Happy 4th Birthday, Mark!

Today is Mark's birthday and what a day it has been! Well, what a weekend it has been! For his birthday, Mark decided that he wanted to go camping. So Friday, we loaded up the mini-van and headed to South Willow Canyon for a little camp-out. Papa and Grandma J joined us with their trailer. Daddy had to work, so he came up a little later that evening. Nanny also joined us a little later, and Grandma M came up in the morning to join us for breakfast.

We had so much fun. I had some great helpers to set up the tent. I told them that whatever rocks and pine cones that they didn't move, they would be sleeping on top of later that night, so they did a great job clearing our space. I put together little back-packs with little activities and games for each boy, and they had fun with that. We did 'Build-your-own-trailmix' where the boys filled up baggies with their favorite treats. The sour gummie worms were the favorite. But what the boys really enjoyed was the DIRT! Mark and Cole, especially, played and rolled in the dirt until the only white on them was the white of their eyes. They raced trucks down this hill then slid down the hill on their rumps to retrieve them. There was a small creek near our camp, and they spent hours just throwing rocks into the creek. Sam enjoyed going on hikes and exploring. He especially liked hiking to a couple of places he discovered--Rock Valley and Rocket Valley (his names). This was Lucy's first official camp-out, and she even got in on the action, playing in the dirt and enjoying the fresh air.


 








I made a dutch oven dinner and then we had fire cupcakes and Nanny taught the boys how to make S'mores (the boys keep calling them 'snores'). We hung out around the fire for awhile and then it was time for bed. My little campers were worn out. We snuggled up all together in our tent (all six of us) and after a little bit of giggling and excitement, everyone was out cold. We also had Gus with us, and he kept close to the tent all night and kept us safe. (By the way, Gus was also in hog heaven running around and exploring).



The next morning, we had some dutch oven breakfast, played some more, made some gnome houses, and then cleaned up camp and headed home. It was a bit of a whirlwind camping trip, but we're hoping to be able to go camping more often. We all had so much fun, and it's just so good for the soul to be out in nature for awhile.

 

 Tonight we had everyone over for a birthday dinner. Mark got to choose the menu, so we stuck with our camping theme and had sloppy joes and pigs-in-a-blanket. We had a camping birthday cake that Mark helped choose from Pinterest. There was lots of good food and good times. Of course, Mark was spoiled with presents--lots of trucks, cars, art stuff, rocket launchers, and cap guns--all things that Mark loves. It was great birthday for a great little boy!