Heber Valley Camp

The view from our cabin

My mom's ward had a Mother/Daughter camp-out at the Heber Valley Camp this weekend. It was quite an experience! We didn't even leave Salt Lake until about 6:00 Friday night. My mom got out of work late then had to drive out to Tooele to pick up my niece, Ashlinn. The kids were hungry, so we stopped at McDonald's to eat (not exactly my idea if eating, but hey, the kids like it for some reason!)

We didn't have a problem finding the actual camp, but in the dark, it was sure hard to find where Mom's ward was. It took us almost 30 minutes, and when we did, the kids were all freezing cold and wanted some Hot Chocolate, which luckily, they had provided.

Payge by the firepit

Pyage, Eran, Emma and Ashlinn on the bunk bed

The cabins weren't bad, however they didn't have any mattresses. We were sleeping on wood, which we tried to soften with extra blankets, but that didn't work well either. It was a horrible, horrible night. Eran and Ashlinn wouldn't quit talking about Bears being in the woods, Emma and Payge fell asleep right away. At 3:00 in the morning, my mom woke me up to go to the bathroom with her because she didn't want to walk through the woods by herself. When we came back from the bathroom, one of the ladies in the cabin was snoring, Ashlinn moans in her sleep, and I laid there and listened to it. The lady that was snoring, got up when she heard Ashlinn moaning, flipped on her flashlight and asked Ashlinn if she was okay. My mom told her that she was sleeping, and then she told my mom how her daughter wet the bed one night because she couldn't get up to go potty fast enough. Who cares?!? It's 3 AM!!!

The lean-to that the kids found

Finally, morning came. We got up, ate breakfast, then told the girls we were going to go hiking. Ashlinn and Eran whined about it. They didn't want to go, but once we got going, they were excited to see what new bugs and flowers they could find. They did find a little lean-to that someone had built, and there was evidence of deer sleeping in it, so they thought that was cool.

My mom and Emma at our picnic

On the way home, the girls all complained about being hungry. We were going to stop at Jordanelle Dam, but ended up going on because there wasn't any "day parking" there. Instead, we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon and had a picnic at Ledgemere. We had to improvise, big time. I couldn't find the knife I brought for the sandwiches, so we used String Cheese (it was still in the package, don't worry!) as a knife to spread the Mayonnaise. We didn't have plates, so we pulled a blanket out of the van and used that as a tablecloth/plate for the kids.

The boys had their own little party. Grady slept in the living room in his tent, and they ate pizza, hot wings and Poppers and drank lots of Mountain Dew.