June 26-27. Lisa excitedly planned a campout for me, my dad, and all the kids (minus Gabe, he stayed in St. George while we were in South Jordan). Lisa took on too much of the planning and organizing herself and failed to delegate any tasks beyond yelling at someone to do something as soon as she thought of it. The campsite was just off the Provo River in Wallsburg, Utah, accessed by the Provo Canyon. It was a little tricky to find because MapQuest is lame. I also did not enjoy driving through that canyon at all; I thought the speed limit was way too high and that is from someone who likes to drive fast! We packed both vans up with camping stuff and the paddleboards, and I drove my dad and Ian down to the campsite. Lisa planned to go to the beach at the Deer Creek Reservoir not too far from the campground. Unfortunately, it was so SO windy that it was impossible to do anything at that beach. We had the paddleboards ready to go (I had just bought a new paddleboard off Amazon) when I realized that we would more than likely be blown to the other side of the lake and not able to get back, so I packed the paddleboard back up. We packed everything up; there wasn't much to be done in that wind. The sand blowing in our face was the worst. Aiden and Calvin might have swam for a bit, but ultimately, we had to leave because the wind was just too bad to do anything in despite our best efforts.
My dad was waiting for us back at the campground. The campsite that Lisa rented was a teeny tiny "island" connected by a small bridge. The kids enjoyed playing in the water, which was just a branch off from the river. The water was freezing cold. Elisa lost one of my sandals she was wearing in the water. It just disappeared. Lisa had previously made some hobo dinners, and my dad cooked them over the fire. Once they were finally finished cooking (we took them out several times to check), the kids gobbled them up happily. After eating the hobo dinners, we made s'mores (a camping requirement!). My dad set up a hammock just outside the tents in between the trees. He was actually okay with sleeping in it that night. Needless to say, he did not sleep well. The boys slept in one teepee tent and the girls and Lisa slept in another. I was not interested in getting a terrible night's sleep, so I left just before it got dark. Ian tried to skip out on the camping, but I insisted he stay. During this time, there were lots of fires in Utah. It made my mom nervous, but most of the fires stuck to the mountain areas. Still, the sky turned a strange hue for a bit due to all the smoke of the fire.
Due to poor planning and poor supervision, the kid ate ALL the food from the cooler. Therefore, there wasn't much for them to eat for breakfast, let alone lunch. I had planned on going back that day, so it wasn't too much hassle for me to swing by the closest Taco bell and buy 8 $5 meal boxes for everyone to eat for lunch. While we ate, we watched the loads of people tube down the river. Calvin enjoyed waving at all the people. Lisa had brought the paddleboards in order to paddle down the river. So, after we finished eating and watching the "river show", we inflated our 3 paddle boards. There was free ice-cream for anyone at the campground, so we went and had some.
It looks like camping was fun with paddleboards on the river. Beginning my college freshman year I went with Karen and Gary many times to Vivian Park which was Gary's favorite fishing place. It was so quiet and peaceful with very little traffic then. Kids just love eating, but that's too bad they ate all the food in one day.
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