Happy Campers

For our 4th of July weekend, we went to Vernal to spend the holiday with Clint's family. We drove out Thursday evening after Clint's class, without incident. This is notable for me, as we have previously murdered a pregnant elk, a deer, and a large wild turkey with our vehicle on this drive before (the elk also killed my beloved Camry). Every time we make it there and back safely, I count my blessings.

We started or 4th off with the Vernal parade (the highlight of which was the military flyover). Tayson enjoyed running around, chasing down the candy thrown from the floats, and getting squirted with the waterguns that several float riders carried.

After the parade, we all headed up to the mountains where it was cooler to do some camping and playing in the dirt. This was our campsite; wasn't it pretty?

Clint's sister and her husband arrived before we did, and while they were waiting for us, a mother moose and her baby came down to drink from the little pond (it's hard to see, but it's towards the left of the 2nd picture). I was hoping they would return while I was there, but they never did. We did, however, have several visits from some friendly deer.

During Brennen's afternoon nap, we left Grandma and Grandpa behind to keep an eye on him, while the rest of us hopped on some 4-wheelers and headed up into the mountains to explore. I'm kicking myself for not bringing the camera on the ride because the views we saw were incredible. We rode so high that we even encountered some large patches of snow (in July, I know!) We couldn't resist the opportunity to leave the trails and create some tracks in the snow. We rode for quite a while, and returned to the campsite filthy dirty.

Here's the dirty-family picture (I would like to note that while I look pregnant in this picture, I am not. This is merely a camping shirt that I wore last summer when I was pregnant, and I stretched it out):

And here's some close-ups:

I even had to take a wet-wipe to my teeth because they were covered in dirt. Gross, I know. The worst part about it was that this ride took place on Friday, and we didn't leave the campsite until Sunday. And there were no showers. The best we could do was to take a wet-wipe bath. Ah well, that's what camping is all about, right?

Both Brennen and Tayson were little troopers. Brennen got to sleep in his little Moses basket.

He's so sound a sleeper that he continued to sleep through the night while camping, even with people tromping in and out of the RV. The only bad side to that was that he awoke each day at 5:30 when the sky started to get light. Not cool.

It got a little chilly in the mornings and evenings, and, of course, I forgot to pack Tayson's jacket. It's hard to think of these things when you are packing for camping and the temperature is in the 90's outside. So, he got to wear my hoodie when he got a little cold.

When Brennen wasn't eating, sleeping, or being held, he enjoyed sitting in his Bumbo chair and playing with his toys.

Every once in a while, though, he would get antsy and it was obvious that he wanted to roll around. So, I folded out the couch into the bed position and let him roam as he wished.

A rousing game of Phase 10 Dice:


Tayson, Aunt Katie, and cousin Eli 'pretend' driving a 4-wheeler: