Wednesday, July 22, 2009










After 10 years without, Howard and I broke down and bought a tent on Monday. We then proceeded to take the girls camping overnight. Not too far, just to Cherry Creek Resevoir. We set up camp, ate lunch and headed to the water. We had a grand time. We waited out a little bit of rain and then swam again. Laura had a blast playing in the sand. She was covered from head to to toe. She also learned how to throw it.
After we swam we headed back to our site.
We showered, built a lovely fire and made dinner. Laura was kind enough to feed her hot dog to her shirt, the ground, mush it a little, cover it in dirt and then try to share with Annie. The kids also got to experience burning marshmallows and also sticking theminto the wood or dirt.
We played Aye, Aye Nephi, then taught the girls to play war and introduced Emma to SlapJack. Emma was fading fast due to the Benadryl so the girls went to bed around 9:45. Also the time it started sprinkling.
Howard and I were looking forward to staying up burning stuff while the kids slept. It was not to be, as there was a serious storm which decided to turn into a tornado warning with sirens and everything.
For the record, being in a tent during said tornado warning with 4 little girls is not a fun experience. Sarah slept through the whole thing. We had to wake Emma up and move her as she was in a puddle. Annie was pretty freaked, which is about par for her as she is a bit, um, dramatic. We ended up praying to be safe and singing church songs. Its a lot harder to sing with other people when you can't hear them singing due to the loudness of the wind. Also its a bit disconcerting to have the wind whip the tent around.
Finally the storm was over,prayers of thanks were said, and the baby was awake. Howard and I set about reorganizing the tent so the girls would be dry. I ended up taking Laura on a drive for 30 minutes to get her back to sleep.
The girls ended up on our air mattress. I slept across their feet on top of the damp sleeping bags with my pj pants wet halfway to my knees. Howard slept squished between the air mattres and Sarah (who was in the only dry spot) on a damp sleeping bag with only a towel for a cover. It wasn't really cold but sleeping while wet and contorted is no fun. Eventually Howard's muscles rebelled and he switched places with me. He was smart enough to move the girls and sleep between them.
After all this, Laura woke up a little after 6 and was singing with joy. We had plans to stay all day. After that night though we made breakfast, took down camp and were home by 10am. It was an experience. This is some of the water pooled on the tarp under out tent.
We intend to go out camping at least once more this summer. Preferably when there is no rain/tornado warning and not in the Cottonwood loop, as Emma is allergic.

2 comments:

Riddle Girl said...

WOW...It truly sounds like some memories were made on this trip-both good, bad and scary! Glad you are all safe!

Patty said...

What a crazy trip! Sounds like fun though!