We went camping over the weekend! Ben and I took the kids and every camping item we own and went 30 minutes up the road into the winding canyon. We went to the free area past Salamander Flats with no water and no toilets! We found our spot and within 5 minutes the kids were COVERED in dirt! Millie was eating EVERYTHING. We set up camp and explored the area and then started baking in the heat of the afternoon.

It was too hot to sit around in our campsite so we drove down to Tibble Fork Resevoir and put our feet in and walked around the shore. Millie napped the whole time so Ben watched us from the car.

Back at camp we started a fire so that we could make our pudgy pie pizzas for dinner. They were delicious. We also roasted some corn in the fire – so yummy. It was hard trying to make individual pizzas for all of these hungry kids. We did burn a few. And Millie did need constant attention to keep her out of the dirt.

The boys were SOO excited about the little orange tent. I thought they would be too scared to use it but they proved me wrong. They loved it. I did have to get up at 2:30am because Packer had gotten out to get a drink and Benji wouldn’t let him back in because the zipper was stuck and they needed help 🙂 I was happy to go save my little boys! We tried the smore’s in a waffle cone that night- and they were DELISH! Luckily my brother Joel showed up at just the right time and he helped all of the kids roast the gooey yumminess.

As we sat around the campfire that night Ben and I realized that we had never been camping by ourselves with just our kids – we are always with family or friends. It was a good day for our family. It was good to be able to give attention and help each child and not lose them in a crowd of cousins. Packer LOVED being with just Benji. These 6 little people wore us out but we love them so much and to see the fun they were having made it all worth the work.

Friday morning Ben took the kids on a little nature hike around camp. They loved the butterflies. I got some breakfast started and we filled our tummies.

We ended up with all three of our tents set up because the girls thought they wanted to sleep in one. They got to nervous the first night but they did sleep in it the 2nd night. They were too exhausted to be scared. After breakfast we hung out and read a few stories and explored and tried to find shade. There wasn’t any shade so we had to go find some.

We drove down the mountain to the turn off and then UP to Silver Lake. The really curvy roads were not fun. Raymond was our only barfer. The 3 miles up on a dirt road was pretty adventurous and had a great view of the lake we had been to the day before.

We found a beautiful spot with some shade and put our feet in the water and had a picnic and got ANNOYED BY HUNDREDS OF DUMB FLIES!!

So then we went around to the sunny shadeless side of the lake and there were NO FLIES and it was actually pretty nice. We wished we had brought fishing poles and chairs and a raft… next time.

We made it back to camp and we huddled in the shade of our umbrella while Ben started our Dutch Oven Dinner. Jamie and her kids arrived shortly after and started setting up camp and making a fire for tinfoil dinners. Mom and Dad Netty showed up next and cooked their dinners. Matt joined us. And as we finished dinner Pete and Amanda and kids showed up and then Udine and his boys. We ended up with 7 tents and lots of Happy Dirty Cousins. We played Bocce Ball and explored and ate…

After Dinner Jamie got out her Guitar and campfire music and we had a little campfire singing. Mom and Dad had to head home and then we sat around the fire and told stories about the Nettesheim childhood. There were lots of fun ones and the kids were very intrigued. We also roasted marshmallows of course and one by one I put the kids to bed as they got toooo tired to go on 🙂

Saturday morning we tried to keep kids quiet as long as we could but that was only until 7:30. Millie had been crazy baby in my bed all night so that was no fun (the main problem was I have just finished nursing her BUT she just wanted to nurse back to sleep all night – not good timing) but the other kids slept great. I made some HC for everyone and then we started packing up camp and let the kids play. We had a big breakfast with all of the cousins and then we really started breaking down camp. Millie was being beastly tired but wouldn’t sleep. We had to have lots of help packing up but were glad to have Nieces and nephews and Sister in Laws to help out a ton. After we were 100% packed up we drove up the road to Cascade Springs. We hiked through the springs and enjoyed the morning before loading back in the dusty van and heading home. Oh Yeah, Brewer was with us the whole time – he ENJOYED the adventure and did really well.

We got home in the early afternoon and it took everything we had not to crash and nap… But we got everything unloaded and put away and laundry started – definitely the WORST parts of camping. WE BATHED for days to get all of the DIRT off and Ben even mowed the lawn and grocery shopped before we crashed on the couch for the night. CAMPING really is an adventure. We are glad we put in the effort and made the memory. Maybe we will do it again soon 🙂