Camping

The last weekend in May, right after school got out, we decided to go camping. Keep in mind while reading this that in almost 13 years of married life, Steve and I have actaully only camped one night, when Alyssa was a baby. I camped with the girls in a camper trailer for a few nights a few years ago, but the trailer had water and we could use the bathroom and be inside closed doors at night with beds. And Steve considers a cabin in the woods with no flushing toilet roughing it. For that matter, a Motel 6 is kind of roughing it for us too. We just haven't been the outdoorsy type. But we were invited to go camping with a bunch of neighbors in August for 3 nights so we decided we better at least try out 1 night first.

We live just a few minutes from American Fork Canyon which has some beautiful camping areas. So, as soon as the girls were out of school, the girls and I headed up to get a camp site (many are first come first serve) but only 2 areas were open so we were limited on choice! Oh well, it worked out. We set up our tent - quite an adventure for me and 3 little girls who had never put up a tent! Its my parents old tent from when I was a kid - tent stakes, two rooms, big tent! Sleeps 6 very spaciously but I think we slept like 9 or 10 girls in it once on a camping trip to the beach when I was 12. We managed to get it set up, put in our bags and pillows and then came back down to get the rest of our stuff and wait for Steve.

Before we came back down though, Jess had to try out the tent!!

Taylor had to CLEAN our campsite ... yes, she's sweeping the cement pad BEFORE we made a mess. The tent in the background is the site next to us - shows you how close we were... not the perfect spots, but we made do.

When she started sweeping the dirt I got a little worried!

Time to put the flaps up on the windows...

Taylor actually did well camping ... all except the bathroom. We had a fairly nice outhouse not far from us. Taylor told me she had to go potty so off we went. She flipped out. Not a chance. She sat on it, but REFUSED to go. I said ok, but reminded her what happened when we went hiking last October and she refused to use an outhouse or the woods (she went in her jeans and it was sticky and cold and miserable!). Back to the camp we went. A little while later she told me she needed to go so we went to try again. STILL no luck. Crying, screaming ... but refused to go. A 3rd time ... same results. At this point, she's BEGGING to just go home and go potty and then come back (keep in mind, it is only about a 15 minute drive home, but still too far to go). A 4th time ... less crying, less screaming, but still no chance. Our friends' little girl came and went - we let Tay stay in with her to see if that would help... NOPE. Not happening. We're now going on about 3 hours since Tay first mentioned needing to go and she's still holding it. Finally about 30 minutes later she says she has to go so we head to the outhouse AGAIN. She sits down and goes, just like that! Wahoo!!! She was so proud of herself and I was SO glad! We want to go camping for 3 days in August and I knew we couldn't go if she couldn't handle the outhouse!

Sitting around the campfire is always the best part. We forgot to take pictures at night while our friends Matt and Sonya Reynolds and their two kids were there. But we enjoyed dinner, Dutch Oven peach cobbler and Smore's with them before they headed home when the gates to the campground were closing. Then we crashed ... only to be woken up about 5 times by the 1-2 year old in the campground near us SCREAMING in the night. Otherwise, we actually would have had a good sleep. The girls slept through it though so all was good for them. Breakfast while camping is Steve's FAVORITE part of camping!

Jessi loved the hot chocolate on the cold morning.

Taylor snuggled up with me to keep warm ... and yes, she is using a Hawaiian wrap-around skirt as a blanket for us. She loves that skirt! She got to use the blue one for her Hawaiian dance at school the last week of school and she was NOT willing to leave them at home.