On Top of a Mountain

We took the kids camping this weekend.  It should have been super busy because of Pioneer Day weekend, but we went down to the Manti/LaSalle national forest and were lucky enough to find an camping spot literally on top of a mountain (not a towering, rocky one, more of a flattened, treetopped one.) This is Macy NOT wanting to be carried on our "hike".

Us on our hike, it was still kind of hot.

Boston finds a "bear track" on the road.  Looked like dog to me, maybe cougar???  Everything else was horse, maybe it's a stepped on horse track.  Hope it wasn't bear!  We intentionally didn't go to Payson Lakes campground like we had intended because on the radio some rangers were trying to track down two aggressive black bears there.

We could see for miles.  This is looking north from the road that went past our campsite.

Looking south from the road we hiked down.  This swath was some kind of natural gas line or something.

The way back Macy finally got her way and walked by herself.  We got back to camp 15 minutes after everyone else. 

Leslie and Mark roasting marshmallows.  Duke was kind enough to lend us his firewood box and roasting sticks, but man, Duke, those sticks are short!  You need better ones.  Mark thought his face was going to melt off.

Macy coming down a little path to a hand-hewn, sagging bench that was up next to some trees.  See the amazing lack of other campers?  Am I really in Utah?

Besides our hike, we also had a treasure hunt with handwritten clues all over the place, leading back to our box of s'more fixins.  One of the clues was on this fallen tree.  The kids loved riding it, even though Cooper was sure he was going to fall off.  The ground sloped away pretty fast, so it was scarier than it looks.

I had to ride the horsey, too.

Leslie and I ride double.

We also played hide & seek (teams) and then discussed some possible Indian names for each other.  This is Cooper being Chief Thunder.  He said he was making thunder, and so I think this picture is pretty cool.  He's actually whipping up dust into a beam of disappearing sunlight with a long, branchy twig.

Macy's Indian name was Squaw Walks Alone.

When it got dark and the kids didn't want to sit around the fire and relax, they played charades for us instead.  This is Cooper and Macy being giraffes.

 

It's a good thing we went camping, because these kids are growing up too fast!  Leslie started 5th grade yesterday.  Check out those new shoes!  Size 7 1/2.  Look out Aunt Brookie!

I thought I had the car all cleaned out, but I forgot the sunscreen.  Yesterday when I thought Cooper and Macy were playing nicely in the backyard, Cooper let Macy in the van instead (our garage door to the back yard driveway is stuck open and getting fixed TODAY).  She decided to grease down my passenger seat.  Any hints how to get this off?  There is kind of a mesh netting over it, so I can't really even get to most of it....hope it fades!