4th of July Camping

Josh and I decided last year after another miserable 4th of July that we didn't ever want to be here in Gilbert again on the 4th. We started rallying family and friends to come camping with us. We got some committed families and in January we reserved our 4 sites at Canyon Point Campground right by Forest Lakes. We were so looking forward to this trip. It was ALOT of work to prepare, especially since this was really the first time we had been real camping as a family that wasn't with the ward. Josh was gone most of the nights leading up to departure, so I feel like I packed up most everything we needed, but we sure were excited to leave Thursday morning.

My sister Jennifer and her family were already there and getting their campground all set up, my other sister Nicole and her family were getting unloaded and after a few minutes of waiting for the group that was on our site to get packed up and leave, we were able to start unloading also.

We were sad that Ryan and Kerri couldn't come up together as a family, I sure did miss Kerri, but we were glad that Ryan was able to come up with his brother for the night. We cooked our Foil Dinners that night, and did Banana Boats for dessert, it was all yummy, and the evening was beautiful. Bedtime came early.

It was a good solid night of sleep except that our air matrice had a hole in it, and Josh was up taking Kobi to the bathroom at midnight, and Kruz and Kylee to the bathroom at 4:00 and then Kobi again. Did I say good solid night of sleep? Ya, we were up quite a bit, but at least slept in until 7:30. We got up and started cooking our breakfast burritos. Ohhh those were yummy. Just as we were finishing them, mom and dad showed up. We were all so glad to see them. They have been gone so much lately that we were all glad to spend some time with them. We cooked them some burritos and said good bye to Jen and Nicole's families. They were driving into Show Low to hike at the State Park. Ryan and Austin also left to head back home. We stayed at camp with my parents and had a fun game of wiffleball, and started making lunch. Then the rain started. ohh it rained hard. We stayed under the canopy most of the time, and then headed into our tents to rest for a bit. Luckily it didn't make things too wet or muddy. We had Foil Dinners again that night, except we had chicken, corn on the cob and zucchini. It was soo good. We had lots of left overs. Everyone came down to our fire ring to talk and do smores. YUMMY!!!

The kiddos went to bed and we stayed around the fire talking. At about 8:30 Marty and Dave and David and Michelle make it to camp.

We had a GREAT night of sleep that night. We slept perfect. Thanks Ryan for leaving us your air matrice. Saturday was great. The men and kids went fishing early today and didn't catch much, but certainly had a good time. We had Dutch Oven Cinnamon Rolls and Donuts for breakfast when they got home. Thanks Josh and Taylor. They were tasty. We decided to pack up and go fishing. Holy Cow the lake was PACKED. We couldn't even find a parking spot, and it started sprinkling. We found a place to park along the rim, waited for it to stop raining and then got out and took a walk. It was beautiful. When it started raining a little bit harder, we decided to head back to camp. We made a small lunch since it was really 2:00 and had an early dinner. We had Chili Dogs at about 4:30 and then quickly changed to leave for fireworks.

We have heard about the Heber Fireworks for the past few years We have been jealous of our friends who have been there, and not sweating to death. It was the true motivating factor is camping this year, and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!! The kids had a blast. We were there at 6:00 just before the sun went down. We were in Center Field of the Baseball Field, and the kids played kickball and football until it was too dark. The fireworks started at about 9:00 and they were amazing. we sat back in our chairs, maybe had a blanket on over our sweatshirts, and enjoyed every second of the fireworks. They were AMAZING.

We were exhausted going back to camp, all the kids fell asleep, and after we unloaded, we went to bed too.

This ended our camping trip. We were up early Sunday morning. Mom and dad helped us pack up, and it took awhile, and we were ready to go. PARK CITY....here we come.