Flaming Gorge

We just returned from a fantastic week (4 days) at Flaming Gorge!  We camped at Hideout Canyon campground.  We had to load up the boat with all our camping supplies and boat-in to the campground.  I LOVED it!!  The campground assigns a dock to two different sites who share that dock.  Nobody was in the other site until Saturday as we were leaving which left us with the entire dock all to ourselves.  The boys loved getting up with the sun and running down to the dock where they quickly retrieved fishing poles and fished off the dock until Taylor & I woke up and made it down.  We would then go out and fish for a couple of hours.  The first morning Parker caught a big trout soon after we left the dock.  He was so excited and the best part for me was that his brothers were excited for him.  I loved hearing all the positive feedback he was getting.  We took the fish back to camp and cooked it up with our breakfast.  Quite tasty.  We then spent the afternoons swimming in the water and pulling the boys on the tube.  They loved it.  Parker was quite the dare devil and kept asking Taylor to go faster.  Unfortunately the front of the tube went under water and scared him so he was done for the day and definitely didn't want to go fast again when we finally convinced him to get on again.

The first night we were in camp Mitchell came back from the bathroom and said, "Mom, I think I just felt the Holy Ghost."
I asked, "What happened?"
"Well, I needed to go to the bathroom and Parker said he would take me to it.  As I was coming out of the bathroom I thought, 'I'm so glad I have a family', and I felt really good inside.  I think it was the Spirit."

I was so pleased with that conversation.  As a mother, I'm always hoping the boys will have opportunities to feel the spirit and wonder if they will know it when they feel it. We had talked about feeling the Spirit on the Sunday before we left so I was grateful to realize that he was listening and it had made a difference in him recognizing it when the opportunity arose.

I was worried about food before we left - keeping it cold; having enough; having a variety; etc. But I think it turned out well.  In fact, I had a half a block of ice still in the cooler when we got home on Saturday.  We had tin foil dinners on Wed night and I cooked Rhodes cinnamon rolls in the little camp oven that night.  The boys thought that was quite the treat.  We also had tacos one night, french toast & sausage, pancakes & bacon, chicken croissant sandwiches and fish.  It was all pretty tasty.  The one thing I was glad I did this time was take up quite a bit of fruit.  That always tastes so refreshing.  I also bought a "over-the-fire popcorn popper" and made popcorn one night.  It turned out perfectly! It was fun and tasty!

I was excited because I actually drove the boat so Taylor could water ski.  I had never done that before and was glad that I could do it.  I'm sure Taylor was too because he enjoyed skiing!

The three less than great things that happened were:
1. Our second night in the tent Mitchell threw up - and didn't even realize it until it was all over his face.  That was less than great to have to clean up in the middle of the night without running water - but we did and lived to tell.
2.  Parker went to cast his line out and threw his Spider-man pole in the lake with the fishing line.  He was very sad.  So was I - that pole was his perfect match in size and he had spent many hours casting the line out all the while really enjoying himself.
3.  Taylor's down rigger was pulled in to the lake - not fun watching $150 being pulled down to a watery grave.  I guess he knows what he's getting for Christmas!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable week.  So great to do something fun like that as a family.  We really needed the family time and I am so grateful it turned out to be such a success!