Camp Na-Bor-Lee

My sister recently had several mishaps while traveling. As she recounted her car troubles, airbnb issues, and more, my dad's response was: "that's why we don't do fun things." 

With that lead, I'm sure you're expecting to hear something went astronomically wrong on our camping trip. I'll put your mind at ease. No, we didn't crash. Our tires remained in tact, and we have yet to get the dreaded COVID. (Knock on wood)

Our colossal, bad thing was: a long drive with 2 young children. This might sound silly, but it was challenging. How long of a drive was it? It took 11 hours to get there. Camp Na-bor-lee added extra distance increasing our drive time home to 12 hours and 45 minutes. I will note that Andrew doesn't speed (thank heavens). Thinking about the drive makes me cringe. Isabelle did her fair-share of screaming. 

We left Utah on Friday, August 7 and returned on Wednesday, August 12. We tried to align our drive to Washington with nap/bed time to alleviate some entertaining on our part. Our rough drive to WA definitely inspired our spur of the moment decision to leave Washington after dinner Tuesday and drive through the night (instead of waiting until Wednesday morning). Leaving was a good call, even though it was risky and we had to miss seeing Tyler get set-apart as a missionary. (Many of the awesome pics of the trip are because of him!)  I'm grateful we didn't hit a deer in the darkness. The drive home was much more bearable. The kids only woke up for the final 2 hours. I even got a turn driving (seeing that Andrew hadn't slept in hours) and drove the familiar freeway from Idaho Falls back to Utah.

When choosing how to vacation and use Andrew's precious, now limited vacation days, CAMPING would never make it on my list. Add small kids and it's my dream vacation (just kidding). As predicted, getting Isabelle to sleep was no easy feat. She wailed anytime we put her in the pack and play. We gave her part of a sleeping aid gummy the first night which worked like a charm. The downside was that it caused her to throw-up the next morning 4x. Once we all got to sleep, we slept well. Our kids even slept in until after 7am both mornings! My parents let us use their super cushy camping pads and we finally broke in our brand new tent! It got cool in the evenings which was a nice change and I actually wanted and needed to use covers (aka my sleeping bag) for the first time in months. Side note: James called it a "sleep bag" which was so cute.

We were in charge of dessert one night and stopped and bought cookies. Lots of strangers were impressed Izzy had a mask on. I'm surprised the mask lasted.

Isabelle loved all the extra attention. Aunt Tavia played with her lots.

Candid moment

Staying with Logan and Julia before we went camping was an excellent choice. Our kids, especially Isabelle, LOVED their dog, Maggie. Izzy wouldn't leave poor Maggie alone and chased her around at all moments. Seeing Isabelle play with Maggie was priceless and has made me consider becoming a dog owner someday. Julia knows me well and ordered pizza one night, so I felt right at home.

Saydee and Izzy are about 7 months apart!

Our nephew, Dallin was baptized on Saturday and we were grateful to be there. Granny gave a talk and used a stuffed animal dog as an object lesson. Isabelle was so excited and couldn't contain herself. She said "doggy" loudly, so many times throughout the message. I ended up having to take her to the back/out. It was adorable.

James had the time of his life being around so many playmates. He definitely wore himself out and played hard. I was so proud of James for being brave enough to go tubing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that. He even went tubing a second time, so I think it's safe to say he was a fan.

James and Eliza walked around the campsite holding hands. Precious.

James loved playing with Rhett

In other news, Andrew achieved his goal for the year... He went water skiing! My dad is an especially goal-oriented person and we were once talking about our aspirations for the year. The only thing on Andrew's mind that year was water-skiing. I still like to tease him about it.

Approved by Andrew. He likes that it shows how well he cut around the buoy on the slalom course.

I did not grow up doing water sports and haven't had much success getting up when attempting water sports in the past. I was relieved to hear that a "beginners only" boat full of people went out to learn how to wake surf. I happily joined. All I wanted to do was get up and I did this time! I struggled to stay up and am definitely not at the point of being able to let go of the rope, but I'm one step closer.

Yes, Andrew sent this pic to my family. Yes, I knew he was going to and was totally ok with it. My face says it all. He says this will be his new phone screensaver. As you can see, water sports are very relaxing for me.

Despite the inconveniences that come with traveling too many hours in the car and camping in general, we made some wonderful memories. James' prayers have been extra sweet since our return and he randomly will pray for members of our extended family. That being said, I can see why my dad said he doesn't do fun things. Fun things are a hassle and require lots of work, but they are usually worth it.