First Camping Trip of the Year!

Kevin and his buddy from Xango, Dave Brinton, had been planning this camping trip for quite some time. When Kevin was still at Xango they had talked about going camping and when he left Xango they didn't let the idea die. I had lots of questions and was ready to get a good solid plan but the boys were in charge so I just went along with it all. Another Xango buddy was supposed to come, too, but ended up not being able to. We were going to go to Dead Horse Point down by Moab to a first come first serve campsite but the Brinton's decided if we were traveling that far we better be guaranteed a spot! So they reserved a couple campsites in Green River at the Recreation Area.

 So....Friday around 11:00 we were loaded up and ready to go. Kevin had bought us a new camping grill after 3 or 4 trips to Costco debating and comparing and considering and dreaming :) Camping stuff takes up lots of room. Poor Asher was in the back seat barely visible with pillows and sleeping bags stashed around him. We had quite a full van but we had everything we needed! We ended up meeting up with the Brinton's in Price and caravaned to Green River. Our GPS instructed us to turn off the main street in Green River and our destination was on the right. What? Yeah, we were 'camping' at a little park area right in the middle of a golf course. Kevin and I laughed and immediately started talking about where we could go to actually camp. Asher said "I thought we were going camping, not to a park!" Being Dave's first camping experience we wanted it to be especially great for him. I guess they had some of the same thoughts as we did but in the end we set up our tents 10 feet away from other campers and we were ready for some fun!

Setting up our camp took quite some time. The boys helped here and there and quickly made friends with the Brinton's three girls. They collected sticks and leaves and were happy to be outside. Once we were all situated we got dinner going. Brandy ended up buying the same grill from Costco thinking we were going to be in two different spots. Since we ended up occupying the same spot we only needed one grill and they were quicker to pull theirs our than we were. (That just means we need to go camping again soon to use our new grill :) Brandy brought some freeze dried Stroganoff and corn on the cob for all of us. The corn was delicious! Can't wait for more corn on the cob this summer! Unfortunately the stroganoff wasn't so great. She used a new (but seasoned) dutch oven to boil the water and it had a not so great flavor that we tasted in our dinner. We all tried to eat it but sadly had to throw most of it out. No worries, we had s'mores to look forward to! The kids were anxious and really wanted us to start a fire right away. We made them wait though while we played a couple rounds of Skip-bo. Brandy and I destroyed Kevin and Dave the first round and easily beat them the second round as well. It was fun :)

We finally got around to making a fire and roasting marshmallows. Brandy brought every kind of marshmallow imaginable and several kinds of cookies and chocolates as well. I stuck to the traditional s'more but the the boys had fun experimenting. Brandy wrapped the s'mores up in foil and put them over the fire to melt the chocolate. I think that along with a roasted marshmallow made a perfect s'more. Yum! Dave and Kevin took the kids on a geo-caching walk. There was one nearby but it was getting dark and a bit hard to see. They decided to save it for the morning. Asher was excited to go to bed to sleep in the tent. The kids went down easily and the adults stayed up to talk around our campfire which was burning out and eventually we were talking around ashes. Time for bed.

It was quite warm so Kevin and I both slept with no socks and our sleeping bags unzipped. Halfway through the night I even got partway out of my sleeping bag. The wind did blow and there were some rain drops but it was still a very warm night. I think we all slept well.

Saturday morning I mixed up some pancakes and put Kevin to work. He fried us some bacon and cooked some pancakes up and we had juice and milk with it. Some of the pancakes were a bit gooey in the middle but hey, we were camping :) Kevin did a great job and we ate up most of the pancakes and all the bacon.

 Time for geo-caching! It was a short walk over next to the river and the kids were thrilled to find rice krispie treats, glow sticks, golf balls, pins...Wow! We hung out by the river for a bit and eventually made it back over to camp where we decided to head to Moab for some hiking at Arches. We tried to do some geo-caching on the way but only made it to two spots. One was a sign of the history of Green River, another was the box of trinkets hidden in bushes amongst trash and beer bottles. I'm sure there were better spots in Moab but we stuck to our hiking once we got to Arches.

Upon arrival to Arches we made a quick lunch of sandwiches, chips, and carrots. We forgot our sun screen back at camp but luckily only got a bit pink. It was Beautiful!!! We first did the Park Avenue hike which was our favorite. The kids were energetic, the weather was perfect (sunny but a bit over cast and a slight breeze), the surroundings were amazing. I stopped many times in awe at the red rocks with the blue sky and white puffy clouds in the background. True beauty! Kevin and Dave went back to the cars and met us at the connecting parking spot.

Our next hike was an easy one around Balanced Rock. So cool! The kids were done at this point but we wanted to do one more so we dragged them along with us to hike up to the view point for Delicate Arch. I remember hiking Delicate Arch with Kevin years ago (in our dating years so probably 12 or 13 years ago?) but it wasn't until I was at that view point that I had vivid memories of it. It looked so tiny from the view point but I remember being in awe at how big it really is. And the birds swooping and flying around the nearby cliff. I'm glad those memories came back :) We really did have to coax and beg the boys to hike up (well, lucky Tyce was being carried in the back pack by Kevin so he was game for hiking all day!) but once we got to the top they were running around crazy and I'm pretty sure Rylan ran the whole way back down. It was a beautiful hiking day and we were all so glad we did it. Tyce immediately fell asleep once we got in the car. Rylan and Asher watched 'Super Mario Bros 3' over and over again for the hour drive back to our "camping" spot.

As soon as we got back to our tents I got busy peeling and chopping for our foil dinners. Kevin helped me put them together and we put them in the fire pit over some charcoal briquettes. Brandy was busy peeling and chopping apples for our dessert--apple crisp in the dutch oven. She used a different dutch oven for this! I'm not sure if it was our hunger after hiking or what, but those foil dinners turned out perfectly! I ate all of mine and part of Tyce's. Boy oh boy were they good!! And then, the apple crisp! Wowzers! It's one of my favorite desserts and it was perfectly crisp and warm and just down right delicious! More playing around, talking, putting kids to bed, and adults talking around the fire. Our fire was bigger tonight which was good because it was quite a bit cooler. Another good nights sleep.

As soon as we woke up Sunday morning the dads started taking down our tents and packing up. Brandy made us some yummy breakfast burritos, Kevin's request. Once we were all packed up we sat down to play some games. Kevin pulled out our canopy to put over the picnic table. The first time we used it on this trip and we were glad we had it! The kids watched 'Mario Bros' again with the six of them huddled around the little dvd player. They played in the water and made mud. They tossed a ball around. They tried to play games with us. We played Rage and Bupkus (a dice game that I haven't played in years) and just had fun. Pretty soon it was time to go but some of us were getting hungry so we quickly cooked up some hot dogs and had chips and carrots with them, along with a bunch of other snacks we brought along. Kevin and I were both tired but he got us home safely.

Kevin unloaded while the boys and I quickly showered and got ready to go to dinner at my mom's house. Once Kevin was ready we raced out the door. Kevin slept on the couch while I talked family reunion stuff with my fam. And of course we had dinner (delicious taco salads). We got home late, all ready for sleep. It was such a fun weekend. I looked at the calendar on our way home already planning our next camping trip. Can't wait to go again--hopefully in the mountains this time :)