It's Worth It

We spent four days up at Carter Creek Camp.
It is the Air Force Base Campground in the Uintas.

Since school is about to start, I thought it would be 

good to freshen up on some math skills:

Camping for a Parent = 89% Work + 11% Relaxing

Camping for a Kid = 0.5% Work + 99.5 Fun

But that 11% of the time is worth it...

Here is the whole family in front of one of the cabins:

This is a little place we liked to call "Hammock Heaven"

Doesn't it just scream relaxation?

 

Here is our cabin.  Cute right?

It had a kitchen and two bedrooms.

I was lucky enough to share a bed with Natalie and Gage.

Most of my nights fell into the 89% category.

I didn't catch too many zzzzz's. 

I was blessed with one good night.  So I was grateful for that!

 

We did lots of riding around.

The Honda 90's were a hit with the boys.

 

Gage loved riding on anything he could get his hands on.

All it took was someone to ask, "Do you want to go for a ride?"

and he was off, running towards the machines.

 

I stole this pic from Brighton.  Check out that group of kids riding through a river!

Libby told me all about it when they got back.

They got their feet wet!

One afternoon we went on a nature hike.  

The kids were Jr. Rangers and found all sorts of cool stuff 

like mountain lion tracks, snake grass, beaver logs, butterflies, etc.

 

The next day some of us went for a hike to see the beaver dam.

We soon discovered that the Spring runoff had been too much for the logs.

The dam broke and wiped out this whole valley. 

It was such a cool place to explore.

We climbed over logs and got stuck in the mud.

My whole foot went into a big pile of "quicksand"

I was a muddy mess.  It was quite humorous.

Especially for those who watched me sink.

 

This picture made me laugh because I thought 

Dax was taking a close-up on Gage and Cord.

In my mind, I was totally leaning out of the photo.

or not.  

Natty looks funny too!

 

We had plenty of good meals and good times around the fire.

One evening, Granny-B was putting some easy cheese on crackers for the kids.

She made them cute faces to eat.

Gage loved licking the cheese off the crackers.

Libby tried to like it, but had to resort to just getting her crackers bare.

Natty liked to munch them up like a squirrel.

I didn't even attempt to eat one.  Cheese from a can gives me the willies.

 

The kids played and played and played.

It was fun to watch them get covered in dirt.

Keeping track of little brother was a ton of work.

He mistook himself for a 5 year old.

He was running around camp like a wild man.

I was worn out just keeping up with him.

 

We live in such a beautiful place.

Cord always finds time to tickle the girls and wrestle with Gage.
They love it!  I feel lucky to be part of this group.

Some of the other things that made the 11%

• Riding on the back of the Honda 90, with my arms around Cord.  Talking, feeling the wind on our faces, and zooming around the mountainside.
• Natalie waking up in the middle of the night to Gage's fussing and her darling attempt to sing him his favorite song while still half-asleep and dreaming. 
• Letting the kids take off their shoes and dip their feet in the stream by the beaver dam.  Giggling at Gage who took off more than just his shoes.
• Lorna whisking Gage away from the lake for 30 minutes, so I could have a break from lifeguard duty.  The little buddy really wanted to do some fishing with the big kids.  But, Gage's idea of fishing is a bit more hands on than the standard cast from the shore method.
• Sitting in the back of the Ranger with Cord and sleeping-Gage during a huge micro-burst storm.  Watching the rain pour down through the forest, hearing it drop on the canopy top, and snuggling with my two boys.
• Taking a nice hot shower in the shower house.
• Holding hands with Libby on our nature walk and taking pictures of all the different kinds of wildflowers.

We won't focus on the other 89%

:)