More summer camping memories.

Chris only had two days off from work this week, but since they were weekdays we decided to take advantage of it and go camping for a night at a local campground. Weekdays are so much better because the campgrounds are generally less busy, and we can get some great spots that way. We went to a state park called Massacre Rocks, which we usually go to in the spring. It was super windy, which is pretty par for the course for the area, but it was sunny and the kids loved it. The paths in the campground are paved, so they can ride their bikes, there is a basketball court, lots of huge rocks to climb in, around or under, and hiking trails galore ~ all with a great view of the beautiful Snake River! This particular campground also has RV hookups, so we were able to plug in and after the campfire in the evening, we loaded up in the trailer for the night and turned on "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian".

Hansen~Higginson Reunion 2010

The fourth of July weekend was a busy one for our family.  It started on Thursday, when we made our way to Big Springs Campground near Bancroft, Idaho.  Chris had worked all day, but I had the trailer packed and ready go, so all we had to do was hook up and go.  We arrived, set up camp and started dinner.  About that time some of our extended family arrived to join us in the camping fun.  Chris' older sister, Veneta, along with her two boys, Rylan, 11 and Nathan, 6, and Chris' younger sister, Sarah, set up a tent next to our trailer and we had a blast camping together.  The occasion was a family reunion for members of Chris' mother's side of the family (Hansen) and their extended relatives.  Uncle Ron and Aunt Reta Hansen arranged the reunion and all the activities, which included mostly visiting and learning about the ancestry on that side of the family, and seeing the birthplace and homestead of their Grandpa Dean Hansen.

Day two, Friday: Chris had to leave camp and head home in the morning to get ready for work.  He worked all day then returned in the evening.  In the meantime, I was blessed to be able to hang out with my sisters-in-law.  Sarah and I worked out together in the morning, doing a few reps of calisthenics and a few Yoga stretches, which was so fun.  Then, while the cousins played and rode bikes in the campground, we had some "girl-chat" time!  Around noon, Veneta and Sarah left camp to go join the rest of the extended family for some of the reunion activities: visiting family plots in the cemeteries in Hatch and Bancroft.  I spent the afternoon with the kiddos, playing in the creek, going for walks, playing Uno, and just chilling!  When the rest of the adults returned, including Chris, we had a fun campfire, dinner and dutch oven cobbler.  We had a couple of deer pass through our campground a few times, which was delightful.  When we arrived at the campground, the camp host informed us that a 500 pound black bear had been frequenting the area recently, so the deer were welcome guests in comparison!

Day 3, Saturday: After we had a yummy breakfast of Pigs in a Blanket and scrambled eggs, we all freshened up and then loaded up in the car to drive down to Hatch, Idaho to visit the old Hatch School, Rachel Higginson Home, and the land where Chris' grandfather grew up.  It was so cold, especially for July, so at most of the stops the kids chose to stay in the car and play their DS's or watch a movie, while Chris and I took some photos and just soaked in the experience of being in the place where all these relatives had lived a humble and difficult life.  It was something to see and feel of the connection that everyone had while we were there.  After spending a few hours doing that, we took the kids and went back to the campground to feed them some dinner.  After dinner, we drove back down to Lava Hot Springs, where we met up at a church with the family again and looked at old photos, journals and video footage that had been collected.  It was especially meaningful for us to be able to see some of the old pictures of Chris' mother, Ellen, who passed away at the young age of 47.  Even the kids enjoyed getting to see and feel the spirit of this beautiful woman, their grandmother whom they've never met.

Day 4, Sunday: In the morning we enjoyed a last "camp" breakfast, including hot chocolate around the campfire.  Then we packed up camp and headed home.  A few minutes after we arrived at home, Chris dropped me and the kids off and went to take the trailer to the dumpstation in town and empty the tanks.  While he was away, we got a call from one of his closest cousins, Jeff.  He and his wife and cute little kids were passing by our house on their way from the reunion to Twin Falls, and decided to stop by and visit a little more, since we didn't get much chance to talk at the reunion.  It was great visiting with them, as it had been quite a while!  They are some good family. :)

Much to the kids' dismay, there were no fireworks on the agenda for our family this 4th of July, but they seemed content to have gotten to go camping and play with some of their cousins.

Of course, I have many, many photos from the weekend, so if you're interested in looking at all of them, I posted them in an album on my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=72391&id=1215145985&l=5f0bcc676f

Good times!!

Last weekend we enjoyed a really fun visit from my dad and his wife (aka: Grandpa and Grandma) who came to see us all the way from Michigan! We went to the hot springs in Lava on the first night, then the next day we went mini-golfing and then they spoiled us even more by taking us to see "Toy Story 3" in 3-D at the theater. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the kids or the grown-ups! We had lots of fun and mostly just enjoyed getting to spend time together.

After they left on Saturday morning, Chris and I packed the kids in the car with some drinks and snacks, and headed up into the mountains to explore a campground near a high mountain lake that Chris found on the recreation map. When we got up there, the road to the campground was closed because there was still so much snow on the ground. We just parked the car and took a little hike to get to the campground so we could see the lake. I'm not sure it's someplace we'd be able to get our camp trailer to, but it would be a fun place to go tent camping. Of course, we'll have to wait until August or September, if we want to go when there is NO snow on the ground!
Just look at that crystal clear water...so pretty!

Diamond Creek.

This past weekend and for part of this week, our family had planned a camping trip to go to a mountain lake that is in a highly sought after camping area. We had to make reservations clear back in January to get a spot in the campground near the lake. Unfortunately some changes in my husband's work schedule forced us to cancel the reservations and we weren't sure we'd get to do much of anything this weekend. We decided on Thursday, though, that we would, after all, be able to squeeze in a couple of days of camping, but we would just have to go someplace a little closer to home, and make it a shorter trip. We packed up and headed out Friday night after Chris got home from work, and even though we knew better, we were hopeful we'd find a campsite at a campground about 20 miles from our house. Of course, when we got to the campground, it was already after 8pm and it was full. We tried exploring some dirt roads around the campground where there are rustic, free camping areas, but even most of those areas were already occupied. We finally found a small spot with a fire pit, and just enough room to park our camp trailer. We didn't unpack anything, I just fed the kids something in the trailer, then we all went to bed. Early the next morning we hooked up and drove another 1 1/2 hours, through Soda Springs, to an area known as Diamond Creek. In the fall it is a popular place for hunters, since it is very mountainous, isolated and full of wildlife. Surprisingly, there weren't too many campers out this weekend, and we were able to find an AWESOME campsite, in the middle of nowhere! It was great, very private, quiet, and beautiful. We had so much fun exploring. We went on several hikes and drives where we saw lots of elk, deer, moose, snakes, animal tracks in the mud, and even some bear traces! The kids played in the creek, ran around with Zipper, played games and had a blast. Chris made walking sticks for everyone in the family with their names carved into them. The only drawback was the unbelievable amount of mosquitoes. We all got eaten alive, despite repeated applications of OFF! I think poor little Nick and Sophie both got the worst of it, with dozens of bites all over the place.

The first night, after the kids were in bed and Chris and I were enjoying the serenity and quiet, with the campfire going and the stars filling the sky, we heard rustling in the shrubs and turned on a flashlight to see a rabbit, or some kind of hare, had come right up to the trailer. Then there was another one, and the two of them jumped around within feet of us for a while before finally hopping away. On Saturday afternoon, we drove through a mountain pass to go to Afton, WY. It was a gorgeous drive: rolling, green hills in the foreground, snow capped mountains in the background. The best part of the trip was last night, around the campfire. Chris told the kids some stories, then we played Charades and had the kids (and us!) rolling with laughter. :) He is the best dad to our kids, and I love him so much for that. We spent Father's Day together as a family, out in nature, camping, breathing fresh pine air, and I know there's no where else Chris would have rather been.

To see the full photo album (50-some photos), see my Facebook page: Priscilla's Facebook Profile Page

A near perfect day.

Yesterday was a great day.  Chris had the day off, which doesn't happen too often these days, between all the training and overtime lately.  We started the morning off with both Chris and I being able to get in a good run, and since the sun was finally shining, it felt especially good.  Then, after I got back from grocery shopping (without the kids), we packed up a few things for a picnic dinner up in the mountains.  We drove just 12 miles from our house to a campground with a free day use area that has a big sandbox, horseshoes and a creek for the kids to play in, and  a trail head that takes a path that goes up high in the mountains.  We set up "camp", the portable grill to do some hamburgers for dinner, then started out as a family up the trail that goes a couple of miles uphill.  The kids did pretty well, only minimal complaining about the hike.  They really would have preferred to just play in the sand and creek the whole time, which is what they did after we returned from our hike.  Then we had a campfire, and the plan was to make s'mores, but somehow I inadvertently forgot to bring the graham crackers, so we just roasted some marshmallows.   After the kids got in some good play time, we packed up and headed back home, where the kids all had showers, then we had root beer floats while we watched "Rigoletto" as a family.  After the kids went to bed, Chris and I spent some alone time, watching "Evita".  The only bad part of the entire day was when I was gone at the grocery store and Nicolas fell down the stairs and hit his mouth, cutting his lip, tongue and knocking a tooth loose.  Chris said it took him a while to get the bleeding to stop.  The rest of the day his diet consisted of yogurt, pudding and ice cream, since he said it hurt too much to chew.

For just a moment...

There was a short-lived break in the clouds this afternoon, so I took the kids over to the park to ride their bikes.  I got some great photos of the beautiful flowering trees, oh, and some cute little guy named Nick on his bike!  (All the pics of the other kids turned out a little blurry...guess they ride a bit faster than Nick.)

Camping at Willard Bay State Park (Utah)

We were planning on going camping last week, and even had reserved a site (back in February!) at one of our favorite campgrounds up in Island Park.  Unfortunately, Chris was required to go to some Recon training for a couple of days and didn't find out about it until a couple of weeks before.  He is also training another trooper right now, and he has picked up some additional overtime shifts to cover summertime construction zones, so we were thinking we might not be able to get away for some camping fun until our next planned trip, which is at the end of June.  At the last minute we decided to go camp somewhere nearby on his two days off this week, but on Tuesday morning as I was preparing things so we could leave as soon as he got off work for the day, the temps were cold and the rain was coming down so I decided to get online and look up the weather for some other areas, maybe within an hour or two driving distance, and see if we could "drive into" better weather!  I found info on a state park on the northern end of the Great Salt Lake called Willard Bay.  The weather forecast looked much more promising than what was predicted for southeastern Idaho, so we decided to go for it.  I'm glad we did, because even though there was a short downpour on Tuesday evening, Wednesday was gorgeous all day - 80 degrees and sunny!  There were beach areas for the kids to play and swim, lots of nature trails, and the roads within the campground were paved so the kids were able to ride their bikes.  I was even able to get in my 3 mile run on Wednesday morning, and a 6 mile run this morning along the waters edge; it was so fun!  And now we're back home, where it's raining and 60 degrees.  :(

I've posted all the pics from our trip on my Facebook, so feel free to check them out there: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1215145985