We did an end of summer campout with the Gause family! We went up to the area right by Bear River Lodge. I have to say, I was not very excited; I do NOT enjoy camping. But I decided to suck it up for all my boys, because they LOVE camping.
And honestly, it was probably the very best camping experience that we have ever had since having children. There was a lot of factors at play here making it great. Among these are that my youngest was almost 3! The campground was really fantastic, minimal bugs, and there was a little tiny creek that ran through the camp right by our tent. The ambient noise of the stream was amazing at night; the kids slept really well. Happy camping is in high correlation to sleep amounts. Whatever the reasons, it was a great trip. The kids can't wait to go back next year.
Isn't the campground pretty? It was super nice.
How cute are all these cousins!! They had a blast together!
The first night and first day it was just us and Jason and his oldest 3 kids. The kids all got whistles curtesy of Brooke and they LOVED them. They ran around with them and held them in the air yelling, "I HAVE THE POWER OF DISIRE!!" or "DO YOU HAVE THE POWER OF DISERE??" or "GET THE POWER OF DISIRE!!" It was as hilarious as it sounds. I was dyeing, and they were dead serious.
Jaxton had 2 main focuses while camping. The ax, and the fire. Here he is with the ax. The axe was such a hot item for all the kids, Jax took it to another level. He couldn't stop. Unless there was fire. Then he couldn't stop throwing things in the fire. Ever. He is a cutie.
More shots of the ax, go Rod!
This is a cute memory, Calvin came up to Ethan and said "Do this!" and flings his hat around quickly, and then he waited an Ethen did it. It was super cute to watch, when I write it down it's not really conveying how cute it was...
There was so much fun space to run and play! Again, Jax with the Ax...
We were right by this small pond, with billions of rocks! It's a boys paradise!!
We went 4-wheeling on the second day. It was a CRAZY ride, no one was really expecting such a wild ride. But I got really cute pictures!!
The kids LOVE 4-wheeling!
Such a pretty part of the world up there! We made a few stops and they were always so pretty! So many little lakes up there.
This was Lily lake, you can see all the little lily pads out in the lake. It was so cute!
And then, our our ride, we got to this spot were there were SO MANY dead trees! As far as you could see! We wondered if it was a disease or beetles that had wiped them all out. It was super sad and look CRAZY. But you could see these little baby trees coming up out of the ground. So that was cute.
There was a LOT of challenging road that first ride we took. I was pretty tense for a lot of it.
We stoped to have lunch at this awesome place were there was wood planking to drive on through the woods. It was really cool.
Later that night Justin played Uno with the kids while dinner was being made.
And S'MORES!!
This is my favorite. Rod asked me to take a picture of him with the ax. He posed himself. I love it so much.
Jax being Jax!
Calvin's favorite past time was to play on the parked razor and 4-wheelers. He LOVED it.
Debbie and Preston joined us that night and helped us clean up. But not before making a delicious breakfast. The kids ate more that morning then I have ever seen them eat in my life!
While the adults cleaned up camp, the kids played. They all joined Calvin on the parked vehicles and had a blast! Can you find Lincolns head...? :)
Before we left we went for one more stint at the pond, there can never be enough rock throwing...! :)
Also, we saw like 4 or 5 Moose while we were camping, pretty close to our tent site! And then I saw 2 cross the street right in front of my while I was driving to try and (unsuccessfully) get reception.
After we picked up camp we went on our final Razor/4-wheeling ride; this time with two extra adults and their 4-wheelers. The kids loved taking turns with all the different vehicles and adults. Except Jax, who only wanted to be with Grampa Gause. Apparently there was a little supervised underage driving going on; Jax LOVED it. 4-wheeling with Grampa was his favorite part of the trip. :)
In this beautiful spot there were MORE ROCKS! And water!! We stayed here to eat lunch and then kids went immediately to the water and started throwing rocks. We had "skipping" contests. Jax, Jason, and Jusin seemed to be the clear winners, and not just because their names all begin with "J". If I remember right they were up in the 20's for rocks skipping on the water!! It was nuts!!
Cute little Calvin posing in the pictures above. This whole area was SOOO PRETTY!!
Calvin thought he was throwing like a pro! He would throw and then search eyes excitedly for approval before screaming with delight! Fun to watch.
The "kids" searching for skipping rocks!
One of Jax's throws.
This is my last picture from the trip. It was at the summit of one of the mountains or hills, I can't remember--but it was pretty high. It was super beautiful and pretty chilly. It was nice of Debbie to snap a picture of us, here is my proof I was there! After this I swapped the razor for a 4-wheeler. That was an interesting switch. And Calvin rode back with Debbie in the Razor and had a great time.
We headed back after this but it took longer then we thought because they had some roads closed, when we finally got back to our cars I was relieved.
We packed up and were driving home; we had gone 10 feet, and Jaxton said, "I want to do that again!!" Like the whole camping, 4-wheeling, all of it... So I think it was a success. :)
YAY!!
