Catch up two-Richards 3rd Annual Camping trip!

This summer we took two camping trips, the first one was with Collin's family...well some of them. Grandma, Grandpa and Cam and Nicky were there and Court came up for the day (she probably wished she didn't, it was quite the trip to get there). The Kunz's had the flu pass in there house so they weren't able to make it, we missed them, especially Coop!

We still had a great time for the most part. When we weren't following Bode on many of his long hikes or dealing with Peiton's tantrums, we had a good time.

Breakfast time

Is that Peiton? A little too much fun in the dirt.

Pei and grandpa chillin

Here is one of Peiton's many tantrums. She goes from this to this....

in one minute! Crazy girl!

Holly and Charlie brought a raft, which actually made the lake a lot of fun. Bode loved the raft until he realized he had a life jacket on and then wanted nothing to do with it because he didn't want to wear the life jacket. Typical Bode.

Bode and Nat on the raft getting caught in the rain.

Collin and Bode

Coop and grandpa

Cheese!

Playing in the rocks.

The best Cooper in the world!

Anyone for some smores?

Bode just chillin...so love this pic!

Well until next year, Kunz's we hope you can make it!

Another camping trip...

We went camping again, yes again! Thanks to Holly (for taking Bode) and to great, fun friends, it was a blast! We have had this trip planned since like April, you have to plan it that far in advance if you want to get a spot. We got the camp spot up American Fork Canyon at the Timponoekke (sp??) campground. It was beautiful! We had the perfect spot. We got two group spots and we had our own little culdesac, it worked out great. Like I said before, my mother-in-law took Bode for us. That was such a relief! I felt bad leaving him home, but he had a much funner time with Grandma and Grandpa than he would have had camping. It made our trip much more enjoyable too. We got up there Friday night and enjoyed some Cafe Rio under pine trees. Spent the night eating smores and just talking it up. The kids played their little hearts out. There was a fear of bears, this was the campground that the little boy was dragged from his tent last year. The kids had all been prepped and once night time came, I think they got a little nervous. We only had one encounter with a bear, that was when Ali stuck her hand out her tent door and touched it's fur...crazy!!! (It really didn't happen) What a cutie.

On Saturday we ate a yummy french toast breakfast made my the Jones' and just lounged around until we decided to go to Silver Lake. We had a great time there, I am so glad we went. The kids played in the water, some of the adults played in the water, and some adults tipped over the raft fully dressed in the water. If it wasn't for Lou lou trying to surf on the tiny 2 person raft, I still would have been dry. :) It was all worth it though, having to swim her and the boat back to shore because we both couldn't get in the middle of the lake. I think the main problem was we were flooding the deflating boat which made it very difficult to get in.

We got back to camp and played some games, and the Johnson's, Myer's and Olson's made us delicious Taco Salads for dinner. More smores were made, and more chit-chattin was done. We woke up Sunday morning made breakfast burritos and packed up and headed out. It was a great trip and one we will do again. We missed those that couldn't make it...until next year!

Richards family camping trip

Last weekend we had our annual Richards Family camping trip. We went up to Tanner's flat up Little Cottonwood canyon. I have fond memories of this place, we use to go here all the time as a family growing up. It was still as beautiful as I remember, although not quite as relaxing and exciting....:)

I would have to say it was kind of a crazy camping trip. Oh my goodness. Bode and Peiton gave Collin and I a run for our money...crazy! Not that they were crazy, well Peiton's scream got a little crazy because of the lack of sleep, and Bode was just crazy Bode. The first night I think I got about 2 hours of sleep, that might be exaggerating a little bit. Peiton wasn't quite sure what was going on and she is one to sleep very well in her crib, not in the mountains, in a tent, sleeping by 4 other people.

We got up there Friday afternoon and set up camp, we had a great camp. We cooked tin foil dinners that night...yummy, one of my camping favorites. Cooper had fun with his cousins playing on scooters and just enjoying getting dirty. We took many walks up and down the campground and enjoyed each other's company.

On Saturday we just had a lot of down time (well everyone else but Collin and I) and we were visited my a few rain storms, which actually cooled it down quite a bit, it was pretty nice. Court, Matt, Cam, Grandma and Grandpa J came and visited us that day, Nicky we MISSED you! Holly and Charlie made a delicious dutch oven dinner that night and I think I got my kids in bed by 8:00, which was awesome!! They were wasted.

Even though it was a little crazy, it was great to be with family. Thanks for putting up with our crazy kids...hopefully we are invited next year, and hopefully we come. :)

Camping Fun

This weekend we went camping and had a bunch of fun. I must say, it was a lot of work though, but it was worth it. The kids had a blast trying to catch chipmunks, playing in the dirt, eating junk, going on snake hunts, and just using their imaginations. It was Con-mans 5th birthday so we were able to celebrate that too. Happy birthday big boy! Cooper was fabulous, Bode was pretty good for most of the time, and Peiton, well she was Peiton, she wanted A LOT of attention. I know I have mentioned before that Bode likes to wander and really doesn't care if he wanders far away from us. So a while ago I bought him a little backpack leash (yes I know, my child is not a dog, but it is way to hard to keep track of him at times). Well I thought it would be perfect if I put the leash on and then tied a 30 ft rope to it and then tied the rope to a tree or something so he could only go so far. Well it worked for a little bit, but then he started getting tangled in the rope and really frustrated, so my idea kind of blew up in my face. But good thing for the dirt, after the first hour of being there I think he got as much dirt as possible on his little body. He loved it!

I was surprised how cold it got at night. I wasn't thinking it would get that cold. It made me worry that my kids were going to freeze. Cooper and Bode slept pretty well. But Peiton, after we got her to sleep, slept until about 4am and then woke up screaming (sorry fellow campers) she had no idea where she was and was freaked out. Collin ended up taking her to the car to calm her down and once she was calm he brought her back, she freaked out again. Back to the car they went. He ended up putting her in her car seat and got her back to sleep and there was no room for him to go because there was still stuff in the back and he couldn't lay the seats down so he tried to sleep sitting up. Didn't work so well, he ended up using all the batteries in the flash light reading the People magazine. So it was a long night (especially for Collin) and we were beat the next day.

Check out was at 1:00pm, we had lunch and came home. After we got things cleaned up Collin and I sat down and we were dead to the world, we were so tired! We both could have gone to bed at 4:00 and slept until morning...doesn't happen with 3 kids. But like I said before it was all worth it, we had a great time and hope to go camping more. Maybe next time we will leave the Pei Pei at home.