April Camping

We went on a planned four of five day but actual three day camping trip the last week of April with my cousin, Liv and her lovely family and my pal Jackie and her lovely family. The girls had an ABSOLUTE blast (obviously.) In this picture, they were taking turns holding Julian so they were all lined up. Arlo said he was heavy! When I was ready to snap the picture I said, Okay on the count of three, say . . . and then I paused and they all said, "BABYYY!" Unprompted and in unison. It was totally cute.

Although the weather was sunny, it was far from hot, but that didn't stop the children from having a

heyday in Onion Creek. After coating a rock with mud together, Cecilia coated her legs with mud. Sweet!

I want to blow this picture up life size for my wall. Pretty much sums up the trip, despite Andrew's bike/face drama. We had a great time, Andrew had a great ride and said that the Kokopelli trail was epic, desolate beauty and an accidental nine hour day ending in stitches didn't totally rain on our parade (although we did have some crazy heavy rains the first night.)

I felt so totally relaxed that I can't wait to go camping again (we're going again tomorrow. I love, love, love, LOVE camping.) Maybe its the housewife in me that is like, Hello World! But I've always loved it, so its just good to be doing it with my children. It was awesome to see the girls have so much uninterrupted outside fun in the dirt and water and desert. They were exhausted by day three (although they would NEVER admit as much.)

So, Andrew, Ryan and Brian rode from Rabbit Valley to Fish Ford the first day without a hitch. But day two, they totally underestimated the terrain and were out until after dark. Whilst Liv and Jackie were worried sick, my dad went out looking for the guys on his dirt bike twice only to come back shaking his head. At about 9:00, Jackie, Liv, Dad and I were standing around the campfire and I was giving my best, "They're grown-ass men and if they have to spend the night outside tonight then they'll be okay. They'll be hungry, they'll be tired, but they won't die," speech, low and behold a truck pulls up with a bloody Andrew on board. He was decending Onion Creek road, only a few miles from our camp when his front fork broke off. Needless to say, when I was giving my, "I'm Not Worried," speech I was worried about the other dudes, but I honestly wasn't worried about Andrew. I knew his bike was in top shape, he was in top shape and the trail was marked and they had GPS, so what could happen? Then he shows up all dingy and bloody with a broken bike and didn't even know what happened. Thankfully Dad was there so he was able to take him to the Moab Emergency room. So - dispite my protests, we cut the trip short and went home around noon the next day. The kids were beat anyway. What can a guy do when his front fork completely snaps in two? Crazy luck, I guess. We'll have to finish the camping trip sometime later this spring or fall, I guess!

Weather: The first night, we were eating dinner, watching this GIGANTIC black cloud make its way towards us . . . all was calm . . . all was quiet and then WHAMMO! It was like a movie storm . . . sideways hail and gale force winds . . . we all scattered to the campers in seconds and waited it out. Our camper door is flakey so Jackie was outside trying to get in like a paniced animal, waiting for me to open the door. (Laughing with you, not at you. ha ha) and then we had probably our only peaceful moment while the kids were in the other camper, trapped with Brian and Andrew. It rain/hailed all night then calmed down for the rest of the trip.

Can't wait to go again!