Camping Trip II - the Sequel

Everyone had so much fun on our first camping trip, that just two weeks later we were up in the mountains again!  This time, we decided to try and be really, really brave and try to camp for TWO NIGHTS instead of one.  Crazy, we know.

We went to the Tanner Flats campground up Little Cottonwood canyon this time.  We loaded up and were soon at our campsite, where Preston quickly had a fire burning and our traditional tin foil dinners cooking.  The kids and I set up our camp chairs and scouted around.  We found the all-important location of the bathrooms and chased some chipmunks and squirrels.  Preston set about putting up the tent, and right after he did...it started to rain. 

Then it rained harder. 

Next thing we knew, instead of sitting around our campfire, we were all sitting in our SUV looking out at the raindrops pelting the forest.  It rained pretty good for about half an hour.  The upside to this was that the noisy people in the camp site next to us decided to pack it in and went home.   (I am sure they were telling each other on their way home that between the rain and all those noisy kids at the neighboring campsite they had made a good decision to leave :-).  After the downpour turned into a drizzle, Preston ducked out to check on the fire and our dinners.  The fire had miraculously survived the downpour, and our dinners were ready!  Yay Preston!  It was still drizzling pretty good and our camp chairs each had a puddle where our bums were supposed to be, so we decided to eat dinner in the tent.  The kids thought it was superduper fun. Here are Dax and Cora, waiting for Preston to unwrap their dinners:

Our camping chef:

After dinner was over, it had pretty much stopped raining.  We ventured back outside, dumped off our camping chairs and (most of us) found our jackets.  It was nice to feel a little chilly for a change.  We ran around chasing some more squirrels, and just enjoyed ourselves until our chairs had dried out enough for Cora's (and my) favorite camping moment - Smores.

Before long, it was dark, and time for some spooky stories!  Here is Cora's turn:

Here is Dax, whose story wasn't nearly as disturbing as last campout, which I was glad about.  I told a story about some dinosaur bones that came to life and chased a paleontologist around a museum.  It is so hard for me to tell a story without laughing because as long as I am talking in a "spooky" voice, Daxton just stares with these huge eyes and a horrified look on his face.   It. Is. Awesome.  When it is his turn, he is all smiles.

After the stories were over and we were brushing our teeth, Cora discovered something that WAS actually spooky.  Or at least creepy.  It is hard to see in this little picture, but a little mouse came running into our campsite to clean up our graham cracker crumbs.  He is crouching right by the leg of the picnic table:

Ew.  Anyway, after we got all settled down, the kids did really well again with going to sleep.  The secret we have discovered is let them stay up until they are dead on their feet and then turn off the flashlight so it is pitch black dark, and voila.  Instant sleeping. 

Too bad they have not yet figured out how to sleep in. 

Dax and Cora were up at the usual time (7ish) the next morning, and everyone was a little grouchy.  We ate our breakfasts around the campfire and walked around the campground a little.  Then we headed up to Alta, planning on doing the mile-ish hike up to Cecret Lake.  Unfortunately, we were informed that the parking lot at the Cecret Lake trail head was full, so we could either wait for a shuttle van that came every 15-30 minutes and could fit about 8 people, or we could walk an extra couple of miles up the "Albion meadows" hike.  Since there were about 20 people waiting for the shuttle, we decided to take the hike.  It was all uphill, but I was amazed at all of the wildflowers that were still blooming.  Here is my Cora, in a field of flowers:

Arden wanted to get in on the action too.  Isn't see a toothless beauty?  I love this picture.

Here are a few shots of the flowers.  I wish I could have done a better job of taking pictures.  There were just fields and fields of them!

Arden and Dax were practically running up the hill because every so often was a sign that gave some information about a different animal.  Cora was still a little tired from the night before, and I pretty much carried her the whole way up that hill.  After a couple of miles, our trail merged with the Cecret Lake trail, and it started to get rocky.  Here are the kids on a great big rock!

The last half mile or so up to the lake is pretty much a switchback up a rock cliff. Cora, at this point, decided she was going to get a rock climber, and she climbed up that whole cliff by herself.  She was so proud of herself, and I was very thankful that she was finally moving under her own power.   Finally, we were here!

It was fun to see the snow that was still up there, and some teenagers had walked around the lake and were sliding down the snow on their backsides.  The kids thought that looked like fun, but I didn't want to walk around to the other side of the lake because there was no trail and because I am a mean mom.  We were all nice and toasty warm after our walk up the hill, but there is no swimming or wading in the lake, so we had to be happy poking the water with sticks.  We sat and and had a break and ate some fruit snacks and granola bars. 

After our snack break, it was time to head back down.  Cora again, bravely climbed down the steep rock switchbacks, but after we were back on the flats, I was carrying her again.  *Sigh* 

By this time we were all pretty tired out and decided to try and take the shuttle from the trail head parking lot back down to our car instead of hiking.  Luckily, there were only a few people waiting and the van pulled up just as we got there!  Woohoo! 

We decided to head to Snowbird for lunch, because by this time it was coming up on two o'clock and Preston knew that if I didn't eat food soon I was going to start getting "Hangry," which is a combination of Hungry and Angry.  (When I get hungry, I tend to get juuuust a little bit grouchy).   We told the kids that after lunch we would do the alpine slide before we headed back to camp.

We found a Mexican restaurant over at the Cliff Lodge with semi-reasonable prices and decided to eat outside since it was so nice.  We ate some chips and salsa while we waited for our lunches to be ready.  All of the sudden, a few drops started falling on the yellow tarps above our heads.  Then the sky opened:

The picture, again, is NOT doing justice to reality.  It rained.  It poured.  It hailed. The temperature dropped 15 degrees. The patio quickly emptied into the restaurant building, and people ran for cover.  We ate our food as slowly as we could but it was still POURING when we were done.  Preston decided we should get dessert.  I got hot chocolate because it was cold.  Dessert was gone, and still it rained.  Our car was quite a hike away, and there was no way we would make it without being soaked to the bone, which didn't sound like much fun.  Someone had pity on us and told us an arcade in the building for the hotel guests.  We headed in and wasted a some quarters playing racing games, air hockey (the kids were surprisingly good at this), and winning some 5 cent bouncy balls from a silly game that cost 50 cents each time.  Oh well, the kids were entertained.  Finally, after our quarters were gone, the rain had stopped. 

Unfortunately, the Alpine slide was still closed, which caused much whining.  We let the kids "pan" for gold (or at least pretty rocks) instead, since that was open. 

After that, we headed back down to our campground and dumped the water off our camp chairs again.  Preston made us some dutch oven cobbler while we examined our rocks and we roasted hot dogs for dinner.  We took a walk down to the creek, and it was much higher and much muddier than it had been that morning!  We also finally got a picture of this little garter snake that had been sharing our campground with us.  The kids thought they were so lucky to be able to see so many animals at our campground!  I, on the other hand, I would much rather have seen more animals like deer or rabbits, and not so much with the mice and snakes.  I know, I am weird. 

After dinner, the kids wanted to tell spooky stories again, since apparently that is your only option for sitting around the campfire.  I tried to get them to sing songs with me, but they weren't having it.  Spooky stories it was.  Unfortunately the kids had used up all of their good material the night before.  This time, they pretty much took the flashlight and shined it on things, and pointed them out in spooky voices, like so:  "Once upon a time...there was...a tree!"  (shine light on tree).  "Then, there was, a Cora!" (shine light on Cora, who giggles uncontrollably).  Not much plot.  I cooked a couple more Smores to amuse myself.

We stayed up until the stars were shining, and I tried again to point out the Big Dipper, unsuccessfully.  That night the kids slept pretty well again.  On the other hand, I didn't sleep much at all.  Preston snores a lot while we are camping because he is only comfortable on his back on his flimsy camping mat, and when he sleeps on his back, he snores.  Also, I lay awake for about an hour trying to talk myself out of a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip I really didn't want to take (I did end up having to take my blind, contact-less self down the road to the bathroom with only a very small flashlight as my guide, hoping that all of the stories I had told Daxton about there not being any bears in the canyon were true).  Dax, again, was up by around seven in the morning.  Me and Cora were just a little tired sitting around the campfire the next morning:

A few Smores helped liven me up.  As we were getting ready to clean up and head home, this silly little bird came wandering into our campsite.  It was not very fast, and was walking way to close to the kids.  Dax, of course, started chasing it and actually picked the poor thing up by its wings.  Preston made him let it go, but it kept hanging around our campsite and Dax and Cora both kept chasing it around and almost catching it.  Finally, Preston had to pick it up on some wood to keep it from being squeezed to death by preschoolers:

This poor bird was not very fast, and very, very stupid.  I am pretty sure it is dead now. 

Anyway, we packed up all our stuff, put our fire out, and headed home.  Everyone needed a bath and a nap, but we had a fun time!  Who wants to go camping?