Camping, 'Coons, and Cops: Our 4th of July

We were invited up to East Canyon by Alex's brother Jon and his wife Steph. This would be our first time camping in a tent with all of our kids. We packed the van oh so carefully and were off! As you can see they were so excited!

We got their and unloaded the car and set up the 4 man tent for the six of us. Shouldn't be a problem, 4 small kids and 2 adults, we can make that work. And also our bug net tent to go over the picnic table. After a lecture to the kids about staying away from the fire pit and the raging river we were off for adventure! First obstacle to concur...the playground.

They had so much fun making new friends and running out their energy before dinner. We joined Steph's family up at their RV for a delicious dinner and then a round of miniature golf. No pictures of this as it took all 4 adults to help the kids golf. They had lots of fun.

We were so tired and the kids exhausted that we went to bed just after dark. I asked Alex about the boxes of food left on the picnic table and he told me we would be fine that it was enclosed in the net tent. And so began our long LONG LONG night. Who would have guessed that little miss Taylie would be claustrophobic. She SCREAMED. AND SCREAMED. AND SCREAMED. ALL NIGHT LONG. Out! OUT! OUT MAMA OUT! She finally fell asleep with her little face pressed against the open window. It was so sad. What made it worse though was when the other kids got cold and we tried to shut the window. It started all over again. The next morning we awoke to find that Raccoon's had gotten into our food tent and they love snickers, Doritos's, and pop tarts. I am just glad it wasn't a bear.
We spent the day in the pool and the splash pad. It was so much fun even though the adults did come away with sun burns.

That night we talked long about what was the best way to get Taylie to sleep. Alex brought his hammock and we decided that he would sleep in the hammock with her. The problem with that was the only trees we could find close enough together were about 150 feet away from our tent. But for her sake and that of our neighbors we decided that was best. That night we decided to wear her out so after dinner at the RV with Steph's family I took her on a walk around the RV area. She loved it! She ran and ran her little legs and when she was barked at by a HUGE Doberman. She stopped in her tracks looked at the dog and said: SIT!
The dog was so dumbfounded that he did that he sat. And Taylie just went on her merry little way. It was so cute. And she was so happy not to be in the tent that as soon as Alex laid down in the hammock she was out. We left early the next morning to enjoy the parades, fair, and fireworks.

The next day was my work party at a local swimming pool. We had so much fun. Free dinner, free drinks, free cotton candy, free snow cones (my favorite part of summer!) As we were walking to the parking lot to our car both boys had accidents. So we stripped them naked and but them in the Jeep, they looked so cute and we took video and pictures of them. And of the girls, Taylie loved the cotton candy. We joked about getting pulled over and the cop seeing the naked boys in the back and the explaining we would have to do. We pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. Not 30 seconds after leaving the parking lot I hear a Whoop Whoop and look in the mirror and see lights flashing behind us. Alex pulls over, he is just in his swim trunks and sandals. His wallet was in the back by the naked little boys. I am stifling my giggles as he has to get out and find his ID and talk with the cop. Apparently we were going 10 over but because it is an area we aren't familiar with we didn't know. The cop was nice and just gave us a warning, best of all he didn't even notice the naked little guys in the back.

Here is a picture of Aunt Steph with the boys a week before at a local park that was having a fair, the fire department was using their ladder truck to help cool people off.