Camping at Iron Mine

We managed to fit in one more camping trip before school starts. We did one night at Iron Mine with Kristal and her family. Linda, Andy and Mindy couldn't go at the last minute. It was raining the whole way there as we were driving, and we weren't sure it was going to get better. Charles put up this tarp for us above the tent. We also put up the easy-up over the picnic table and that helped. After a little while, it quit raining, so we put up the tent and went inside and had a nap.  I had forgotten our sleeping pads (just for me and Mark) so I had bought a blow-up air mattress on the way, and Jared pumped it up with a bike pump while I held onto the valve to keep it open. It was a lot of work!


This tree was great; underneath it was dry all the time, even after two hours of hard rain! We could set up about four chairs under there and Kiersten thought it was a great little hide-out.

We went up during the day on Friday and Mark drove up that evening after work. He hit traffic in Parley's Canyon and there was an accident that blocked everything in Heber, so he didn't get there until 10 pm.! We were heading for bed.

Kristal and Charles made breakfast the next morning, yummy pancakes.

Island Park Trip Day 1 - July 22, 2008

We left for our Island Park trip on Monday, July 21. We spent that night at Grandma & Grandpa's and left the next day for Island Park. The first day we just unpacked and got the boat in the water. It was our night for dinner and we made dutch oven BBQ chicken and cheesy potatoes. Unfortunately, that was the night of the big thunderstorm, so about 15 minutes into cooking the food, the coals were swimming in water. The guys moved the food into the oven and onto the outdoor camp stove. Here they are trying to keep it lit long enough to cook!

While the food was cooking, Stacey decided I needed to do her hair. We used one of those Clairol Frost & Tip things. Here's a lovely photo of her with the cap and bleach on.

It was also Grandpa's birthday (he's 67)! Breelyn made this nice cake for him and we sang happy birthday and had cake. Grandpa was a little surprised at how well we sounded!

Granite Flat Day 3

The third day we laid low and relaxed. We had purchased a mancala game before we went, and the kids played that all the days we were there. It was really fun. Kiersten accidentally dropped some of the pieces and we found all but one. We also played BS (card game) and scum.

She did some exploring. She also ended up with some really bad mosquito bites! She had some on her calf that swelled it up until the skin was just tight! Tanner had two bad ones on his feet from wearing sandals, so we spent a lot of time putting cream and bandaids on them. Kiersten's calf ended up looking really bruised!.

We washed hair on that third day also, just me and Kiersten. It felt so good!

Tanner took some photos of wildlife! We saw lots of these.

We saw lots of butterflies, too, especially these black and white ones.

We spent a lot of time playing games and reading in Kristal and Charlie's screened shade thing. It was really nice to sit in the shade of the trees and not be bitten and bothered by bugs!

Here's Charlie making lunch. They brought corn tortillas and put taco meat and cheese on them and fried them on the pan. Yummy!

Brittany came for dinner. She had also been working at Arby's every day while she was at girls' camp. The stake rule was the girls couldn't drive into and out of camp, so we had to park her car at the lake, then I drove her into camp. In the morning I would pick her up at camp and drive her to her car at the lake and she would drive down to work. Then she would come back to our campsite and we would leave her car at the lake and I'd drive her into camp again. Complicated! But it worked okay. She was really tired, though!

Anyway, Mark was supposed to come up to stay Friday night, too, but Kristal's family was going home after dinner, and the mosquito bites were a problem, and the kids (especially Brittany) kind of wanted to leave, so we decided to go home after dinner, too. I drove down the canyon far enough to call Mark about it, and he said he had had vertigo the whole week and he would try to still come up for dinner, but he really didn't feel well.

So we had our dinner and packed up camp and came home. Mark wasn't able to come for dinner but he was a great help unloading the next day.

Jared was a huge help this whole trip; he did everything I asked him to and just had such a great attitude!

We all had a great time. I think we discovered camping is fun if you just go for two nights and use lots of bug spray before you get any bites!

Granite Flat Day 2

The second day we got up and had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and sausage. Then we got ready and went ATVing. We parked down at the lake parking lot and got the quads off the trailer and put helmets on. Then a park service lady came up to us and informed us that we could not ride with the little kids only in bike helmets; they had to have DOT certified helmets. I thought this was only a recommendation, but she said it was the law and pretty much implied that she would call the cops if we went anyway. I was so mad! We always ride with the bike helmets.

So we put the ATVs back on the trailer and drove down to Cabela's, where we managed to find a helmet small enough for Kiersten. I hate those helmets, though, because they are so heavy for their little necks! It really makes it hard for them to ride very long. We also got some of the fishing gear the guy had recommended to us so we could fish that night.

Back up the mountain, we got to ride and it was beautiful! The lake in the photo behind Kiersten is the lake where we park, Tibble Fork. The lake behind all the kids is the lake we rode up to, Silver Lake. It was really full!

We rode through the shallow river and started up the next part of the trail, but Jared decided it was too rocky and bumpy, so we came back down. 

As we sat relaxing by the lake for a minute, a man came up to us. He was kind of built and wearing a tight t-shirt kind of thing. He said he had noticed that we had just come down from that part of the trail past the river. (I'm thinking, "What did we do wrong now?") So I said, yes, we had. He asked what the trail was like up there, and so then I was thinking he was going to ride up there and was curious. Then he said he was planning a training exercise for some marines, and he was going to have them hike up there and carry stretchers and stuff, and he wanted to know if they had to cross the river and how steep the trail was, etc.! So I guess we were able to be helpful to the marines on this ride!

Here's the boys on the road below us going down. It was a fun ride! It always makes me wonder why we don't go more often!

Later that day we ate our fish for dinner (sooooo good!). We fried them in butter and put lemon juice on them. Also had some good chili Kristal made (the planned meal) and we did cornbread in the dutch oven. It turned out great! We put some little bunches of tin foil in the bottom of the dutch and then lined it with another piece of foil and put the cornbread mixture on top of that. The bottom didn't burn at all, and all we had to do to clean was lift the tin foil out and blow the ashes off the lid! I got this idea from a lady who did perfect rolls for an enrichment dutch oven dinner.

After dinner we tried fishing again, but the boys didn't catch anything. I caught one fish. I was so proud when I managed to clean it all by myself!

Granite Flat Day 1

We went camping up American Fork Canyon to Granite Flat. It's just near Tibble Fork Reservoir. Brittany was at girls' camp, so she was only with us the last day. Mark was working. Kristal and Charlie and their kids came up, too!

The first day we set up camp and explored. We had hot dogs for dinner and then went fishing. (This was before Kristal's family got there.) We noticed that the fishermen next to us were catching lots of fish, so I asked the older guy what they were using for bait. He told me rainbow power bait with 4 lb. test line. I nodded like I knew what that meant. Pretty soon he came over with his pole and showed me exactly what his setup was. Then he offered to set up one of our poles the same way. Well, that was really nice! He told me to have one of the boys fish with his pole while he was doing ours. He asked me if I had brought my kids fishing (he obviously thought I was alone or single or something), and then when I told him we were camping, he said, "What a good mom you have to bring you camping!" to the kids. (The first question Charlie asked when I told him this story was how old is the guy? The answer is: not young, nothing like that!)

Anyway, so he rigged up my line and I caught a fish with it the first cast. A few minutes later, they were leaving and he asked me how many fish it would take to make a meal for my family! So I was telling him, no thanks, really, maybe 2? So he gives me three fish (the biggest one, too, and the poor kid with him who caught it didn't seem real thrilled about this). THEN, he asks if I know how to clean them, and I say, "Sort of." So he proceeds to show me exactly how to clean them, and CLEANS all of the fish for me! And sends me on my way with my four fish.

AND there's more! He said he lives in Lehi and would be happy to come and meet me at the lake one evening for a couple hours and teach my kids how to rig their own poles and exactly how to fish so they will catch tons every time! And he took my name and number.

Of course, I worried a bit about giving a stranger my name and number, but he was very nice and I felt okay about it. Sad that we have to think that way, isn't it!

After catching all the fish we did at Grandpa's house last week, Tanner wasn't too thrilled about not catching any this time. Hopefully next week will be better at Island Park.

We had a downed tree in our campsite, and it was great fun for the kids to play on. Kiersten found a stick she used as a "crane" so she could be like the old man on The Emperor's New Groove who walked around holding his back and using a cane. She lost it the second day and was very sad.