Mill Hollow camping trip

Our kids were anxious to go camping and after a successful camping trip last year, we knew we needed to carve out some time to do it again this year.  We skipped borrowing my dad's trailer and borrowed an old tent from Gene and April instead since we still don't have one.  We decided to go to Mill Hollow which is up in the Kamas and Francis area.  We cut our wood down in that area last year.  It is so pretty!  We drove up one Sunday afternoon after church and got to the campsite around 6.  We were able to set up quickly, have some dinner, and enjoy some family time around the campfire.

The kids came up with a new way to roast marshmallows: they get their roasting stick as hot as they can and then use it to slice the marshmallow in half.

My struggle with camping for so many years was that I never knew how the baby would sleep or I was worried all night that the kids would get too cold.  As our family grows up, it is becoming easier and easier.  The kids stayed warm, slept great, and were all smiles in the morning.  Cash was also extra excited to be in the mountains!

I've also learned to do as much food-prep as I can at home.  I always prepare pancake batter before and make syrup before so it's just a matter of combining the already measured and mixed wet and dry ingredients and warming up the syrup.  And cooking the bacon!  Justin does all the cooking while camping and that is also great!

The morning was chilly so we donned jackets, gathered up fishing poles, and walked down to the lake for some fishing.  I wasn't sure how fishing would go because when we went just to Midway Pond, there was a lot of tangling of lines and other things that required a lot of help from Justin.  But the kids hit their groove while camping and all three of them were able to cast and reel in independently.  There were still broken and tangled lines that needed Justin's help but, overall, there weren't too many!  They enjoyed it so much that we fished all morning until it was time to go back to camp for lunch.

After lunch, we went back to the lake for more fishing and, since it had warmed up, some kayaking and paddleboarding.  The Webb's lent us their adult-size kayak and that was a lot of fun too!  Justin and Molly paddled over to the far side of the lake and found a downed tree that went out into the water.  They were the only brave ones who dared to jump into the cold water.

Ivy caught a fish trolling behind Justin on the kayak but didn't want to touch it!

We went into Kamas for some dinner.  We found a pizza place that was yummy.  Ivy fell asleep on the way there and had a difficult time waking up even when we got there.  She was fully awake for the ice cream after!

Look at that hair!

We stopped at a grocery store for some food for Tuesday and then headed back to camp.  Justin and I hadn't communicated well because I thought he had to be back for work on Tuesday but he didn't want to go to all the work of setting up camp for just one night and had actually taken Tuesday off.  I hadn't planned food for that day or canceled my piano lessons.  So I left my family there and drove home that night so I could be there for my 8:00 piano lessons.  Justin stayed with the kids at the camp and I drove back up when lessons were over.  They had an eventful night-apparently the campsite was raided by a herd of sheep!  Ivy couldn't stop talking about it!

The kids were anxious to do some more fishing so they went down to the lake while Justin and I packed up camp and loaded up the truck.

I really wanted to spend a day at one of the lakes along Mirror Lake Highway so we piled in the car and drove over there.  We ended up at Teapot Lake.  It was a smaller lake and we were able to walk around the whole thing and stop to fish along the way.

It took us a few hours to walk around the lake and make it back to the truck.  We loaded up again and headed home.  We stopped at Provo River Falls on our way.  Always a fun site to see!

Playing ice cream stand while Dad loads up the truck.

She was done by this point!

They always look for this rock and climb it!

We had a great time camping and making memories but there is one more memory I'd like to share.  When I know we are going to be driving a lot, I will always buy some gum for the kids for the car.  Then they don't ask for snacks every 5 minutes.  Ivy has always done okay with gum but when we got home, we noticed a big chunk of gum in her hair.  Her hair is getting so long and pretty and it made me kind of sick to think of cutting it.  Justin came up with a solution but he had to go to his office to get supplies.  He came home with a bottle of canned air and in about 3 minutes, the gum was gone and her hair was back to silky smooth.  He just draped that bit of hair across the counter, froze it with the canned air, and tapped it out with a butter knife.  It was really ingenious actually! She is now banned from gum until she turns 4.