Camping in the Canyon

We are so blessed to live here! I've been hankering to go camping, so Thursday after Sam's half day of school Steve and the boys headed up American Fork Canyon in Rainy and scoped out a fantastic spot up at Granite Flats campground. I scooted up the canyon after work and we all enjoyed a fabulous Thursday night campout! Ok, I guess I probably smelled a little like campfire at work on Friday, but it's a small price to pay for a much-needed evening in the great outdoors.

We actually intended to stay through Saturday morning but couldn't find a campsite so just decided to bag it and sleep in our beds Friday night, which worked out just fine since Steve had his first Jr. High event of the school year Friday night anyway.

We didn't really "do" much up in the mountains, we just enjoyed the cool and the stream running through the campsite and time together. We cooked hot dogs over the fire and the boys burned newspaper balls, their favorite camping activity - Steve or I rip a section of newspaper into strips and the boys crumple them into balls and burn them. They could do this for hours - I truly think it's one of their favorite things in the whole wide world.

And in the "I can't believe how quickly my boys are growing up" category of events, Sam and Ben and Nesbitt slept outside in a tent! I'll confess that every time I woke up I had the shuddery fear that they were being eaten by cougars, but I consoled myself that the cougars would go for Nesbitt first.

Oh, and speaking of Nesbitt, here's a picture of Steve and Nesbitt enjoying their favorite game - "Leap to Eat Things out of Steve's Mouth." Yes, I agree with what every reader of this entry is likely to say - this is truly a terrible idea. Steve has trained our obese and grouchy dog to jump up and steal food out of people's mouths. But I do have to confess that it's hilarious to watch. And I consider us lucky - Steve still has a nose attached to his face.