Back-packing Trip (Day 2 & 3)

Morning came thankfully and we got out of our tent, Brent went down to the lake to get some more water so I could make breakfast, when he got back he told me I had to go see it. So I took the camera down and got a decent-ish picture. It was a beautiful sunrise on the lake, that area is just so gorgeous.

Brent got a nice fire going, I made some oatmeal, and the kids had fun roaming around being adorable.

This picture below shows my kitchen set up... it wasn't the flatest of rocks, but it worked. :)

One thing that made this site so perfect for us was that it had this big ol' boulder for the kids to climb on. Chico loved pretending to be a mountain lion up there.

Another great thing about this site was this beautiful meadow right next to where were hidden in the trees.  We kept hoping to see a moose come  through but no such luck. ;)

After breakfast we got our clothes changed, our fishing gear gathered and were off to catch us some lunch!

We decided to fish at Betsy (the lake right next to Grand Daddy) once we were down by the lake, we realized that the boys needed their coats. So Chico and I hiked back to our camp and grabbed them and then we came back and found out Brent had caught a nice sized fish while were gone!  He thought it was about lunch time (which looking back, it was probably like 10:30) and so we pulled out our little stove and cooked the fish right there next to the lake.  I cooked some Ramen too and we had a nice early lunch. It sure was good!

After that Chico and Brent set to work to catch more fish, and I set to work trying to keep Grizwald happy whilst he wasn't getting to fish.  He had his hood on and convinced me that I needed to wear mine and lay back against the rock with him (yes, he doesn't really talk yet, he is just quite good at getting his point across in different ways).

Bustin' out the moves...

Well my handsome hubby only caught the one fish, and after hearing that most people were having about the same success we felt pretty grateful for the one that we did catch! Chico was really glad that we caught one and got to eat it.

When we got back from Betsy I was pooped.  This flat rock at the edge of where we were camping was looking mighty fine and Brent suggested I bring about my sleeping bag and pad.  It was SO comfortable and I fell asleep on it for like an hour and a half. The boys and I each had a turn on it, Brent didn't really which I feel bad about. He is so good to us.

We were a bit bored, but the boys were so tired from the hike the day before that we decided we better take it easy. Brent and Chico were digging in the dirt and had a good time with that.

Gotta love the Nature Valley Bars. What would we do without those?

Can't remember why his shirt was off... probably cuz he's a boy... yeah that's probably it.

Chico does strange things sometimes but they're usually quite adorable.

After a while we decided to go try our luck again.

We didn't catch anything but it was beautiful and the boys had an okay time.  Chico was able to cast his  own pole out all by himself sometimes, it was really impressive.

Then Griz and Chico were fighting over the pole so I finally just left with Griz so Chico and Brent could fish a little easier.

We went and rehydrated some more food on our stove then they came back to eat and then we scrambled to get everything prepared, the campiste back to wilderness mode, and put away and ready to go for the morning because we needed to wake up at 5 to make it back in time for my brother's sealing.  We turned on Brent's phone right before bed (we didn't want to waste battery throughout the trip as it searched for signal) and set the alarm.  I slept pretty good until 2:00 when Griz started crying and took about 20 minutes to get happy again and comfortable (up on my pillow and in my sleeping bag, oh the things we do for our kids!).  Just as I was settling back down to fall back asleep I heard something running through our camp.  I was pretty freaked out but calmed myself down because it sounded too fast and light to be a bear.  I thought that I heard it a bit more so I woke up Brent and told him.  He was listening intently and then I started hearing these weird noises, I wondered if they were an animal growling. It was starting to freak me out even worse and then Brent whispered to me, "Can you hear my stomach grumbling?"  His dang stomach was going crazy!  All was well in the camp and so we tried to settle ourselves back down and eventually fell back asleep for a couple more hours.

We woke up early as planned and it all went really well, it was kinda weird getting all ready to go in the pitch black night.  We got our packs down and started the water boiling, brought the kids in their bags out onto their pads out of the tent so Brent could put everything away. I made them hot cocoa and oatmeal, then helped finish packing.  We got everything ready by 6:20! It was light (enough) by then and we didn't have to use our headlamps to hike.  Griz was NOT in the mood to hike so Brent carried him.  Luckily Chico was in a very good mood and was hiking really well.  He was talking a mile a minute telling me all kinds of stories about his imaginary friends 'Jarom and Adam'. It was awesome, and before we knew it we were to the top of the hardest part of the hike.  Griz was asleep in Brent's arms during that part, he's amazing to carry  him up that mountain!  Then a bit after that Chico face planted and was unable to bring himself to hike again for a while so Brent carried him (he's about 40 pounds so he was carrying WELL over a hundred pounds all together) for quite a while, and I carried Griz as much as I could (he's pretty heavy himself!). We made pretty good time since Griz was carried probably 90-95% of the hike back.  And we got to our car at 9:30!   The kids fell asleep almost immediately on the drive home and we made it back to our house in time to shower really fast, eat a couple quesadillas and pb&j's and then drop the kids off at Brent's mom's house and drive to the Mt. Timpanogas temple to be there at 1:30.  It was amazing how well the timing all worked out, I couldn't believe it!

I was glad we got to see my brother sealed to his wife, it's always wonderful to be reminded of things when you are at a sealing to help you re-charge I guess you could say.

When we got home we did a few things and then went and played volleyball with our group of friends again. Brent took the camera this time and so he got some fun pictures, that will be in the post tomorrow...