Spring Creek Campout

Evelyn wanted to clean her room. I was happy. She wanted/needed my help. I was sad. She wanted to earn a special movie night, this was the perfect chance! Evelyn and Josie literally spent all day sort of cleaning their room. I worked on tidying the loft after I went grocery shopping. They had not accomplished much by the time I got back. I was also helping Amelia finish up her room organization. Every so often I would pop my head and and make a suggestion to focus on putting shoes away, or books back in the shelf, or laundry picked up. Slowly but surely, the little girls accomplished their goal. Yay! It was too late for the reward that night but we certainly partied the next night. Evelyn spent a few hours organizing a spa experience with manicures, pedicures, massages, and facials. She had all the supplies neatly organized and ready for girl’s night. She and Josie decorated the loft with signs and paper banners. Oliver helped set up the cheetah tent, the girls stuffed it with comfy pillow and blankets. We watched the original Parent Trap movie, relieved they changed from Cool Runnings. Evelyn worked on my toes first, got a soak, lotion, nail trimmed, and new polish. Josie had her nails painted by me. I also painted Evelyn’s nails after she got a soak and trim. We stopped the movie for scriptures. I made whirly popcorn, blows the gross microwave popcorn out of the water. We snuggled in the tent with sugar and popcorn until 11:30 pm finishing the movie. Evelyn was hyped up and exhausted at the same time. She finally fell asleep at 1 am. I loved that reward! 

I worked feverishly to finish Hannah’s baptism photos and little Dahlia’s newborn gallery before we went camping. I still have Amelia Stuart’s gallery to edit. I need to decide how to manage photography and full-time work. Photography is creeping over to the overwhelming side.  

We spent Friday getting ready for camping, the laundry, checking the sleeping pads, gathering the food, precooking meat, and all that jazz. Evelyn was beyond bored, she almost expired again. I am glad she pulled it together! Oliver and Evelyn amused themselves making cardboard box flip flops to use camping…whatever it takes! Saturday Dusty borrowed a friend’s camping trailer stocked with some tents, stoves, utensils, and room for all of our joint stuff. Justin help direct the boys with the kayaks and stuffing the trailer. Dusty drove our truck and trailer. I rode with Sara driving the girls plus poor Oliver stuck between the little girls. We had fun using the radios while driving up to Spring Creek. Fergus starting barking like crazy, we thought he had to potty, stopped in Weiser for a bathroom break. He just wanted to explore, we used the bathroom instead. The campground was way off the paved roads, 45 minutes of terribly smoothed gravel roads! The road vastly improved once we passed onto State Park land…guess the county has different maintenance standards. Spring Creek campground is a magical place. The hosts were exceptional. They let us switch from 3 separate campsites to the one large site a group vacated a day early! We were thrilled to be in the same spot. Our new spot was between a hiking trail and spring creek. We got our tents popped up, bedding arranged, hammocks hung, and camp chairs set up. We were ready for…the joy of relaxation. The kids immediately scattered to explore the creek. The forest had a magical fairy quality to it with filtered light, delicate flowers, and FERNS! Yes! Ferns. Fergus was living his best dog life getting his paws wet then muddy layered with pine needles. He ate several pounds of dirt, rocks, sticks, ants, and leftover wrappers. We easily fit 6 large tents, because of course the boys couldn’t share with the deacons, and the teen girls wanted their own space. Dusty grilled up Lake Powell chicken for dinner, sided with potato salad, corn salad, fruit, and chips. We did not bring much water because the website advertised drinking water. Turns out the water main was damaged in a flood three weeks prior…no water. The camp hosts gave us two packages of water bottles, a large refillable water jug, and 3 gallons of water! We were very grateful. The creek kept our drinks quite cool when we left several packages of water in the creek. Eliza introduced us to stuffed sugar cones for dessert, sugar cones stuffed with marshmallows, rolos, toffee, and chocolate, wrapped up in foil then toasted over the fire. Carson and Cass entertained Josie for hours in the hammocks. Jocelyn and Natalya went exploring with Oliver and Evelyn. Kids were everywhere! I busted out several skeins of yarn for those who wanted to learn crochet. Amelia made a goal to learn this summer! Soon Amelia, Cass, Jocelyn, Jayden, Logan, and Everett were all learning the basics of crochet! Amelia and Everett caught on very quickly. Everett crocheted a scarf and blanket for his monkey, then started making his first stuffed frog animal. Amelia crocheted 2 frogs. Cassadie already knew how to crochet so whipped through the pattern quickly. We had a table stocked with fun games when boredom hit. Justin finally made it around 10 pm! I was sure he was going to stay home when he did not arrive by dark….yay! I am proud of him for making it up. Our tent was on an incline, the little girls woke up the next morning scrunched up near the bottom of the tent. I kept sliding down too, had to scoot myself up several times. Justin kept me awake most of the night with the creaky sounds the air mattress made. He is a wiggle butt, so basically every few minutes the air mattress squeaked and squawked.  

Justin almost lost his life stealing 7 pieces of bacon while the adults were all making breakfast. The kids were annoyed and the adults were upset (well just Sara and I). Everyone else was limited to 2 pieces of bacon…Justin still got two more pieces when he got his plate served. Stinker…you are not the bacon God.  Most of us went on a hike up to Sturgill Peak, we heard the view of the Hitt range was amazing. The elevation change went from 4900 to 7,289 feet! That was steep! Josie barely made it, her trusty hiking stick helped out tremendously. The view was rewarding, we sucked down water as we rested our twitching legs. Amelia, Everett, Justin, and Eliza stayed behind to crochet or rest. After the hike we loaded up the truck with lake day supplies. The drive down to Mann Creek Reservoir was much better than the dive up, somehow the road was smoother. It was smothering hot making the cool water quite refreshing. I did not love the squishy muddy reservoir floor, ewww. We played in the water for a few hours, until Eliza was throughly done sitting in the heat. Lunch was delicious Italian chop sandwiches, veggies, and chips. Fergus quite loved riding on the kayak with Amelia. Our legs got triple workouts as the best place to hand out was 1/2 mile from shore. Floating in the middle of the reservoir was very peaceful. We packed up around 4:45 to head back to the cooler temperatures. Dusty and Sara went to town for water and a so Dusty could make a work phone call. Justin headed back home. Fergus had us giggling as he slurped cold air from the air conditioner. The ride back up was quite entertaining, I was driving on the fast side over the rough terrain in 4 wheel drive. The controlled skids and bouncing was quite fun to navigate. At camp we lounged, crocheted, chatted, played games, and hammocked. Eliza turned both Josie and Evelyn into forest fairies with a cute ceremony. Evelyn and Cassadie flounced off into the forest to collect wild flowers. Fergus was so tired he splooted for a long nap. Everett finished crocheting a scarf, blanket, and started a frog stuffy! Evelyn was frustrated most of the flowers were gone. Cass and I went exploring and found multitudes of flowers hidden all over the camp, our bouquets were glorious. We had a great chat while we hunted. Evelyn and Cass opened a fairy flower shop, trade pine cones for flowers! Dinner was an easy affair of walking tacos. The meat was prepared before leaving home so it was just a matter of warming it up and setting out the toppings. We were not that hungry because we had a late breakfast and then a late lunch, so dinner was at 8 pm. We honored the Sabbath with a devotional on the Come Follow Me lesson for the week. We talked about Peter’s vision that opened missionary work to the Gentiles. S’mores for dessert, delicious. I met a lovely couple taking Fergus on a walk around the campground. Fergus and their golden retriever Bella played hard for 15 minutes. After dark Sara and I busted out the glow sticks.  Someone accidentally ripped open a glow stick, it was all over. Soon I was stabbing numerous glow sticks, we looked like glowing galaxies! The best silent dance party ensued, quiet time started at 10 pm, we frolicked in near silence until 11 pm. That was the best dance party ever. I put Josie to bed in the tent, then headed to the main road with Amelia, Evelyn, and Cassadie to admire the stars. A haze was covering the display, it was crystal clear the previous night. I was hoping to show the girls the Milky Way. The previous morning we could hear blood hounds baying with excitement, apparently one of the camper’s hounds caught scent of a bear nearby. The hounds (and owners) chased the bear for a good long while, which is apparently illegal. The warning of bears did have our imaginations working overtime. Walking home in the pitch dark was spooky, so we played Wizard of Oz to calm our nerves. Fergus woke up around 5 am, he went out to potty then raced back in the tent. I tried to kennel him but he was not having that. I sent him out again, he pooped, raced back inside cowering. I was wide awake so took him on a walk so I could use the bathroom. Afterward I sat in the camp chairs, suddenly feeling quite spooked out, wondering if a bear was going to eat me. I headed to the tent, as if a tent would protect us all from bears. Only 3 minutes later it started raining, one huge flash of lightening and a loud growl of thunder to add magic to the mystique. The rain fell sporadically for a few hours, just a 1 minute spurt here and there, enough to wet the dust. 

Welcome Monday morning! Breakfast was a simple affair of moofins, fruit, juice, and boiled eggs (which I forgot to get out). We teamed up and got all the tents broken down, cleaned off, and rolled up. A ranger came by as we were leaving to say the water was drinkable, the tests taken 8 days before came back clear for human consumption. I guess better safe than sorry? Ha ha. We are grateful to the camp hosts for donating almost 6 gallons of water. We had a glorious time camping with friends. Back at home we had the trailer and truck unpacked and cleaned before 4 pm! The kids helped without complaint. I had time to go grocery shopping, water the garden, and start the numerous loads of laundry.