Spruces Campground

We just got back from a night of camping at the Spruces Campground up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Kids chilling last night ~

Lily made that campfire for us, good job Lil.

I am proud to say that I made this trip happen, and that I reserved the site and did a lot of it on my own, go me. So the ball for this got going last week when the girls went backpacking, and I decided to follow suite and took ODPK on a hike at Brighton around Silver Lake. On our way there, we passed by Spruces, and I turned in to ask if I could take a look around the grounds at campsites that the kids might like to go to. K fell asleep, so we took a few laps in the car while she rested, and I wrote down different sites that the boys liked. They made me pinky promise that we really would go camping. So yesterday morning, Owen knocked on our bedroom door first thing at like 7:30 am and asked "When are we going camping?" So, I was like I better make this happen. My first priority was to finish our ward RS July newsletter, cause if I had that done (needs to be scheduled to sent on July 1st at 8am), then we could go camping. I finished it around noon, yay good job. So then I told Corey, who was at work, and the girls at home, that I was going up to try and get a campsite for the night. It took me about an hour, cause the campground hosts were not at the booth, and cause I didn't know how to reserve the site and I didn't have anyone to ask. I drove around looking at sites that they had listed as available...

I saw one of the hosts passing by on their little golf cart, talked to her for a second. I thought the sites with papers were still available, but learned from her that the papers meant they were taken. So then I drove around the campground again to find ones that the kids had liked on Friday, I compared to the list they had at the front. I knew that the kids liked some sites on the lower loop, but they didn't show many of those available, BUT on my 3rd or so drive around I stopped at one the kids liked and saw that it was open for 6/30, #19. Peter liked that one cause it had stairs. Back at the booth, I was glad to see the hosts were there, I almost got #49 for two nights, but then Corey said just do one night, so then I asked about #19 which was open for one night, and I got that one. I'll get #49 another time. I think I have memories of staying at that one when I was a kid. I was able to pay with credit card and I went to put a paper slip on the site post, and then I was done. Took me an hour which is prob silly but yay I did it, I reserved a campsite! I went home, got the kids, we did some very simple packing (we're having leftovers from the baby blessing for dinner, aka veggie straws, chocolate nuggets and rice krispy treats). We headed up for the night. S&N didn't want to come. Abi stayed behind to do homework and cause she was hoping to hang out with friends later, Lily had a few friends coming over to help her prep for 4th of July face painting on Friday, Lily is in charge of that. I told S&N they could either come up with me now or come up with dad later, but everyone was coming, no hanging with friends tonight. They came without complaining, but weren't excited about it. I get it. After a short drive up the canyon, the kids took the sleeping bags and put them on the table. I got the tent and Owen was a trooper helping me set that up. Then bringing in the sleeping bags and pads. Kids blowing those up and claiming their area on the tent floor.

I was ready for a nap, but that was not going to happen. I tried to read around 5pm and said we'd go on a hike at 6. Another reason why I liked the lower loop was because of the trail I saw that led to Donut Falls. After I wasn't able to read, I said let's go on the hike. Kids, once again, weren't thrilled. I didn't really know the distance to it or how long it would take. But we weren't doing anything else, so let's go. Sophi and Natalie were a great help with Katharine. 

I carried K a good portion of the hike too. Owen was very vocally positive, which most of his siblings found irritating. Daniel struggled and murmured the most. Peter did good. K was good cause she was carried for almost all of it. It was very pretty!

They wanted to turn around and asked to turn back over and over again. I said "not yet" and "Let's just go a little bit further" and "almost..." and then I was saying "Soon" in Jesus style from The Chosen series, so then they knew we weren't going to turn back soon. They endured, and we conquered. We made it to the falls. 

They thought the cliffs there were cool.

Ok, one pic with the waterfall behind...

And me and K cause we're here too...

Ok, NOW we can go back. That took us an hour and 23 minutes to get there. Prob would have been faster without the moaning. The walk back was very beautiful. I loved the view! I wanted to get a pic of it - of the mountains in the sunlight behind the tall shaded trees, can you see it? 

Owen trying to steal the spotlight and still being super positive and overly cheerful. I love it Owen. You keep that up for the rest of your life if you can! K still getting a free ride. 

I think she didn't wear her hiking shoes on purpose!

She did walk a little bit near the end. 

That's when we saw Corey coming towards us on the trail. Abi was in the meadow having Natalie take pictures of her for the gram. Strava says we did a total of 3.68 miles, 1 hour 55 min. 

Lily was at the campsite and had started a fire. Kids started drinking water and eating rice krispy treats. We sat around and told stories - Corey started it and then passed it on to Lily and each kid had a turn and had to add something to the story. Started off being about a father who left his daughter alone at a campsite (which Corey had just done to Lily when he went to meet up with us, Lily said "wow, I have no idea where the inspiration for this came from...") and she was kidnapped, but the guy who kidnapped her was super hot and attractive (Sophi added that part for Lil), then she was forced into marriage, found $50 bucks and then went to 7-11 for some Feastables and a slurpee (that was Owen's contribution) and then she finds out she's an alien lizard princess and other random things like that. I was collecting firewood so I didn't catch most of the story but I heard them all laughing. We brushed teeth and took trips to the honey bucket as soon as the sun started to set. We went to bed with the night. The night wasn't too cold, but kids slid off their pads and woke up from rocks poking them in the back. I woke up a lot, kept thinking it should be getting light, but didn't see anything through the tent - we left the top off and fell asleep under the stars. I didn't really have anything for breakfast except apples, so we just woke up this morning, broke camp, and headed home. 

Now we're back home and I'm doing lots of laundry, the kids are taking turns waiting for the shower to become available, Lily is practicing some face painting for Friday. She let Katharine do a bit on her own face...

and then Lily finished it - 

K's potty training is going well, other than not having success yet with #2. She pooped her pants twice today. We took diapers up camping. K's gotten #1 mostly figured out, but I didn't want to deal with it up camping so I brought diapers. K has not gotten #2 figured out, and we'll see how longer I can cope with that before I go buy pull ups.

So again, shout out to myself and pat myself on the back for making this night of camping happen. It was my first time ever doing it. I went camping at Spruces a lot as a kid, but I've only gone there once as an adult, and that time my mom reserved it. All of our other camping experiences (many years at Pineview, several trips to Moab, one time on our way to Lake Tahoe, etc etc) have been us benefiting off someone else's work and expertise, usually Corey's brother Mark. So yeah, I'm proud of myself that I did this and made it happen. Site #19 was good, though Peter didn't like it as much as I thought. It had a whole hill behind it to explore but the kids didn't venture far at all. I guess it might take a few times for their creativity in nature to kick in. We'll try to go again this summer and will do a different spot.