4th of July

We went camping this last weekend. We took the neighbor, Caitlin. Because of that, we had to split the kids. My mom took up Courtney. Tayler missed that bus and went up with Uncle Cody. They got to spend a bit more time up there then the rest of us. Nathan picked me up from work Thursday and we headed straight out to miss the traffic. We did manage to do so. However, going up Parleys we were slowed quite a bit. There was a jeep off to the side of the road, completely enflamed in fire---there was nothing left of that thing!!

But we did make it and I guess I went a bit crazy with the camera. I took over 180 pictures and videos. So I am going to just put the highlights. Just know when you have 180 pictures, there are quite a few of them! :)

All the kids. They had such a great time!

Mom and I. I always have the camera, so my picture is never taken. We were already filthy at this point, but thought I better snap one now before it gets worse.

Friday afternoon we took the kids 4wheelin. Notice, none of the kids have helmets because it was just going to be a quick easy trip. Nothing to it.

This is where we ended up. It's a bit hard to see, but let me fill in the blanks. This is a VERY steep narrow hill! On the right side is our party trying to get down the hill, on the left side (the guys with helmets ha ha) is a group trying to get up the hill. I didn't get a great picture of this but my dad is there being held up by the boys. He has Courtney and Tayler on the back of his 4wheeler at an angle where he will easily tip. The boys are also lifting these guys motorcycles and 4wheelers to try and get them past us. Luckily everyone was very patient and understanding. A lot of the bikes were hitting and I'm sure we came out with a few scratches.

After watching the bike ahead start to tip, some of us decided it was too much and demanded off. Jill and I didn't think it was such a bad idea and made the rest of the way down on foot with Landon and Tenley.

At the bottom of that crazy hill was a very pretty flower field. The girls were picking them and putting them in their hair. They looked so cute. Glad we got lots of cute pictures, because as soon as we got back to riding I noticed Tenley had tiny green bugs crawling in her hair. The flowers were all covered! Silly girls!

Once we recovered from the ride, the kids (and grandma and Derek in some cases) had a dancing contest. I took a few clips, this is one of the better ones. Courtney is just so dang animated sometimes!

Thursday night Nathan, the kids and I didn't get much sleep. We had neighbors who literally moved in a truck away from us. They were loud and very inconsiderate. We had already decided we should move the tent. A ranger stopped by and convinced me it was necessary!! She said that bears tend to stay in the same areas. That a few months ago they had seen one just past the next camp spot. That with all the people and dogs, they were most likely not going to bug us, but be cautious. Such as with your food and such.

She then went on to talk to the "neighbors" about the same thing. They weren't around, but the ranger pulled out a camera and started snapping shots of their campground and license plates. Came back to let us know "they were pigs!" That she personally would not want to be camping next to them in a tent. She warned the other campers that if they didn't clean up they would be fined huge. They were very nasty about it....making comments like "don't drop a crumb, the bears might come."

This scared me quite a bit, so we did what we could to guarantee we were safe. Cleaned our camp, checked out theirs, and moved our tent. Figured if the bears wanted anyone, they wanted the pigs covered in their own filth? I don't know---we tell ourselves what we need to, to sleep right?

Anyway this is a picture of the boys moving the tent. I missed the majority of it because they had been drinking and Nathan suggested "let's just unstake it and lift." So before I knew it, that is exactly what they did.

Notice Nathan in the background off to the left. He is staking it down. These 2 are bragging about their dragging rights!

Remember we weren't there when camp was chosen. Cody and my mom did that. They had our tent so set it up for us. Before they could do that, they had to shoo away the cows living there. Yep, that means there was lots of cow pies! Well by Friday afternoon these boys were ready to come back and reclaim their home. Everyone had gone shooting but Jill, Tenley, Landon and I. At first we thought it was funny to Moo back at them---then we realized that was a bit encouraging.

Nathan, Derek and Cody took the kids shooting. They didn't take the camera the first time, but did remember the 2nd time. Unfortunately only Tayler and Landon went that trip. But they got cute pictures.

You wouldn't believe---but yes I have another story ha ha. This one about guns. Our last night there we are sitting down to eat our chicken and scones fresh from the dutch oven (yum!) when we hear something whiz by. Cody jumps up and yells HEY! And the boys jump on their 4wheelers and take off, before I realize what is even going on. There was a set of campers a few feet up the road, shooting at the mountain. Just happened to be right next to our camp and was ricocheting our way.

A few choice words and the 4wheelers come zooming back. The boys sit fuming for a minute. You can tell they are worked up, but they were guaranteed that won't happen again. It wasn't 20 minutes later the shooters show up in our camp with beer and an apology. They were really embarressed and wanted to make it up to them. Heck you can't blame them. If I had a bunch of 4wheelers with big boys yelling choice words at me---I'd be pretty sorry also. No matter what they accused me of doing. ha!

Nathan had to leave for Colorado for work Sunday afternoon. So we packed up right after dinner Saturday night and headed home. All the kids fell asleep, but this is my favorite. Look how dang dirty that kid is! We had such a great time, we are very excited to go again!