An All-Natural Mud Bath

Friday night we went camping about 2 hours north of where we live. I admit that, at first, I tried to convince Fred that packing up all that stuff to camp just one night was a lot of work, but I am glad that he didn't listen to me! We had a great time! It rained Thursday night and so there was no shortage of mud, which was just fine for my boys! I am extremely proud of the mud puddle/lake that I made with my quad! When we left Mesa it was 99 degrees. When we arrived outside of Payson it was 64 degrees! It was so nice not to break out in a sweat from just standing up!
Amazingly we fit the six of us, our gear and Kobi (our yellow lab) in our Toyota Highlander and the trailer we pulled. Very creative packing! Our friends, the Harrold's, had arrived at the campsite earlier and set up camp, UP HILL! Thanks Josh and Sarah... it was really fun unpacking and packing! We brought our quads and on Saturday spent the day driving through the mud and getting really dirty!!!! Two elk ran in front of Fred and I when the two of us went on our quad ride and I was amazed at how big they were! The boys went exploring all over and even found a snake... peachy! Sarah says she doesn't camp but she did a mighty fine job cooking meals for all of us! I think she is really a master camper but doesn't want to show any of us up!







One of my favorite things about the campsite was how open it was. We were able to let Kobi run free and there were elk all around us. In the very early hours of the morning we could hear the elk walking around our camp and hear them calling to one another. I thought Kobi was going to have an anxiety attack because he wanted to protect us from all the big, bad wild animals and had a hard time relaxing. By the time we left on Saturday he was so exhausted that he didn't wake up when the kids were climbing on top of him!



It is amazing how entertained kids become with the outdoors when there is no t.v. or video games around. The sticks on the ground quickly became guns and swords and our campsite transformed into Star Wars! Jared loved the "petrified dinosaur egg" he found so much it went to church with us. Nathan has taken a step back in the potty trainnig area but he thought it was awesome that he could pee outside without getting into trouble! He didn't have an accident the whole time we were there!Derrick is still undecided about the whole camping thing. Derrick's highlight would probably be when Daddy let him suck on his apple.
I think when he is able to walk around and be "one of the boys" he will embrace it much more. He and I were sleeping bag buddies so that he kept warm when it went into the 50's that night! He had a good time playing in his port-a-crib while Star Wars battles and quading was going on all around him. He and Jett even hung out together in the crib. It's always good to have a buddy.



We stuffed ourselves on hot dogs, smores and anything unhealthy...except when Sarah made us Philly Cheesesteaks, French toast and Juevos Rancheros.




It is wonderful to live so close to lakes, camping and sand dunes. We certainly have a lot of opportunities to stay busy... you know, in our spare time! Ha, ha!!!!