Friday morning James had to run to the office to help a patient. The night before was a bit of a long one, so the kids and I got up when we woke up, around 8. James and I had decided that, although the church camp on the mountain wasn't ours until 4pm, there was no reason not to go up sooner. We could still get out of the heat and just enjoy being on the mountain. So we decided we would shoot for early afternoon. With James needing to help a patient and four kids and myself to get ready, I decided to start packing right after breakfast. (Mmmmm....more yummy french toast...)
In the kids' room, I was trying to get everyone dressed while I went through their clothes and packed them at the same time. Trevy started staring at herself in the mirror, getting really close, and then she told me, "They're kind of brown and kind of black." Then she turned to me, "I'm so sorry mom, my eyes are brown and black, not bazel." =)
I hadn't gotten very far with the packing when there was a knock on our door. It was my friend, Sarah, who was needing to look up an address that she was having trouble finding. Coincidentally, she was on her way to give a haircut so she had her scissors with her and gave me a quick tutorial on cutting the girls' hair.
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| Callie and I don't recommend french toast for breakfast the morning of a haircut. =( |
Lovely golden locks!I can't believe how long Trevy's hair can get! I think she got the best of her parents' hair - my color and James's texture!
Anyhow, James came home and took the kids swimming so that I could try to get Timmy down for a nap and get us packed. He took a very short nap, but I did get most of the clothes packed while I rolled balls and cars with him anyway.
Several trips to the car, making sure we had enough food for dinner, blankets, jackets, pillows... Soooo glad that James checked the weather forecast and saw that there was a 70% chance of rain for the mountain. Just wish I had planned on it being a cold rain. We had enough supplies to be comfortable, but I could have thrown in a couple of heavier jackets and a few more blankets and we would have been roasty toasty!
It felt like it was taking us forever to get everything loaded so I set Timmy down outside to play in the gravel with the other kids while I went in and out, rather than risk tripping over him or having him fall out the door or off the front porch. (I think he may have ended up doing that at one point anyway. I walked out and found him face first in the dirt. Poor little guy!) Callie kept tossing the dirt up and there was a slight breeze that blew it right in Timmy's face. Would you believe this was a brand-new onesie?
We made it out the door around 2:45. A quick stop by Costco for gas and a few other necessities and we were on our way! There was a light rain while James was in the store and lots of clouds. Fortunately, no major downpour at that point.
Waiting for James. He ran into the store and I filled up the tank.
Finally switched Landon's seat with Trevy's so she's easier to buckle in.
Somebody was already looking tired.
Didn't take Timmy long to fall asleep.
Somebody was already looking tired.
Didn't take Timmy long to fall asleep.
<-- Gotta love Madame Blueberry!
And motion shots! -->
I drove us up the mountain. I find it kind of funny that many couples fight over who gets to drive. James and I race for the passenger seat! (I have a feeling that may change in about 11 years...)
The kids enjoyed the drive. Landon pointed out the stop signs along Catalina Highway. And the buses. He's really into school buses right now. We even learned the sign for "BUS" on one of our recent DVDs so he'll often sign it to me as well. About 2/3 of the way up the mountain, he needed to relieve himself. I'll be honest, at those times, I LOVE having boys! As a girl, all I can offer are my sympathies and a few tips from experience.
Now, being the over-thinking packer that I am, I had placed the hot dog buns on top of the kids' backpacks (which only had their pjs and outfits for Saturday in them, not anything for them to play with) in between the two car seats in the back. Surely this would prevent them from accidentally getting sat on or having anything put on top of them. Happy to say I was right on that count. However, I failed to take into account that the package was in between two car seats with children in them. As I was helping Landon get back into the van, I noticed that most of three of the hot dog buns was gone. Oh well.
We reached the gate for Camp Zion at about 3:25. Locked. No biggee. We just drove a little further down the road, found a spot we could pull the van over and let everyone out. Except Callie. She had fallen asleep on the way up.
James played hide-and-seek with Landon and Trevy while I changed Timmy and put on his socks and shoes.
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| Can you find James? |
Timmy has a fascination with the steering wheel.
Nice to have some greenery for a background for a change. Now if only I could get Trevlyn to give me a normal smile...
Handsome dude. He wouldn't stay between the trees for me, but Trevy did!
A short inning of pinecone baseball and we figured it was time to go set up camp.
The older kids had a great time helping James set up the tent...
So much so they couldn't take their eyes off the tent poles!Timmy just enjoyed spinning around on the platform.
While the tent was being erected, I decided to attempt a photo shoot with Timmy in the greenery.
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| This one is my favorite. |
Can't believe I didn't get Timmy's finger on this one. --->He's been very into pointing lately. He wakes up, I get him out of his crib and, even still groggy, he points. In general, he wants to go outside.
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| Still the cutest smiler ever! |
And who can resist bark chips and rocks?
It started getting a bit chilly so we stopped at the car to pick up the 9-month hoodie I thought Timmy would never wear...
And then returned to our campsite for dinner. We so lucked out! The Strattons were camping near us and are expert campers. They got the fire going in no time with one of their homemade fire starters. 
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| Hot dogs on a stick. |
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| Cairn opted for a cold dog over a fajita. Ah kids... |
Mouthfuls of marshmallow!
The ward had planned on having a game night, but it was a bit tricky. Most of us moved to the lodge for dinner. There were a few games for the kids and Trevy amazed James and me with actually being able to sound out words with the Bananagrams tiles. We only gave her phonetic words, but she totally has the hang of it! So proud of her! I think she'll be reading fairly well by kindergarten at this rate.
The Evanses had brought their dogs so the kids played with Duncan and Boston for a while and then it was bedtime.
Those of us with kids (the Strattons, the Porters, the Christenson's and James and I) all came to the same conclusion - somebody has to stay in the tents with the kids. So off we all went to see who would fall asleep and who would get to play.
We only have a small tent. I worried that we would have a completely sleepless night. Such was not the case. Timmy fell asleep almost instantly in my sleeping bag. The other three played around a bit but didn't take too much longer to zonk out. Thank goodness for the extra blankets! They were perfect! We unrolled one of the sleeping bags to put between us for the kids to lay on and then they each had a down blanket and we put a large blanket over all of us. Having six people in a small tent definitely kept things warmer. After everyone else had fallen asleep, I sneaked out to put food back in our car, so as not to attract bears, and see if anyone was playing games. The lodge was empty. A small group was gathered around the campfire but it was a bit cold for me. It was only about 8:30/9:00pm but since I couldn't get online ☺, I decided to try going to bed early for a change. Alas, I tossed and turned for a while. Landon woke up and we had to rearrange a bit. Timmy woke up a few times too but I think we all were asleep from at least midnight until 6am. Considerably more than I would have guessed.
The following morning, we had a pancake breakfast and everyone cleared out pretty quickly. All in all, we had a fun time. I love the rain. But I think it would have been fun to have it be a little warmer and dryer so that we could have all stayed out and played games at the picnic tables after putting the kids to bed in the tents. (Also wouldn't have minded a bit more padding on the ground.) Who knows - maybe next year!
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