Our First Camping Trip

Okay, not Kris's first...but me and the kids, it was our first camping trip.  Yes, that's right...I made it 31 years without going camping.  No, that's not a mistake.  31 years.  

Girl's Camp apparently doesn't count, although for the record, I did sleep in a tent my first year.  On a cot.  With a sleeping bag.  I also cleaned my first toilet my first year at Girl's Camp.  But, I digress...

Since there was debate about whether or not I would ENJOY camping, we didn't invest any money in the trip and just borrowed some equipment from Kris's old (and flippin' awesome) bishop, Bishop Quigley.  He did great...tent, sleeping bags, mats, tarps, chairs and tables.  I think he wanted to make sure Kris had every opportunity to convince me how great camping is.:)  

We spent two nights up in the South Hills (Friday and Saturday) with Kris's family.  After Friday night, I was super glad when David & Nicki volunteered  Saturday morning to go get extra blankets and our air mattress for me and Jack.  Friday night was sort of a...well, it wasn't fun.  I laid awake shivering, with little people on all sides of me.  I kept waking them up with my shivering.  It was out of control.  The air mattress made that second night WAY more tolerable!  Like, I could probably enjoy camping if I had an air mattress.

There was a latrine bathroom (that's what Kris called it...it was an outhouse.  I may not be a camper, but I know an outhouse when I see it).  Annie was a total trooper.  After pooping in a bucket after we first got there (it was just she and I at the campsite and the bathroom was nowhere to be found), we found the bathroom.  She said, "Mom, it's a fall potty."  I asked her what she meant.  She said, "Like, I could fall in it."  And she laughed and laughed, like she had said the funniest thing ever.  It was fantastic.  The next morning we were in the bathroom together and I said, "Annie, it stinks SO bad in here," and she looked at me, took a big ole' whiff of bathroom and said, "No, it smells like fresh air."  WHO IS THIS KID?!

The kids really had a ball.  They ate dirt and ran and played and were so exhausted.  And that was awesome.  

 We roasted marshmellows and hot dogs and did some dutch oven-ing.  (P.S. I might just be the Queen of the Dutch Oven...at least in our family.)  We even did a little hiking.

It was really fun for me to get to spend time with Kris's family.  They have never really had longer than a week or two at a time to get to know me and even then I was always on my best behavior (I know, right?!).  The last couple months it has been eye-opening and frustrating and wonderful getting to find my place within this family.