I'm sure this won't be our last hurrah, but we started school recently and fall is approaching. Last week, we took the kids to Payson Lakes. It was great fun!! I'm ashamed to say that although my kids have been camping, we don't do it often. They absolutely loved it. Just last night Aydri told me that she was packing her bags to go camping again.
Despite Jared and I not getting a good nights rest because of the excessively hard ground, the kids slept like logs and woke up like happy little campers on the first morning. We drove all the way to town the next day to buy an air mattress. I think the older you get the harder it is to sleep on the ground. I think my body is aged to about a ninety year old's.
Kendi took pictures of us trying to cook breakfast over the fire. We had to figure out how to cook over the fire because our camp-stove wouldn't turn on. Sometimes its easier to revert back to cave man ways rather than figure out new technology. We were quite proud of ourselves for making an amazing breakfast of pancakes and bacon over the fire. The only issue with campfire cooking was that the campground was picked clean of any wood that would burn. Not wanting to pay six dollars for one fire's worth of wood we started wearing an empty backpack on our trips to the lake and brought back wood with us. For some reason we felt like we had to be sneaky about it.
We picked our campsite at random and ended up with what we thought was the nicest camp spot in the whole campground. It was off the road more than the others and very shaded. Our tent was back in the trees away from the fire.
Jared insisted on starting the fire like a cave man and I must admit I got a little impatient with him once. We were HUNGRY!
There was a perfect little hike down the road called The Grotto. We hiked about three quarters of a mile to a waterfall and then back. This county is very different from what we are used to in Southern Utah. It was beautiful and dense. You could disappear very easily.
There were paths all through the little canyon we hiked up. The girls always picked the path less taken.
There were several bridges to cross.
Aydri was very cautious and chose to crawl across the bridges. She would say, "I am baby jaguar." And then when she would make it across she would make up a little theme song for herself and sing it at the top of her lungs. She makes things fun.
Kendi loved climbing up all the side-hills. She spent a lot of time climbing from root to root.
We ate really well while camping. Probably better than we eat at home. hehe.
The lakes were small and there were lots of fisherman, but there was this little "beach" area for swimmers.
Kendi learned how to play Battleship while we were camping. I don't even know how many times we played this everyday.
Aydri put herself down for a nap in the tent one afternoon after swimming.
There were actually paved hiking trails around the lake with old bridges that were fun for taking pictures.
We had lots of giggles over Kendi learning to blow bubbles with bubble gum. She would grunt when she blew a big one and we would all turn and look just in time to see it pop on her face. I think she had the skill mastered by the end of the camping trip.
The water was too low to jump off the pier and the pier looked a little rickety so we didn't stay on it very long.
As we were walking along the shore, all of a sudden, Aydri trudged out into the water with her shoes, socks and everything on. We had a good laugh at that.
We really loved Payson Lakes and getting to know new mountains. The kids cried the whole time we packed up camp to go home and we had to promise them we'd go camping again. It was a great place to camp with little kids.
