Family Camping

We took our first camping trip as a family this past weekend.  I told S I would go as long as the place we stayed had flushable toilets!  HA!  So, he did the research and found Cave Lake State Park.  It's in the north eastern part of the state near the UT border.  Supposedly you can see the most stars in this area because it's out in the middle of NOWHERE!   (and one night S did see the Milky Way at like 3am!) We decided to rent a pop up camper to make our first trip a little more enjoyable and more cost efficient.  No need in buying tents if we don't like it.  We were completely out of cell phone range and we had no electricity in the camper.  We were truly roughing it.  C was the only one who complained and kept asking to go home and play games.  HA!  (he is Mario obsessed these days!)  As far as our first camping trip goes, it went really smoothly and everyone seemed to have a good time.  I'm just having a hard time catching up on all the dirty laundry that is associated with camping!

Our campsite view:

 Looking back from picnic table to our camper:

  Inside the camper as soon as we popped it up - they thought it was awesome

 This is the only picture you will see me in.  This was right after we got everything set up.  From that point forward I made a point not to be in any photos!

 This is where the boys played most of the time.  The plopped themselves in the dirt and played with matchbox cars.  They were dirty from head to toe everyday.  But that's how boys should be, right???

 We did some hiking and saw some nice scenery.  Not much in terms of animals though.  

My dear friend, Patti, had told me when her family goes camping, she makes light sabers from pool noodles (she has two boys).  I am so glad she gave me this idea because the boys LOVED them and spent the a LOT of the time running around the campsite pretending to be some character from star wars and have light saber fights.

 We made our very own tic-tac-toe board.  I remembered seeing this idea on Pinterest and I had brought along paint for rock painting.  So....I decided this would make a good time killer.

 The boys loved it.  We left the rocks for the next campers to have a fun game.

 We drove up the mountain near our camp sites and saw some magnificent scenery.  Too bad we didn't see any elk....we were really hoping to see some.

 W won the award for most crazy hair on the entire trip.  Here he is doing what he loves most.  

 We painted rocks.  They got to bring one home as a souvenir and the rest we hid around the campsite for future campers to find.

 We went fishing in the lake.  T could have fished all day.  We didn't catch a thing but he enjoyed it regardless.

 We drove through a bit of the Great Basin National Park and saw some pretty scenery.

 And of course, we roasted marshmallows every night and had yummy gooey smores.

This one loved the goodness and yes, he looked like PigPen from The Peanuts the ENTIRE trip!

 Overall, not a bad trip.  Do I want to go again anytime soon?  No.  But ask me in a few months and I would probably go again.  That's if I survive all the laundry!  It was a nice change and the kids really used their imagination the entire time.  Great memories made.