Joy

Monday, July 31, 2017

Family Camping Trip

Last week we were able to go camping with my family - An event that we had long anticipated but didn't come to fruition until this year. 


We grew up camping and I have always loved it. Camping with kids is a lot of work though so going with family made it easier and more fun.

We went up to the rim, leaving the behind 106 degree temps with 60 percent humidity. The moment we stepped out of the car I needed my jacket which was weird and welcome.

My parents, and my brother and his family had gotten their a few hours before us so as soon as we could we unloaded and set up our tent, and not a moment too soon as it started pouring and hailing just minutes after we finished setting up. 

The girls were excited to see hail for the first time.  The rain passed quickly and we just had fun at the campsite for the day. 



 



We enjoyed dinner and later, smore's around the fire.  

Josh and I were in a tent with the younger two, while Claire and Joy were in a tent right next to us.  We just can't fit in one tent right now since Jack is in a portable crib still.

In the morning Josh and I made the breakfast for everyone.  The kids played and we prepared to go to the lake to fish. 

We started out at Willow Springs Lake but it was disappointing. 

Because of the terrain, Jack couldn't walk around at all and he was tired and mad. 
He screamed pretty much the whole time. (you can imagine all of these pictures with the incessant screaming of Jack in the background.)

Steve managed to catch a little fish 

and T.J and Josiah were very patient but we decided to call it quits and head over to Woods Canyon Lake to go to an area we knew would be good for the kids.

At Woods Canyon we walked quite a ways, (for little legs) to the far side of the lake where there is grass and little water holes that we knew had crawdads in them.

Fishing for crawdads is a lot more rewarding than fish.

Josiah and Paige really enjoyed each other's company.

We stayed there for quite a while and enjoyed the cool, beautiful day.

Jack was much happier to be able to walk around and look at the gross "bugs" we caught.
Paige would want me to make it known that she caught the biggest crawdad. 


This kid is just trouble.

The monsoon clouds started to build up and it was beginning to thunder so we packed up and hiked back to the cars.  

We made it to our campsite and majority of the day it rained.  
Steve got out some bobbers and the kids had bobber races in the muddy streams flowing through our site.
  

Joy and Claire were all about digging for worms.


Paigey and Nana keeping dry.

Everyone brought umbrellas.


Thankfully the rain cleared up enough to make dinner and have a fire and smores our second, and last night.

The last morning was clear at first.
  

We had breakfast and started to pack up quickly so we could take a hike to a nearby sinkhole that has raspberries growing in it.

When we first set off for the sink hole there weren't too many clouds in the sky but we were quickly surrounded by ominous clouds and thunder started to rumble so we decided to turn back after we had walked nearly a mile and were rained on part of the way back.

It was raining too hard up on the rim to be able to do much of anything so we drove down to Christopher Creek

 and went to the good ole' fish hatchery. 
 
Much to the girls delight there were a ton of blackberries ripe enough for picking.  

We picked a bagful to take home.


Then we let the kids play in the creek for a little while.


This log was just screaming "photo op".  We had to get a picture of all the kids 



If you think that this was a small feat, you are wrong. Here is what the scene looked like
 3 seconds after I finally got a good shot.


Shortly after this picture was taken, it started pouring rain.  We had to call it a trip and head for home a few hours earlier than we would have liked. We all had the best time and can't wait to go again.