Great Basin National Park

It's funny thinking about memories as I write this a couple weeks after we got home. I have super extreme happy memories about it and am SO glad we went. But when I think about some of the moments - this was kind of a hard trip. The kids were way worse once we got out of the car in Delta and I was so grumpy. And there were lots of other moments of Lottie being SOO hard. Whiny and her tantrums right now are intense.  She didn't sleep great either which made it a little harder. And hiking with them was hard too. Thinking about it now - they did way better than I should have expected of 3 little kids hiking 3 miles - but I felt overwhelmed and embarrassed sometimes that they were so whiny and screaming and hard. Luckily Brooke and Jake are super cool and never seemed to mind - only me. But ya - like I said - thinking about it now all I really feel is joy about the time spent in the mountains with my kids and my best friend. It was SOOO beautiful and the kids really had so much fun. Exploring and riding bikes and playing and all good things. The camp site we had was incredible. So pretty. By a cool little creek and super secluded. We had a huge area and hardly anyone that drove by so it was cool to let them just roam free. We were super worried it was going to be too cold but the weather was so great. There was a pit latrine and no running water which actually worked out perfectly. Greta was afraid of the toilet and Harvey didn't love it either and Lottie smashed the crap out of her finger one day in the door. But otherwise - just great :) So anyway...with that preamble...on to all the pictures!

We stopped in Delta for lunch. We were a little ahead of Brooke and Jake so we ate slowly at Subway and then went to a park that wasn't that cool and then met them at another one where they ate their Subway and they all played for a little while. Then we stopped at a rock shop that was a HUGE hit. I was surprised how much all the kids loved it! They each got to pick a little treasure from there and then we were on our way again.

Brooke was nice to help me set up my tent :)

This was the cutest moment ever. We were all trying to get camp set up and Garrett offered to read a book to the kids. They all huddled up around him on a rock. Lottie made her way over there eventually but I didn't get a picture of that. Garrett was so cute with everyone. He filled the oldest role well!

Yummy tin foil dinners! It got chilly pretty quick once the sun went down.

Bundling up for the night :)

We wandered down to the creek by the campsite after breakfast. The kids loved it. They made several trips down to make dams and all manner of other things that are fun. We only played for a little bit to kill some time before our cave tour.

Lehman Caves. We did the 60 minute tour which was just about perfect for our bunch. The first man made tunnel that we had to walk through to actually get in the cave - Harvey had a bit of a freak out. He got really nervous and was asking to have a different ranger come get him (I guess he actually paid attention to what the lady was saying prior to going in, haha). He was a little nervous for the first little bit too and I tried to bribe him with getting a toy at the gift shop. It worked pretty well. He seemed to think it was cool after he realized it wasn't actually scary. And Lottie did a little better than I expected. She had a couple of loud moments but did good for it being past nap time.

Every time we went over to the gift shop or what not on a little jaunt of a dirt road, all the kids but Lottie rode in the back of Brooke and Jake's truck and they LOVED it. Thought it was so cool :)

After a necessary nap from Lottie we drove up the rode and hiked a little trail between the Lower Lehman and Upper Lehman campground. Very short and very easy but apparently too much for Greta. Haha. Sometimes she's the best little hiker and sometimes her legs just. can't. go. anymore.

Playing with portrait mode with this cute thing...

Cutest bunch of boys!

The next morning after breakfast we decided to go hike up near the Wheeler Peak area. They have a couple alpine lakes and a glacier and the bristlecone pine forest. We decided to get to the bristlecone pines. It really wasn't a hard hike at all. And only 1.8 or something miles up. But we had LOTS of rests and LOTS of stops and LOTS of whining. Mostly from my crew. Eek. But there was lots of perseverance and positivity and play and fun too. And it was beautiful and a good experience for all!

Greta took the sign pictures for me :) She did a pretty good job. Pretty interesting trees, those bristlecones!

We came home and kids napped in cars some and we relaxed and kids played and it was lovely. We decided to leave Saturday night because I had to work Sunday night and really needed to be at church etc. So I worked on getting camp down and loaded. We ate dinner together and headed out about 7:30 or so.  We made it to Delta with everyone still awake and stopped at McDonalds for a shared ice cream shake and then carried on. The kids took forever to fall asleep from there and it was a late night. But they were actually surprisingly happy and good for me the next day. This was our last camping trip of the year and it actually made me sad to put the tent away. It was an awesome summer of getting out lots and much adventure! I'm hoping it's the same way next year - only maybe a little easier with kids being a little less emotionally volatile.