Camp Out!!

I never quite take enough pictures, but at the time I feel like I"m taking too many. I wish I had taken more pics with gma and gpa, gotten a pic of Chris and Candela's car where the black bear had hit them (on their way up to camp!), and taken some pics on the horse rides, but oh well! These will just have to do! The Rice Family camp out was a success! We were missing a few Rice's (Teresa and Melinda's families), but we were so glad we were able to get together for one more Hurrah! before uncle Craig leaves for Korea on his mission in the next few weeks.

We went camping up Diamond Fork. It was so much fun. Wet: yes. Lots of work: yes. Lots of memories: yes!! Marin and Jace just LOVE aunt Candela. They' can't seem to get enough of her.

Poor lil' Macey made the trip with double ear infections, but she had fun despite her less than perfect health!

We had to spice it up this year, with babies and all. Instead of packing and hiking in, we just drove to our camping area. But it being so beautiful (I love Diamond Fork, it's 30 mins from where I grew up, boy did I take that for granted as a kid) it all just worked out.

We were right by the perfect stream. Small enough that we didn't have to worry about the kids every second, but big enough for them to have fun with it.

Jace learned he LOVES fire. Gathering sticks was his full time job!

Behind Marin and to the right is a black tarp, that was our "bathroom" area. Thank you mom and dad for brining up a toilet seat and making a latrine for us. I still prefer modern plumbing of course, but this was a nice substitute!

Our campsite. The blue tent was the Montano family sleeping quarters and the white wall tent was our eating and lounging area. Plus, it's where everyone else slept at night. Thanks again mom and dad. Having the woodstove in the tent when it got rainy outside was so nice. We could still play card games and eat and talk. It was great.

And of course it's not camping with out the horses~ Marin and Jace rode just about everyone. Marin's favorite of course is Sweetie and Jace loves Toby, though here he's riding Callie and doing it bareback! Go Jace!

The horses "pasture" during the day, we tied them up at night. I made sure Jace and Marin knew if that black bear came inthe middle of the night, we'd hear the horses... they'd alert us. That helped them sleep a little better that first night! That and the flash light on until they fell asleep!!

I must tell the story. When we got up to camp Friday night (everyone else went up Thursday) my sister Tracy had found some baby squirrels who were freezing to death and almost dead. Now, I am more of the let nature take it's course type of a girl (especially with rodents!) but Tracy and Craig couldn't bare the thought of just letting them die, so they wrapped them up in some socks (yeah, they touched them. Picked them up and held them even!!) and fed them. So of course Marin and Jace were all over this...

Even Matt's tender side came through. He's feeding them formula here. Needless to say, I don't know whether they made it or not after we left, but Marin and Jace are still talking about their "pet baby squirrels" named Hammer and Sparky.

And then Sunday was the ride home.... We all were exhausted but so glad we went!