Camping at Duck Creek

Since it was Mark's birthday last weekend and I couldn't get him what he really wanted (a new computer), we decided to go camping. I'd bought him a new 6 man tent for Christmas and we'd never even got it out of the box. Mark set it up the day before...

It is GINORM. I was laughing at how big it was. I mean, it's really nice being able to stand up (it's over 6 feet tall inside) and we could fit two queen airbeds side by side with room to spare, so it's a big improvement over our dinky old one. It does have a weird design in that the entire thing is mesh but has a giant rain cover, so there's either way too much ventilation or not enough. Oh well.

Mark got us a double camping spot up in Duck Creek campground (30 miles away from Cedar City). It is so pretty up there!

It's very mountainy. Where we live, everything is juniper and scrub brush, so it's nice to be among real spruce and aspen trees.

My sister Maria (who looked way too cute to be camping) came with her husband Shay and their two girls, Emery and Nora.

Nora is the cutest thing and was a good little camper.

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of camping, but then I realized...NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY!

There were a ton of chipmunks and squirrels chirping and scampering around.

Luke (who had been up the mountain three times in two days with Mark, checking things out), had the time of his life. There were big pointy sticks, a fire, dirt everywhere...he was in heaven.

♥

Shay even brought his bike and trailer for the kids. I have no idea how he managed to bring so much gear in their little car.

While Mark was chopping wood and Shay was off on his bike by himself, this doe came really close to our campground, so they didn't get to see it, but the rest of us did.

Luke got stuck...

Marshmallows! Oh look, I already had dark circles under my eyes. I have been so crazy busy lately and so tired. Good thing I only got woken up one thousand times during the night in the tent.

The moon

 

Each of the kids had a flashlight/glow stick, so they were whipping them around like light sabers all night.

 

 Shay and Maria brought a pan of Jiffy Pop, which Mark held over the fire for ages until it eventually popped. Then Luke decided that was going to be his dinner, since he wouldn't touch a hamburger or hot dog a couple of hours before. 

I think it was around midnight by the time Mark and I went to bed...the kids had been asleep for a while. We had a lovely night! Some people came to set up camp right next to us at 12:30am (using their truck's headlights....blowing up their air mattresses, chasing their dogs around....). Oh and then one of them came outside to vomit very loudly three different times during the night. (?!)

Then we had a big lightning/thunderstorm. Not much rain, but lots of flashing and noise and me lying there thinking how bad it was to be surrounded by tall trees. And then I had to get up and walk down the road to the restrooms with Luke at some ridiculous hour--he and Emery kept waking up and I had to take him with me. And it was cold...(56°) and I couldn't stay warm, and Luke sardined himself into my sleeping bag for the rest of the night. Anyway, I was relieved when morning came.

After we ate and packed up camp, we went over to the fishing pond down the road around 10:30am.

Mark and the kids had new fishing poles and they were so excited.

 

 There were several huge ospreys that would swoop down and catch fish with their feet. But the humans weren't having any luck, haha.

 

 Luke just wanted to throw rocks in the water the whole time, which scared away the fish...

 

Madelyn was really disappointed that she didn't catch anything, but it was her first time and she still had fun.

 

 Luke, helpfully throwing more rocks

 

I kept myself amused by walking around and taking pictures. It was gorgeous.

We got back home around 2:00pm and were completely exhausted and filthy and stinky. We did six loads of laundry and took baths and were so happy to see our own beds again. Ah, the great outdoors!