First Ever Family Camping Trip

We took advantage of the long weekend and went camping in Utah's west desert -- our first camping outing as a family.  Ash was stoked.  I was skeptical.  I have been camping a handful of times.  My first camping trip as a child was a mild disaster (cut foot + someone pouring boiling water on my foot whilst making us kids mac & cheese), and other than that I have done 'lake camping' a handful of times, which basically involved drinking until I passed out on the beach (tent optional).

So, our plan was to go to the Simpson Springs campground about an hour and a half from our house and stay two nights.  It's a very primitive campground with the only 'amenities' being a port-a-potty, picnic table, and a grill.  Activities during the day would mainly include rock hounding at Dugway (for geodes) and Topaz Mountain (for....topaz....).  No cell phone reception, no water source.  Us, the car, a tent, some supplies/food.  Good times.

The campsite.

We had a nice, generally relaxing time.  Camping is a lot of work.  A lot of prep work, too.  We slept great in the tent, no weird animal encounters, which I was grateful for.  We had read accounts of people waking up and a herd of antelope being around them.  Ummmm, no thanks.  The kids had a blast.  S'mores and campfires and stars were very popular.  Harper also found new bugs to obsess over (have I mentioned how obsessed he is with bugs!)  Helena was very good at finding jewels at Topaz Mountain (I'll detail those finds once we go through everything and get it cleaned up!)

Helena finding jewels (I assure you she isn't really on the side of a mountain!).  She looks like quite the mountain goat here!

Extremely typical driving view....

I'm only putting in this pic to prove I was there (someone needs a tan STAT!)

Indian paintbrush flower.  Lots of cool desert flowers in bloom right now.

This one's for you, Papa Larry -- Helena & Harper at the Pony Express station by our campground.  I blew Helena's mind explaining the Pony Express and why they had to do things the way they did.  (What? No cars or telephones!!!)  Something I learned at the monument -- did you know the Pony Express only 'ran' for a little over a year?

 We ended up cutting the second day short because I was kind of done and wanted a day to get everything put away, etc. before we had to go back to work / school.  So we stayed most of Saturday/ Saturday night and most of Sunday.  We had also run out of firewood and our food was getting warm from also running out of ice.

Things we will remember to bring next time:

TWO pot holders

A watch

A bandana for mama (long hair + desert + wind = disaster)

More ice

More firewood

More shade

ALL of the food I so carefully pre-prepared (I forgot one whole meal!)

Amenities I would like for next time:

Water source (for entertainment & so it feels like you kind of took a bath)

Friends (kids would have been more entertained if we had some company...)

Nature encounters:

Antelope

Caterpillars

Giant Beetles

Butterflies

Possible Polygamists (just kidding...kind of...)

Harper taking a smoothie / water break.

Happy Campers! S'mores time! Helena decided to stuff chocolate inside the marshmallow.  DELISH!

-Emily :)

Desolation Trail (Not a metaphor for Mother's Day)

Decided to do breakfast and a little hike today for Mother's Day.  The kids woke up early (of course!) and we were out the door by 7:15 am.  We had some yummy sustenance then headed for Millcreek Canyon to hike Desolation Trail.

Millcreek Canyon is one of the most accessible from the city, but we haven't explored it a lot for some reason.  It's a nice place to go early in the season since the snow hasn't completely melted up in the other canyons quite yet.  We are royalty in terms of getting ourselves into snow we shouldn't be in during the spring  / summertime.

I forgot our Kelty backpack kid carrier, so Harper was mostly on his own for the 4 mile round trip hike.  He did really well-- probably hiked two-thirds of it by himself and the other third was spent on my back or shoulders.  He may have taken a little cat nap at one point.  Definitely took a good nap when we got home. :)  Both kids said their legs were sore.  Ha!  Definitely glad we got an early start on our adventure since it took longer than we had planned.

Our destination:  Overlook to Salt Lake City.  The area to the right of the mountains is the Great Salt Lake.

We made it!

Ugh, finally...they let me have a snack.  Second wind was right around the corner.

We decided on the hike we are going to reinstate our Sunday morning family adventures.  We will probably do a hike most of the time and keep track of our trails here.

Summary of today's hike:

Miles hiked: 4
Time: 3+ hours
Weather: Sunny, 65-70
Nature encounters: wildflowers, fuzzy caterpillar, swallowtail butterfly (yellow & black), orange mushrooms, chipmunk, termites, giant ants, pieces of a porcupine (the 'fur').
Comments: Pretty long for the kids, gradual switchbacks, pretty busy.  Would be a little hot in summer.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!  I am so blessed to have a great mom, step-mom, grandmothers and wonderful mom friends all around me. :)

-Emily