Camping

I would like to preface this blog with a story about how it came to be...or rather how it almost came not to be. The night before we were to leave for the fresh air of the mountains, I pulled up in my Dad's car about 6:00 pm. We had been driving all day, coming back from Portland where we managed to find appropriate housing for our upcoming move. I was already exhausted, but walked in the door to discover a whole family of raccoons had been living in the fireplace, or I guess just above the flew. You could hear the little buggers screeching. Anyways Dan, Devin, a neighbor friend and 3 or 4 young men were in the living room trying to rid the chimney of the critters, so people were everywhere and you could hardly get from one room to the next. The neighbor friend brought his two little kids and so they played with my kids, not really a problem because it did entertain my kids. However, Coleman, one of the kids, is probably Dalin's most favorite person in the world and they tend to get a little over-excited when together. Add Braden to the list of wanting to do everything his brother does and you have the perfect storm of chaos. I was trying desperately to get everything packed and ready for camping, remember I'd just been out of town for several days so I haven't done much to get ready so far. I was also trying to help the men in any way I could and keep the kids away from the garbage can full of baby raccoons, 6 to be exact. The last little baby was stuck above the flew and that's what the guys were trying to do, get him unstuck. Dan felt guilty about killing the poor things, which is what our neighbor friend wanted to do, and so took it upon himself to save them. After all were safely removed, including a very angry mother, the men left and my house was in shambles. I think every toy that we own, inside and out, was strewn from wall to wall (I didn't know we had so much stuff), there was raccoon fur and droppings all over the living room carpet, newspaper everywhere, and a smell from the lovely nest the raccoons built coming from the fireplace. It was now 9:30 and way past bedtime, my kids were filthy and need of a bath and Landon was beginning to freak out, not to mention I was not even close to being ready to leave in the morning. Without Dan's help (he was now transporting the raccoons into the mountain to be released) I needed to load all the stuff into the van. I finally got Landon fed and in bed, managed to get the boys bathed and ready for bed, and thanks to a surprise visit from my mom, I got the house relatively cleaned up. At least is wasn't filthy anymore. I just wanted to fall into bed and watch the back of my eyelids, but knew I needed to make a little more progress with the camping gear. About an hour into it Dan called me and told me he was on the side of the freeway (I-84) and he had just hit a moose. No, you read correctly, a moose. Not only was that bad enough but he was driving my dad's new truck-oh, holy crap was my first thought. Luckily no one was injured but the truck didn't fare too well...I guess we're not going camping since my parents' no longer have a way to get there, I wanted to cry, but felt very grateful Dan wasn't hurt, it could've been a lot worse. But in the end it worked out because my dad's very nice brother let them borrow his truck, and the insurance company towed the vehicle to get it repaired. So after much turmoil leading up to this very fun camping trip we finally made it. I needed a vacation by the time we got there so I enjoyed every second of it. By the way...animal services took the raccoons and had them euthanized. Apparently they are not native to Utah and any captured are immediately disposed of. So much for Dan's conscience.

Braden and cousin Bailey being such big helpers. They moved a pile of wood that people kept tripping over. Braden kept saying "I'm so strong".

I took Braden, Kyla, and Bailey for a walk and they found a "lake". It was actually just a small stream of runoff water, but to them it was a lake. Can you tell what they're doing? Fishing. Landon's not too sure about this camping thing.

Braden, cousin Kyla, and Dalin set up their little chair facing this tree and when I asked them what they were doing they told me they were watching a movie. It was pretty funny.

Dalin and Kyla sporting their "pirate" hats.