Camping adventure

Last Friday I texted Mart at work and told him that we should go to the Richmond ward camp out. He asked me when it was and I wrote back laughing "3 hours". :) He would have totally packed up and gone, but by the time we would have made it there, we would have been extremely late. Instead, we decided to pack up and do a spur of the moment camping trip all on our own. An hour and a half after he got home from work we headed up green canyon. We seriously lucked out and not only got a campsite we've had our eye on for a very long time (that is ALWAYS taken), we were able to drive straight up to the site we wanted at 7:30 on a Friday night.

**I don't know why the photos are opening in a viewer when clicked on instead of blogger, I am still trying to figure that out**

The site we ended up in had a big cliff with a cave in it right along side it, and it was pretty awesome.

Nanan and Grandad joined us for a couple of hours, and it was really nice to just hang out with them for a little while!

The view from our tent. Loved it!

Lincoln was obsessed with washing his hands with this water jug. I think he had the cleanest little boy hands while camping I've ever seen. :)

When he wasn't washing his hands, he was playing with this shovel. It was his favorite thing ever.

Jade girl did so good just hanging out in the playpen.

Ethan, Lincoln and Kya all helped gather wood so we could start a fire.

We finally were settled and had enough wood that I started our fire and the boys were in camping/fire heaven! Ethan is a serious pyro and could not leave the fire alone. He was constantly throwing something in it or pulling out a stick no matter how many times we asked him not too.

 

We pajama-d up and roasted some marshmallows

Just off to the side of the fire was this big old hold in the rock wall.

 

My dirty little munchkin

Stella doesn't stick around nearly as well as Kya, so sadly she has to be chained up the entire time. She doesn't have quite as much fun as Kya, but still likes being out in the mountains

Right before bed, I don't think he could get much dirtier ...

Poor Lincoln has had bright red eyes for a few days now. The only thing that makes sense is just a crazy allergic reaction to something (we have no idea what it is). I have no idea how to make it go away, I just hope it happens soon. It looks so sad and uncomfortable.

Jade was taking in all the sights, but hit her wall and started to get exhausted. We tried to get her to go to sleep for a couple of hours, and she didn't want very much to do with it. She was weirded out being in the same room as all of us and was too distracted to sleep. She finally passed out around 1:30am and had random bursts of crying throughout the night. Whenever I would check on her, she was out cold. Silly girl. 

In normal camping fashion, bright and early at 6:30 everyone was up ... which meant we were up too. I have no idea how Jade functioned on 5 hours of sleep, but she did.

The girls weren't quite as ready to be up.

 I am sure that one day Ethan will be horrified by these, but man it was so dang funny. Once we were all awake, Ethan just completely stripped down without waiting for us to get him clothes. And for some reason, instead of still waiting for us to get his clothes, he started climbing out of the tent ... stark naked. We laughed so hard, and told him to run to the car to get his clothes ... which weren't in there. We just wanted to keep laughing because it was seriously so funny. He ran all the way across the campground and back to the tent without even batting an eye that he had no clothes on. Silly boy.

Even though I get next to no sleep when we go camping, nothing beats the view in the morning. I love watching the sun peak through the trees first thing.

Enjoying the morning.

Before we cooked some breakfast, I decided I wanted to climb up into the cave and just look around for a minute.

None of us were really in a hurry to pack up and it seemed like it took us forever.

At one point, I just laid down in the tent and stared out the top instead of folding up bedding. It was much more enjoyable. :)

And Stella took a little snooze while we packed.

Lincoln must have been partied out, because he sat in the car watching a movie while we packed

And Ethan started to let it show that he was tired

And Miss Kya, she climbed in the car and didn't leave from this spot until we were home. She loves being in the mountains, but she was ready to go home and take a good long nap.

Jade promptly fell asleep in the car and was out cold when we got home. Sadly, that 30 minute stretch was the only nap she took ALL day! After 5 hours of sleep and refusing flat out to nap, she was one grouchy baby for the rest of the day. That night she crashed hard and slept a good 12 hours and felt much better the next day.

I'm so glad that we all took a day and went on a spur of the moment adventure. It was just what we all needed, a night in the mountains. Now it officially feels like summer. :)