I had to work my usual Friday Saturday night shifts on Labor Day weekend, but had Monday off, so with our first days off together in months, we decided to run off for a camping trip. Since it's a popular weekend, we headed to the middle of no-where where we figured we'd find a campsite that was still unoccupied on a Sunday night. We went to the San Rafael Swell area in central-ish Utah. It ended up being really fun. Malcolm got to play in the dirt, we got to just kind of hang out and be in nature, it was great. We had a few setbacks, but nothing a little car insurance won't fix... yeah, you'll see. Here's the adventure, picture by picture.
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| We had invited the Titensors to join us, and when Malcolm found out that Denali wasn't actually coming, this was his reaction. (see him all ready in his coat and head lamp?) |
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| Our campsite. There was only us and one other set of campers. Thanks to the campsite being the most level and shaded, we ended up right next door to the only other guys there. Hope they didn't mind! :) |
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| After setting up camp and hanging out for a while, we went for a drive to see some sights. Starting with some pictographs... |
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| Someday when I say smile, I'll get something more like an actual smile... |
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| Wildflowers! |
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| Elliot may have been asleep in the car a few feet from us. Or maybe she was taking the picture. We have talented kids! |
After the pictographs we went looking for dinosaur footprints. We headed up a dirt road that looked doable, and got ourselves in a bit of a pickle. That is, this washed out, rocky ditch.
Our wonderful front wheel drive just wasn't quite enough to save us, and we ended up pulling off our bumper and damaging the drivers side door. Then some nice passers-by towed us out, and some other people were there to help too. They gave us a bungie cord to hold our bumper on, and gave the kids beanie baby bears! And suckers and gummie bears! They were seriously the nicest people and made at least me feel better. Looking back now we can kind of laugh about it, but at the time, it really, really, really sucked.
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| Back at camp for dinner. The setting sun was beautiful! |
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| Letting off steam chopping wood for the fire. :) |
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| Panoramic on my phone of our view from camp. |
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| We had grilled cheese in our pie irons and tomato soup I'd made from our tomatoes the day before. It was mighty tasty! And really easy for camp food. |
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| We'd left the battery powered lights in the camp stuff from Ryan's birthday in Yellowstone last year, so--Party tent! |
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| and some baby entertainment. |
Anyone who has camped with kids or traveled with kids at all really, will tell you that the first night is the hardest. So it's a little lame when it's only a one-nighter. I'm pretty sure we were up like 6 times that night feeding babies, changing poopy diapers, keeping children warm... so that's why the next morning picture looks like this:
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| We're so hot. |
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Malcolm loved camping and sleeping right next to on top of Daddy. |
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| Waiting for breakfast |
We spent the day making a slow trek home with lots of stops. We hiked up to a hole in a rock, and an old mine. We had lunch at the "Little Grand Canyon" and walked out to the tip of "The Wedge".
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| The Wedge |
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| Napping with his Beanie Baby friends. |
We stopped at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry and had a tour from one of the most enthusiastic grad students I've ever met. Yay Tyranosaurus teeth! (His big Thesis project or whatever was on Tyranosaurus teeth.)
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| Malcolm kind of just liked running around. |
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| Femur bone anyone? |
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| Go to your local museum and check out where the dinosaur bones were dug from, I bet you'll find some from here! Especially if it's an Allosaurus. It's one of the biggest concentrations of dinosaur bones anywhere in the world. See the Dirty Jobs episode where he's digging up and moving a big ol' dinosaur bone out in the desert? Yup, that's here. |
We then just picked a road on the map that connected Cleveland to Manti and took it. It ended up leading us past a really pretty reservoir we might make our final destination for a trip sometime. And then up over a mountain pass where we saw a big herd of sheep. It was a nice drive, and the kids tolerated it wonderfully!
We stopped by the temple in Manti and then got some dinner at a local spot, then headed home. It was a nice little trip. I have really missed camping this year with all my weekend shifts getting in the way.
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| Aren't they totes adorbs? |
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| Sitting so well! Wait for it... wait for it... |
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| There she goes! |
