Our First Campout! Crystal Hot Springs

This is my new favorite picture of Cami. She looks like such a little person, with her pearly whites shining through. Cute little peanut.

Last weekend was our River Oaks 4th Ward Campout! And we actually decided to go! I had to talk Jake into it, being the camping buff that I am. My family went camping ALL the time as I was growing up. We lived in California, and our ward campouts were at Sunset Beach every Memorial Day weekend. That place was AWESOME. It was pure forest, so we would sleep in tents and cook over fires and grills and do all the normal climbing trees, playing three flies up, running from skunks, exploring thing. But then just across the street and over a hill was the BEACH, so it had the best of both worlds. Our family also had a yearly membership to Thousand Trails, a campground chain all across the country that has tent sites or trailers or even garden homes that we could stay in whenever we wanted. It's been like 7 years or something since we all went camping together, but those sure are some fond memories from my childhood.

Anyways, Jake likes camping too, but he didn't know about the long drive to get to Crystal Springs, and how Cami would do overnight in a tent. But we geared up, borrowed his parent's nice family tent, packed up the car and left on Friday evening. I had been packing here and there all throughout the day...getting my stuff, Cami's stuff, sleeping bags and chairs, and making tin foil dinners and a cooler ready. THUS, once we were on the road I realized I had totally forgotten: Pillows, shoes and socks for me (I was wearing flip flops), a shirt for the next day, insect repellent, and any kind of jacket or longsleeves for Cami!! It was supposed to be nice weather- 80 and sunny, but it turned out to be rainy and 60 degrees. So we had to be creative in keeping her warm and dry once we got there. It was a nice hour and a half drive to get there.

I'd never been to Crystal Hot Springs, located in Honeyville just south of Tremonton, but our ward camps there every year now. We had a grassy field to set up our tent in, and the water park is just right next to it. Here's Jake setting up the tent when we got there, and Cam trying to help.
Luckily, Brother Grant had some poncho's and he lent us one to put on Cam. Jake tied a knot in it and she was set!

It wasn't her favorite though. She had limited mobility and no use of her hands. Haha.

Check out those ringlets! The humidity brought out her curls. She really wanted to wear that hat, too. She likes it- pats her head and thinks she looks cool in it.

Due to the fact that we hadn't eaten dinner when we got there and I had made yummy tin foil dinners that I was excited to eat, Jake helped make a fire so we could cook them despite the drizzle. I'm all about food, if you haven't noticed yet. So the highlight of my camping experiences is almost always the food. :) Tin foil dinners are always a must! And they're even good at home in the oven, too. Just make a layer of cabbage, then add chopped carrots, broccoli, sliced potatoes, onion rings, chunks of raw ground beef, salt and pepper, and a couple spoonfuls of cream of mushroom soup. Wrap it all up and cook over hot coals (or in this case over orange flames which slightly burned them but did the job) for about a half hour. Eat with some ketchup, and YUM. The ward provided stuff for smore's that night, so everyone sat around the fire and enjoyed visiting and eating. I made one with a Reeses peanut butter cup- so good!

Another creative way to keep her warm- drown her in Jake's sweatshirt! She was trippin all over the place. She reminded me of ET.

That night's sleep was very......halted. There's a railroad track going right past the campground, and a couple trains that so conveniently came through the camp 3 times during the night. Cami slept in her pack n' play, and Jake and I in our sleeping bags on an air mattress...but every time the train came, Cami woke up crying. So Jake pulled her into bed with us, and she cuddled into me and fell asleep again each time. It was so precious. That's pretty much the only time she's slept with us, cuz she's always been so independant and good at going to bed in her crib. I loved feeling her little head on my chest though. The other bad part of the night, however, was that I couldn't fall asleep for a long time cuz I just kept hearing everything going on around us, and I had to get up to go to the bathroom TWICE during the night. And no, I'm not pregnant. So that sucked. Jake wasn't happy when he was tossed to and fro each time I'd have to climb over him to go. So we were all pretty tired in the morning.

And this was her morning makeshift jacket....pajamas tied in a knot. :)

The ward provided a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage. We relaxed for awhile after that until the hot springs opened.

We stayed for about an hour and a half, just soaking in the hot spring pool. It wasn't too hot for babies, so Cami enjoyed it too. Her poor little swimsuit from last year has seen it's last days!

She had fun floating in her friend's little raft. There is a kiddie pool, but it was freezing, so we didn't go in it. But I did get in the big olympic size pool and swim some laps (2, to be exact) and it felt good! I'm excited for more swimming this summer. And maybe even more camping!