"This isn't camping, this is an adventure!"

I think I've done it.  I think I've found the prettiest lake on earth.  And thankfully it's only about an hour and a half from my house.

While my mom spent the weekend with her father who's on his death bed, my dad took all the kids camping.  Nine of us...ten if you count the dog.  We packed up the cars, the canoe and the raft and headed up to the Uintah Mountains.  We didn't really know what campsite we were headed to, so we went through some pretty rough four-wheeling areas.  "This isn't camping, this is an adventure!" was yelled multiple times from Max, my seven-year-old nephew.  It totally was--it was great!


We had s'mores, banana boats, loads of candy and cookies, tin foil dinners, dutch oven cooking.  Went fishing, canoeing, rafting, hiking.  The first night brought us a crazy rain storm, but thankfully we had about four extra tarps and trees conveniently placed in a perfect square to hang one up from.  We still roasted s'mores in the rain.  Leo ate the pine cones and got sick multiple times.  But he also had his first swim!  Papa showed Max and Noah the Milky Way, and my siblings and I reminisced about all the times we went camping when we were little.  Crazy four-wheeling stories, bear-sightings, delicious food.  Dad and I considered reenacting The Parent Trap and pushing someone's mattress out onto the lake while they were asleep.  It would have been the perfect lake to do it on, but we would need a thicker mattress (remember that for next year).  No one got any mosquito bites, and we never had to use the tow rope like we thought we might.  Successful camping trip.

We're gonna make it an annual.