My Family's Campout

Every year we have a camp out with my family. We have a great time, in my eyes anyway. This year Jay was the only one other than the missionaries that wasn't able to be there. So I got the three kids by myself. My family was good at helping me though when I needed a hand. The boys had so much fun being dirty and wet. Somehow Elly was almost as dirty as the boys at the end of each day and she just sat in my lap most of the time.

Elly started the trip out dirty since I let her try an indoor s'more on the way up. The kids really enjoyed our camping spot this year because not only was there the river, but we had a little stream on the other side of our camp too. It was perfect for the little kids, not deep enough for us to have to be right there the whole day. The older kids built two dams, one so they could dunk in it and the second was shallower so the little kids played in it.

Tyler trying to help in the building of the dams.

Mason and my brother. Both of them are pretty dirty and we had only been camping for a few hours.

Grandpa watching the babies. Elly had to get use to Grandpa. Almost every time he held her she would cry. She did finally sit with him and be happy. She was trying to get another tooth so I could blame it on that.

Mason with some of his cousins. The kids love to push these trucks all over the place. They also ride in them down the side of the bank into the water. They thought that was great fun.

You can see that puddle boots and shorts are a must for camping with these kids. The socks just have to be thrown away after.

By the time it is dark the kids were asking if they could go to bed. My boys never ask that so I knew that they had played hard. They were so tired that when they went to bed I don't think they moved all night.

When Tyler woke up the first morning he was so cute. He sat up and said, "Mom, that was the best sleep I have ever had." My kids don't sleeping very often but they did everyday that we were gone.

Elly was a great camper. She slept all night like she does when we are home. In the mornings she would just lay there and be happy until I was ready to get up and get us ready for the day.

My brothers were jumping their bikes off of this rock pile and Tyler thought that was pretty cool. He had to give it a try. he of course didn't get the big air that the big boys were getting, but he was still excited to get to try it. He didn't wipe out as big as they did either.

Mason with his cousin.

My happy campers. I don't know why Elly was crying here but she really was happy most of the time.

Grandma had this dinner bell that she let the kids ring when it was time to eat. Of course all the kids had to take a turn. They really like that.

A bunch of the grand kids and a couple of my brothers and a sister freezing after they had been playing and dunking in the water. The parents stood on the side and actually encouraged the kids to all get in and see who could dunk first or who could do a cannon ball in the water first. It is funny to watch these kids. They were all pretty funny.

Tyler dunked but he didn't get the back of his head when he went down. The water was pretty clear until all the kids started jumping in then it turn brown.

Mason wanted to get in the deeper water until he got in to his waste and then he wanted nothing to do with it. He did have fun in the shallow water.

Mason with his cousins his age. We decided it was better if they had on less clothes.

Elly with Uncle McKay, while I got the pictures of the kids.

My wet, dirty and cold little boys.

The OREO eaters. I don't know how many bags of Oreo we went through, a bunch anyway. The kids loved being able to eat as many as they wanted. I think that was probably my sisters favorite part of camping, Oreo's are her favorite. I tell her that Mason was probably suppose to be her kids because her two favorite things are his too, Oreo's and Kit Kats.

It is funny how kids all love flashlights. Mason loved it and would shine it on all the bugs in the tent until I got them all killed. he was pretty excited that I brought him his own flashlight.

The group of thumb suckers. Grandpa got to watch these two kids for us while we cleaned up part of the camp. He probably would have rather cleaned because they weren't the happiest at this point.

The kids and I right before we headed home. We had a lot of fun. We love to got camping. I have lots of great memories of going camping as a kid. I hope that my kids will have great memories too. Camping is a great break from daily life. I love it because they can get as dirty as they want and I don't have to keep telling them to clean up there mess. We had a great time and wish that Jay could have come with us. Sorry about the picture but we had been camping for a few days, in tents not trailers.