Camping Catch Up

Over the summer we went on three family camping trips. I grew up in a camping family and always wanted to do it with my children a lot, and these were our first trips with the boys. Hopefully the first of many. These were our practice runs where we learned all about what goes into camping with little ones and we had a lot of fun in the process. We took one trip with my family, one with Jeremy's and one all our own. Here's a look back at our first family camping trips...

Our first was with Jeremy's family at a campground in the Heber Valley. We all had a great time with lots of fun activities. The kids dug for dinosaur bones, searched for night eyes, and went fishing. The weather was very hot and we found relief in the water at Bridal Veil falls and Cascade springs. Our biggest lesson learned is that camping should be done in May or September and not July. Despite the heat we had a great time, with great food, and great company! We however were not so great with taking photos. There were lots of fun activities and with two little ones to keep track of we rarely had free hands :)


Fun at the Bridal Veil falls.
Down at the fishing hole with Dad.

Ty and Cameron slept beautifully at each campout. Never a problem. I think they were just so worn out they slept very soundly.

Next we had our own family campout at Red Butte Gardens. This one was sort of cheating, but turned out to be absolutely incredible! How can you go wrong with beautiful gardens, catered food, and professionally planned activities? We've since learned that anything Red Butte Gardens does is first class and well worth it.

We parked our tent right up on this hill close to the restrooms. We felt a little like the Taj Mahal up there in our giant tent. We enjoyed a catered breakfast, professional story tellers, smores, games, a star gazing party and exploring the gardens in our pj's!

Finally was the trip with my family to Strawberry Resivoir. My parents drove up from Las Vegas and we all got together for three days and three nights. This trip was all about FISHING. I was thrilled to see my brother and his wife share so generously with all of us one of their passions. Along with their great trailer. I was also thrilled to see Jeremy able to spend three days doing something he loves so much too. Ty's interest level in the actual fishing was quite low, but when it came to the actual fish, he loved holding, touching, and mostly eating it!

This trip was very relaxed and felt like a much needed vacation. We also did much better with the picture taking by this time. Here's a look:

Ty holding dad's fish.

We put out a crawdad trap and got about eight of the little critters. Camo wasn't too sure about them.

Ty thought the crawdads were pretty fun.

And he was excited to eat them! He ate at least half. Luckily I know how to dive into those things. I got a lot of practice on my mission.

Saying goodbye to the fishermen in the morning.


This is Jeremy's prize winning fish. I'll never forget the look on his face when he walked up the hill carrying this fish back to camp. He was SO proud and SO excited to share it with all of us. That night we had it for dinner and it was the best fish I've ever had. I know he'd want me to record details, but I'm not sure if I remember exactly, I'll try: It's a 23" Cutthroat. (Correct me if I'm wrong sweetie)
My dad, my brother, my son, and my hubby going out fishing...


I was more than happy to let the boys and Cody do their fishing thing while I stayed at camp and visited with my mom, but decided to give it a try on the last day. I actually liked it! It was really fun to actually catch one! We put them back, but here's my catch. Not as big as Jeremy's but squirmy.

Here we are headed home. This was our caravan. The canyon was starting to turn colors for fall and was absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. Every morning I woke up and looked across the lake to see more color. I swear it got more beautiful each day we were there.

My favorite memory of this trip was sitting around the fire and remembering all the trips we took as kids. Each of us remembered something different. All of these camping trips made me REALLY appreciate how much work it took for our parents to do these fun things with us as kids. Thanks mom and dad for doing so much for us! Who knew that 30 years later we'd still be doing it and talking about the fun details of those first family camping trips :)

I hope that 20-30 years from now I'll be sitting around a fire Ty, Cam, and any others siblings that might come along, and talk about our family camping trips when they were young with such fond memories!