Camping, Family Style

You haven't been camping until you have experienced the Cook Sisters' relaxing and fun-filled mountain-spa resort. Seriously, my aunts and Grandma have spent years perfecting the camping experience. They have the camp trailer as base, but set up an outdoor kitchen, screen tent for games, tents for sleeping, canopies, chairs, raft for water fun, and plenty of books to pass around. This year however, they didn't bring the hammock. (sigh) And I haven't yet mentioned the yummy yummy food... foil dinners, dutch oven goodness, and this year's new trick - breadsticks twisted around a stick and roasted like marshmallows- yummy and fun!

Looks fun right?

Elliott and I joined camp during the day Tuesday and Wednesday while Brian was at work. We planned to join the campers Thursday evening, but due to wet rainy weather, we didn't go up until Friday morning. "There" is the Trial Lake campground along Mirror Lake Highway in the Uintas. It is only about an hour out of Salt Lake City and is a wonderful place for camping.

Here we are in front of our tent - thanks Mom, we love it!

Elliott was in little boy heaven! He loved playing outdoors and was of course the center of attention the whole time. He was excited to explore the tent.

But that didn't contain him long.

He had a brand new camp chair that was just his size.

He only ate dirt a few times and sampled several pine cones as well. He really liked the dirt and rocks and would scoot around on his tummy pushing his fingers through the dirt.

He played with Oreo and received some doggy kisses.

He found a big rock just his size.

And his favorite stump. He stood at this several times over the days. I thought the top might scratch his fingers, but he didn't let that spoil his fun - and no scratches either! p.s. isn't the view just beautiful! We had the best camping spot on the lake!

Check it out - Elliott's first wink!

Ok so the camping trip wasn't just all about Elliott. The rest of us had fun too, but a week-long camping trip isn't so photogenic, you know. Aunt Cindy bought a raft that was fun to drift out into the water in.

We didn't seem to be getting any closer to the other side, but kept getting farther and farther from our side. Its a bigger lake than it looks. Also we didn't use sunscreen and got a wee bit sunburned.

After a tiring day of play, Elliott slept for a few hours around the campfire. He did wake up and got to stare at the flames for a bit before we took him to the tent.

Elliott slept pretty well even though he didn't want to stay under the blankets. I was the one not sleeping well, making sure he was warm all night. However now that we are back home, Elliott doesn't want to sleep through the night on his own anymore. Which is precisely why I am blogging at 5 am.