1st annual Niedermann campout

This trip was a long time coming. Brooke (DeMann) and I have been talking about camping together with our kids for a long time. Ever since she first had Garrett, I'm pretty sure. Pre marriage/kid days we did all manner of camping and hiking and backpacking. Well - this year it finally proved a possibility. We reserved a spot at Tanner's Flat back in spring I'm pretty sure and just awaited the time it would come. We went July 26-28. It was so fun. And I took a million pictures. I really can't help myself and I'm sure it's painful for some to look through ALL of these. But I guess this blog is mostly for us and the kids. I imagine they really will love looking back on all of the pictures. And because of that I keep taking a lot when a few would probably do. Oh well. Scroll at your own risk. 

I was pretty pumped about myself at first. Tanner couldn't make it up at all due to work and Brooke wasn't up there when we arrived. So I had organized and packed everything and unloaded it all from the car AND set the tent up by myself. It was a bit of a walk to our campsite. I kind of thought maybe I could handle camping by myself but the rest of the weekend proved otherwise. Haha. Maybe next year. Our campsite was super sweet. It was a walk to it and then it opened up to this lovely little area. It was quite sandy which was fun for kids playing but a disaster for attempting to have any sort of cleanliness. Not that cleanliness is ever that possible but man. They were always completely covered in dirt. 

The path to and from car/campsite.

We learned afterwards that there is a hefty fine for even touching the water. Oops.

Oh gosh. That face.

Have to include a couple of these because the faces are so perfect. King of the rock!

And a few of these, because of his faces and posing. Love it.

Setting her in the dirt was not a good idea.

The boys were so cute with her.

I had about a total of 15 minutes of relaxation. This was one of them.

We had to lock her in the tent sometimes.

I put these two pictures in too, because one is ok of Greta and not of Harvey and the other is exact opposite. Kind of makes me laugh.

Look at those filthy, adorable faces!

More adorable filthiness.

More river time. No touching though. Don't worry. And soooo pretty!

We also played a little Kids on Stage charades game after this. They bigger boys loved it and it was perfect for them. We played it a few times but I never got any pictures. Also - Jake came up Thursday evening for a couple of hours and then went back home. He came up for the night on Friday. 

My mom got called off work Friday and so I told her to come hang out with us. She came up after breakfast and spent the whole day with us. It was awesome. After she got there, we packed up some food and drove up the canyon to hike up to Cecret Lake. There was some whining and difficulties, but mostly the kids did great. We started about lunch time when Greta should have been napping so there was a lot of her saying she was tired of walking. She got carried a lot but really did do great. And Lottie was a trooper. She was happy the entire time. She loves to be outside.

So. Dang. Gorgeous.

Oh my gosh, these boys in the lake. They were squelch squerching around in the mud like nobodies business. They were LOVING it. And they kept looking for "buoyant pieces of wood". Haha. Garrett kept saying that and for some reason it was so funny to hear him say it.

Haha. Harvey looks tiny compared to Garrett in this picture.

Looking up at my mom and Harvey.

I love this picture.

This was a moment of relaxation too. It was heavenly. We accidentally let the boys watch a few minutes of a show and both girls were sleeping in the car after the hike.

There was a sweet little fort that the boys discovered the second day and there was much playing and climbing and imagination that was happening with it and it was so fun to have them just be boys outside. They all played really good together.

The night before my mom had gone to her Mother's Day cake decorating class and so she brought up some of the leftovers for us to try. Holy cow. Soooo good! Coconut key lime pie cake. 

A little rinsing pre-change of clothes. They had something wrong with their water pump so there was no running water up at camp so we had to conserve our water and it made for some creativity in cleaning the kids. I didn't mind them getting dirty - I guess I was a little anal when it came to thinking of them being covered in dirt in their pjs and sleeping bags. I need to relax a little more I have realized.

She was so tired. The night before I had put her down early but when we went in the tent she woke up and screamed for an hour. It was awful. So we kept her up with us and all went to bed together and despite it being very late, I think it worked out a little better. My kids can't go to sleep in the tent - they play and jump and run around for at least an hour. The first night it was not ok. The next night I enjoyed their happiness. Right up until I was ready to lose it. Haha.

Her favorite thing was filling these cups up with water and dumping them back and forth and all over herself. But she sure was happy about it.

He was doing so good on his scooter. I didn't think he had it in him to cruise like this. Our campsite was up a short little steep hill and I wouldn't let him start from the top but he started going from about mid way - which still gave me a bit of anxiety - but he did awesome. So fast and around the corner - to the bathroom. Which, by the way, is what he told me was his favorite part of camping. Going to the boys bathroom. Haha. It was because there were two little "bridges" (Aka boards over a tiny stream and a muddy section) that you had to cross on the boys side to get into the bathroom.

The next morning we basically just got up and leisurely ate breakfast and then worked on taking down camp. There was a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth this morning. Too little sleep I guess. It was rough for all parents involved. Haha. But we did get through it and went down the river for a few minutes one last time.

They were fighting over sitting on this tote.

This face sums up the trip overall though! It was beautiful and fun and even though it was not relaxing for me - it was fun for me. So much work but so worth exposing my kids to the mtns and these experiences and making these memories. Before we even had backed out of our campsite parking spot, Harvey said how much he loved it here and that we needed to come back. Deal. Brooke and I decided that it's now a thing. A yearly Niedermann campout. Can't wait till next year.