Fish Lake

Looking back through these pictures is making me so happy. This was SUCH a fun trip too! Brooke and I planned our 3rd annual (1st - Tanner's flat, 2nd - Great Basin) Niedermann Campout for Fish Lake a long time ago. My parent's were talking about how they wanted some mountain time because trek and girls camp got cancelled and they had time off, etc. So I told them to come with us. They are always fun to have around. They got excited about it and as it got closer my dad decided to rent a camper. So we decided to just share the site we had and all stay in the camper. I gave Harvey the option of staying in a tent or the camper. He hesitated for about negative .0001 seconds. We headed out Wednesday morning. Once we got unloaded, shooting the air soft guns was first on Harvey's list. Tanner was cool to let him bring those. We made a target for him the night before. It was probably the highlight of this trip for him.  Side note - notice 2 camping trips in a row that Tanner got to come with us! Happy day!! There's some seriously good things that have come from him losing his Fed Ex job! (Another side note...I didn't get these organized in very well...which is always a challenge trying to combine pictures from 4 different cameras...and I've gone through it so many times trying to get it right. But it's not. And I'm okay with that at this point).

There was so much good about this trip. I started a new book (The Gentleman of Moscow) and actually had some good down time/hammock time to read. That doesn't happen very often. 

Our first trip down to the lake. We rode bikes and Lottie was so slow. Haha. It was kind of cool and the beach and lake were pretty rocky so the girls weren't super interested in getting in. We tried a little bit. And then Lottie peed her pants and didn't want to ride her bike back. Se we walked and I carried her bike on the bike I was walking and the older kids rode back with Tanner. 

Another great part of this trip was all the games we got to play while kids played in or out of the camper. It was heavenly. Comfortable. And bug free :)

Dance parties too!

Thursday afternoon we decided to head down to the lake in the afternoon. It seemed like every time we headed down there it got cloudy and windy. Oh well. My dad and I went out on the paddle boards. It was way fun. He got in the water too. I was always too wimpy this trip. And the water was far warmer than the Uintas. But it wasn't as sunny and warm. 

I took Bogey out for a little bit. He wasn't too sure of it. He did jump in and swim about 2 feet to my dad. Haha. He looked so funny all wet. His tiny chicken bone legs.

The kids cuddled or stayed on the shore. We didn't stay super long down there. Maybe an hour or more and then headed back up to camp to see if Brooke and Jake had made it. 

They had. We had a campfire and hang out at our fire that night. (Although I'm pretty sure this pictures if from night one).

Also I think from day one but look at Greta. hahaha.

Once the other kids came it was game on. They were running around, finding kingdoms/forts and hunting for chipmunks (Harvey and Great did this the first day for a couple of hours. Just hiking around all over while we gamed in the camper. That's my favorite. Them exploring and being creative on their own in the mountains!) They also rode bikes like crazy too. It was awesome. 

Friday afternoon we wandered over to the store with them for ice cream. It was a big hit. And Tanner ran into his cousin Troy and his family. So random. Fun to chat with them for a little bit. 

We moved the party to their campground that night and roasted hot dogs for dinner. 

I don't think I'll ever be able to eat a regular hot dog again. Pineapple stuffed, wrapped in bacon, teriyaki sauce on the bun with cilantro and fresh jalepeno. Holy crap sooooo good. 

A note about this. The first night, before Brooke and Jake showed up, my dad wanted to go see if he could see the Neowise comet. He took my mom and Harvey and Tanner and I stayed by the fire while Lottie slept in the camper. This was another part of the trip I loved. Usually we are in the tent with kids going to bed and don't get to enjoy the late night fire and stargazing. The camper made it so nice to put kids down and continue on with our night (although night one they didn't go to bed so easily). Anyway...it was awesome. And  using my stargazing luxury recliner was a DREAM come true. Oh my heck it is THEEE best. So when my dad came back he said "you gotta see this". So we put sleeping Harvey in the trailer and my dad grabbed a different lens and Tanner and I went out with him to this summit area. We could see it pretty good. And the stars were INCREDIBLE. Holy cow. So cool. So we told Brooke and Jake about it and the next night we left mom and Lottie at camp and went back out. My dad got some cool pictures with his camera and Tanner actually got some pretty great ones just with his phone. It was sweet to see. And to star gaze and see some cool shooting stars. 

This I think was actually Friday afternoon, before the second Comet visit and hot dogs. The day was really sunny and warm and we thought, lets wait till the afternoon and it will be perfect weather. Well...it wasn't. It was windy and sprinkling and a little colder than our liking. But we still had a ton of fun. Lots of rock throwing and skipping. Some kids did get out on the kayak and I went out on the paddle board a few times. My dad snorkeled a bit. It actually was really fun still!

And here's our campfire and party from night two. Man. All over the place this time. 

Crazies and non sleepers from night one. 

Cutest little girl playing barbies and doing all manner of pretend that was just precious, while we gamed  :)

And back to the Friday afternoon lake day with everyone. 

And then the most perfect day was Saturday. After everything was packed up, of course. I was dying to get the paddle board out but we actually had a lot of fun just enjoying the sunshine and water and building rock cairns and skipping rocks and splashing each other. I did not want to leave. 

The signs of a great time! It was sooo fun. The kids loved it. I loved it. It was perfect. It was so nice of my parents to share the camper. Only bad thing was they got a flat tire on the drive home. About a half hour away from being home. So that was kind of a bummer. But it all worked out and we were all safe and happy and another awesome mtn trip in the log books of memories and blogs.