here with my on my first day, so I need to find things by myself". True, but ouch.  Jane came with us. She had her backpack with a lunch box and she was excited to go to school! 

Mark got glasses last week.  He sure looks grown up with them on!   

 Wednesday we went on a hike.  We were going to go on Tuesday, but we were all so tired, that we postponed it.  Seth didn't want to come (he had been sick on Tuesday), so it was me, Mark, Paul and Ryan Turley (one of Mark's friends). 

I don't like that the water level is so low- it really worries me.  The one good thing about the low water level is that some hikes are accessible that aren't when the water level is high.  We went on this hike a few weeks ago with Dan and Jane.  Since we didn't have Jane with us we were able to explore a bit higher to a waterfall.  I know that we may not be able to do this hike next year if we get a good snowpack, so we plan on going back on this hike a few more times before it snows.  This trailhead is 30 minutes away from our house. 

Where's Pauldo?  He was wearing camo!

Ryan and Mark

They found a slide!  It really was smooth and they slid down!

I know that this last camping trip was a bit of a disappointment.  I'm glad that we were able to be safe and do what we needed to do.  The laundry is finally done, the gear is stowed away, and I'm already trying to figure out when we will go again.  Being in the mountains is my favorite place to be.

As part of Paul's birthday presents, he got some canvases.  He created this painting yesterday while I took Mark to piano lessons.  I really like it.  He named it "Light and Dark".

Paul is experiencing his first day of middle school today.  I really hope that he has a good time.  Mark and Paul are in the same math class this year, so that should be interesting! 

Busy Days

Last weekend was rather busy.  Daniel and his brothers got together for a weekend golf tournament, so I watched Sam's kids on Friday and Saturday.  Between my 3 boys, Sam's 3 boys and friends, we had ten boys over here all weekend.  Jane and I were rather outnumbered, but we held our own! 

Here is a small glimpse of what we did to keep busy:

I woke up early to be at a Hot Air Balloon Festival on Friday morning at 6:30 am.  I went with Madeleine.  It was a rather slow, yet entertaining morning.  Madeleine was the perfect company for this event.  I was amazed at how big the balloons are.  We quickly decided that it was an expensive hobby, so we are glad that our husbands are not involved in this. 

My favorite balloon- I want to make a quilt inspired by this.

After the balloon festival, the guys left for the golf trip.  We spent some time outside playing on the cage ball and trampoline. 

These two couldn't get enough of playing in the sand box.

 We pulled out the slide and hose and the kids had a blast playing with the water slide.  We even had three girls come over here for a while to play with Jane!

Sunday was Paul's 12th birthday

 It is a family tradition to get a dozen presents on your 12th birthday.  They get one main gift and 11 smaller gifts like a bag of their favorite chips, some frozen waffles (wrapped and put in the freezer), a card game, candy, art supplies, etc.

Paul with his loot!

Happy birthday Paul! 

 He had a birthday party on Tuesday.  They played Dungeons and Dragons with Daniel as the Dungeon Master.  It was a lively group and it was a lot of fun. 

Back row: RyAnn, Alys, Mark, Cody, Taylor.  Front row: Mieren, Paul, Tanner, Josh

When I suggested that they strangle the person next to them, they acted fast! 

The gift from Mieren and Alys came with a warning:

 It was a rather serious warning, too.  These double blades are really sharp.  Crazy sharp.  So sharp that when Paul put them back in their case, it cut the fabric on the bottom of the case.  I'm thinking that his Uncle Ben was using his "every boy wants one of these, but no one will buy it for them" type of logic when authorizing this purchase.  Since Uncle Ben doesn't have any boys, he is living vicariously through Paul.  We had a serious talk with Paul about where this is stored and that it isn't a toy.

 Friday of this week I took Mark and Paul to Trafalga to play laser tag.  While they were playing their game, Jane and I went to the park.  The weather was beautiful.  We ate some lunch in the shade and played on the playground.  I had a wonderful time with Jane.  She is so entertaining! 

"Mom, it is a castle for Princess Jane!"

 

Ta Da!

 This morning we woke up early to participate in a 5k.  I didn't do a lot of preparing for it because my lower back has been giving me issues, so I just planned on walking the route.  3 miles isn't too hard, but it takes some dedication to get through. 

 Mark and Paul were tired when we finished.  Mark thought that he could finish it in 25 minutes because he ran an 8 minute mile in school.  But he couldn't run three 8 minute miles in a row.  Paul tried to run super fast to start and was with the front pack, but couldn't hold on to that pace.  I signed up with the goal of running the course in about 35 minutes.  When I realized that I couldn't train like I needed to, I made the goal of finishing in under an hour.  I finished in under 50 minutes, so I consider this a success! 

We got home from the 5k, finished up our morning chores and left to go to Alys' birthday party at Airborn (an indoor trampoline park) just as our sweat had finished drying from the race.  The boys are exhausted, but they have had a fun day!

Alys (left) is so cute! 

Jessica serving the fruit pizza

Paul had a great time, don't let this face fool you.  Paul loves to give me this face when I pull out the camera.  With his flushed face from jumping he really looks upset!

 Daniel's brother Nathan is here tonight.  It has been fun to visit with him.  Tomorrow morning we will get packed up to go camping with my brother Dan.  I am super tired, but I have most of the food prepared for camping so hopefully it won't take too much to get on the road tomorrow!  I am so anxious to spend time in the mountains again. Up on top of the mountain or bust! 

Before I Turn 40

Last year when I was 35, turning 36-but thought that I was 36 turning 37, I wrote a list of things that I wanted to accomplish before I turned 40.  It was my bucket list for my 30's.  With my actual 37th birthday quickly approaching, I thought that I should revisit my list and get busy checking things off.

Here is my list:

• Go on a sunrise hike
• Walk on a real beach 
• Complete the Free-Motion Quilting Project
• Quilt the Orion quilt (I made the top when Mark was a baby)
• Host a music recital
• Teach someone how to quilt
• Take guitar lessons
•  Run a 5k
• Digitize my parent's pictures
• Digitize my parent's VHS tapes
• Edit and label parent's pictures and videos
• Make scrapbooks for the kids
• Do some woodworking/make a piece of furniture

I have the 5k and the music recital in the works. Some things I feel will be easier to wait until Jane is in school (like the guitar lessons)- but maybe it is just a convenient excuse? 

I'm not dreading turning 40, but I might dread it coming so quickly if I don't get working on my goals! 

Jordanelle Reservoir

I really wanted to go on another camping trip so I started looking into different places to go since I've only been up Big Cottonwood Canyon this year.  I discovered that Jordanelle Reservoir is only one hour away and it has a few cabins that you can rent.  The cabins are just glorified tents with electricity (and A/C!).  We had to provide our own bedding, the bathrooms and showers are across the street, and you can't cook in the cabin- seriously just bare bones furniture, but rather comfortable.  The $60/night price tag was pretty comfortable, too! 

Since Seth is in school, I decided to have this trip be just for the older kids.  I invited my nieces, Mieren (age 16) and Alys (age 15) to come with us.  I borrowed some life jackets, bought another 2-man boat, packed up some food and we were good to go! 

I had such a fun time being around these kids!  The ride up was loud and crazy- they were singing some of the strangest (and yet quite clever) songs from You Tube.  I had no intention of getting in the water- the water part was strictly for the enjoyment of the kids.  I enjoyed just sitting on the shore and watching them play. 

Sadly, the reservoir is really low this year.  It was only at 60% capacity, so we had a lot of 'beach' to walk along to get to the water.  The beach wasn't sandy, it was muddy and overgrown with weeds, so it wasn't the easiest trek with flip-flops on!  We are excited to go back when the water level is higher just to see how different it is.  If I want that to happen, I need to deal with a lot of snow this winter!

Alys and Paul on the Enterprise

Mieren and Paul

I loved watching the kids get on the boats and try to figure things out.  None of them have had much experience on a boat, so they did a few 'donuts' and had a great time laughing and figuring out how to work together.  Each new companionship on the boat needed to fine tune their methods, but by the end of the first time out, they had it down.  It was really windy when we were out the first afternoon, so it added a bit more struggle to the job! 

I loved sitting on the shore watching the kids play.  There was a lot of scenic beauty to enjoy as well!

Mieren and Paul decided to go out on the boats again after dinner.  It was during this trip out that they named the boats.  The yellow one is the Enterprise and the green one is the Green Lantern. 

Mieren

Paul

After Mieren and Paul showered and got dressed, we all headed back down to the water to explore the shoreline.  Unfortunately, part of the muddy area was REALLY muddy and they sunk in fast!   They named this area of the shore the Tar Pit! 

Mieren had shoes on at one point- they were a muddy mess!  Alys looks like she is wearing boots, but it is just the mud marking how far down she sunk!

The weather was beautiful. It was probably around 80 degrees with a very slight breeze.  Alys and Mark played football and Paul, Mieren and I played Frisbee.  Toward the end of the evening we caught 24 passes in a row!  It was amazing because before then we had only caught 4 in a row!  We watched the sun as it set.  The water turned red for a while because of the sunset- it was beautiful!

The reservoir normally goes up to the line in the background where the vegetation starts. 

We lit a fire, roasted/burned marshmallows and talked around the campfire until about 10:30.  When I came back to the cabin after brushing my teeth, there was a bit of excitement over a spider that Mieren found by her bed.  I came to the rescue and got rid of the spider and we all settled down to go to sleep.  I really didn't sleep well, but got enough sleep to function the next day.  The nice thing about having Mieren along is that she could drive if I was unable to. 

The water was really calm the next morning, so the kids had a lot of fun rowing around on the boats. 

Paul and Alys

Mark

Paul, Mark, Mieren, Alys

After we showered, we just hung out in the cabin for a while.  Mark read his book while we played some games.  Then we ate lunch, packed up the van and headed home. 

Hanging out in the cabin.

Saying goodbye to the cabin

 This trip was a bigger success than I anticipated.  The kids got along really well- we didn't have a fight or argument the entire time- even when Paul took shotgun on the way home!  I think that the kids liked not having little ones around.  We didn't have to worry about nap times or hanging back a bit because someone has shorter legs.  We didn't have anyone to tease or pick on.  Sometimes the older kids just need a get away, so I am glad that we did it.

I loved spending time with my nieces.  They are beautiful girls and they are growing up so fast!  Alys was born just a  month after I started dating Daniel.  I feel really short around them because they are getting so tall now.  Daniel says that Jane reminds him of how Mieren was at this age.  I will be delighted if Jane is a lot like Mieren as a young woman because she is a delightful girl. 

I am physically exhausted from this trip, but mentally I am so happy. I'd dare say that I wasn't the only one who was tired, because the ride home was super quiet- such a contrast from the ride up there!  Being away from the city and spending time in nature is rewarding enough to me that I'll deal with all of the physical effort it takes to get there.   I am super grateful to Daniel for taking care of Seth and Jane while I went on this trip. I'm hoping to do this again and again.