Camping at 11 Mile Canyon

On July 31st, we had our first family camping trip! Thankfully we have generous family members who lent us things and let us ride up with them in their trucks - you get to do some great 4-wheeling to get to this place.

Jacob was so excited to sleep in a tent!

Rachel and Gary got up there before we did, and they found a beautiful campsite! It was really private, with amazing views all around and plenty of rocks to climb and fun places to hike and explore! This was the view just past our campfire - it was so beautiful!

Sabella had a fun time with the trees - she loves trees...just like me. :) We had a fun little walk together with her bundled in Jacob's hoodie.

We all took time to explore and run around for a while. Jacob had a lot of good spots to explore and run - a much needed place for an apartment-dwelling family! :) We made delicious grilled chicken (we improvised the seasonings - it turned out great!) and had foil veggie packets and fire roasted corn on the cob...YUM!

We were about to break out the s'mores when it started pouring! We all ran for our tents and ended up going to sleep because it was still raining. Michael had some chocolate granola bars in his pack - so we had a fun treat and played together in the tent for a while. I don't think any of us were asleep until after 11pm.

I think I woke up at least every hour or more through the whole night. It was my first time camping with Jacob - and I kept freaking out that he was cold. We had chipmunks and raccoons come and eat the corn and geese fly over honking for all of us to wake up just as the sun was rising...and then the kids woke up and meandered out of the tents to check things out. Jacob soon found Megan :).

Good morning sunshine! Snuggling in front of the campfire is always a great way to spend the morning ;)

These two are my twins! The girls I helped care for as newborns, visited every summer, I even spoke (more like crying with a few scriptures in between in front of a lot of strangers, haha) at their baptism...and here they are - beautiful 14 year olds :). I love these girls!

I love the layers upon layers of clothes - the kids were so funny and cute!

I got to wake up to this outside my tent - life is good.

The way back was really fun! The drive to and from the campsite was incredibly scenic. Gary had his truck and Michael was driving Vera's Suburban...yep, let the fun begin! Because it rained so much during the night, there was a lot of mud and puddles...at least until we came driving though.

Jacob was a lucky kid with a window seat and had it rolled down until we reached the main roads. Michael sped up through EVERY muddy puddle along the road there was, and Jacob loved the threatening splashes each time...

There was a lot of laughter and a lot of good memories on that drive.

We got home, got clean and took a nap! :)