Our First Family "Trip"

Words I would use to describe this camping trip: Hot, Cold, Long, Short, Exhausting, Beautiful, Hilarious, Food, Child like Excitement - I loved it and I didn't at 2 am

My Dad has often said that vacations where you take your kids should be referred to as trips and vacations where you go with adults only are vacations. I would agree. Justin and I had been wanting to do something fun with our kids and as he had Good Friday off work we decided to go camping. I have been camping before so I went into it with eyes wide open. It was really fun, and completely, utterly exhausting, and yes I would do it again. Did I mention that Justin does all the work for camping? A tradition passed down from his family that I am a huge fan of - that includes, packing, setting up, cooking, taking down, and putting away (mostly - I did help put stuff away)
We went up to Malibu Creek - close to home in case it proves to be too crazy. I love how in all these pictures you just see the beautiful scenery. If you look the other way you'd see about 60 tents all close together.






Josh fighting someone.
Anna enjoying her favorite camping pastime. I kid you not she ate: 2.5 hotdogs, 1/3 a bag of chips, 3 marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers for dinner - way more than her mom or brother.

Friday we got there around 4 and went exploring and "hiking" the kids were loving this log although it ended up in splinters for everyone.


Josh looked like this when we got there. It took him a good 40 minutes to wake up - he was way "too excited" to take a nap.
Not a stellar picture of me, but I love Anna's ensemble. She is wearing my swim suit as a necklace.


Saturday morning we went on a hike up to where they filmed MASH. Josh walked the whole 2 miles. I was completely impressed - although it took about 2 hours. The site was way smaller than I pictured it, and there wasn't a ton there, but Josh and Anna loved it.

We got home around 3 and listened to the afternoon session of conference. I was literally counting down the minutes until bed time. Anna had really not slept at all the night before, I think it was a tad cold for her. Justin headed off to priesthood and I laid down with the kids to get them to calm down. I was out cold, I hope they followed shortly after. This was about 6:45 pm. Justin got home around 8 and was completely locked out. He rang the doorbell several times, no answer. He finally had to let the manager let him in. When he finally found me and woke me up he was shaking. It is really humerous now, but he seriously thought something had happened to us. I am not a deep sleeper.... alls well that ends well. right? I love that our family has fun together, hopefully it lasts through the teenage years:)