Reilley Reunion

If one weekend (Wednesday - Saturday) doesn't give you your mountain fix I highly recommend spending the next one in the mountains too. Because lookit.

Josh's step-dad's family had a big fat reunion up East Canyon and we were excited to join them!

I've never spent much time with the Reilleys, we go to big stuff (weddings, funerals, Christmas parties) when we can, but they are typically short, and crazy, and all of Frank's siblings look the same (Chris.....Ryan.....) and have the same name (Kari, Carrie, Kaylee) and frankly I can't keep the straight and that's embarrassing. 

The good news is that with 2 whole days I was bound to figure out who was who.

The other good news is that since Frank (Grandpa Reilley to my boys) has 2 brothers who may as well be his twins. And since Little John has a special love for Grandpa Reilley it was like buy one Grandpa get 2 free! 

Friday night as we were all singing around the campfire, John wanted nothing to do with snuggling on my lap and went in search of his one true love. He wound up on Chris's lap (or was it Ryan? See? I still can't tell...) and happily snuggled in for about a half hour. When Chris got up to chase his own kids and passed Little John to Grandpa the look on John's face was priceless. "Wait a minute...if you're grandpa, and YOU'RE grandpa...... TWO GRANDPAS!!!!!" He snuggled right back into Frank and went to sleep. 

In addition to that evening Grandpa had a shadow almost the whole weekend. Fortunately he's a good sport and managed to seem unannoyed by the extra (adoring) baggage. 

This is John learning about life from Grandpa Reilley.

This is John chasing Grandpa "ohm-pa! ohm-pa!" and blowing him kisses to lure him back.

Tommy on the other hand, simply couldn't be torn from the playground.

Side note: "camping" is a relative term here. We slept in a tent and cooked over a fire. But there was a swimming pool, a playground, a mini golf course, tennis, and trailer hookups & condos at this same resort. I'm still not really sure how to camp in that environment - it's a very strange mix for me. But I will say that buying ice in your campsite seems like a really great idea.

He ran the slides, the climbing walls and the swings straight into the ground trying to keep up with his sort-of cousins who he deemed "a little-bit they are". Because the response to "is that blue guy my cousin?" is "a little bit".

Tommy has recently discovered the joy of "swingin' that thing around like spinning and puking on your tummy". 

He's still working on the concept that everybody has a name and doesn't just go by the color of their shirt that day. He still thinks that his friends in the neighborhood Cole & Payton are "that blue guy and that red guy" because that's what color their shirts were. Since he'll only see these "little bit cousins" once a year, and his parents can't keep track of their names, I think we might embrace the shirt-naming theory. 

The Reilleys can be an intimidating clan, but sitting around talking with The Moms (which group I was easily adopted into since I didn't have my swimsuit) quickly assured me that these are some of the most real and lovely people I'll ever have the pleasure of knowing.

Alexander Lake

There is a secret in the mountains for Josh and I. It is a place of peace and refuge. And not in the tree-hugging-hippie-way. Or maybe it is.

Life here is stressful because I'm a stress-case. Life there is slow and calming and peaceful because things are filthy and the agenda is to sit around and I am capable of letting it all go.

Life here is chores and meetings and seeing people.

 Life there is family. Just family. 

Life here is gardening and weeding and harvesting.

Life there is effortless beauty with no gardener. 

Life here is "why aren't there 2 shoes that match?"

Life there is "pick a life jacket from the pile and enjoy".

Life here is bedtime and routines. 

Life there is late night campfires, sunsets & snuggling.

Life here is safely, carefully, and cautiously.

Life there is choosing and throwing anything you want.

I know it's possible to chill out in civilization - but until I learn that skill, I'll settle for regular sanity-saving trips in my very favorite places. 

This year's trip to Alexander Lake included 26 humans. 12 of those are adults. The oldest grandchild is 13 years old. Go ahead and tell me how awesome we are and I won't tell you how the 10-13 year olds are really the best child care on this planet.

This year was a bit different because we didn't get our "usual" spot - something about an entire scout troop not wanting to sleep with 16 babies. Whatever. Sissies. Though I will say we were all glad for the distance when their bugle call sounded at 6:30am. 

Camping in a different area on the lake was fun, a different "beach" different trees to sit on and different kitchen situation. Though I miss the giant rock tables in the usual place. 

The boys did relatively well, though sitting around the campfire listening to scary stories about murder and monsters wasn't really their cup of tea. It will be when they're older and they'll be glad those stories are familiar to them because their mean mom wouldn't let them wander into the dark woods alone.

The thing I really hope they learn though is about loving these mountains. And all the others too. I hope they are always content to sit and throw rocks for hours at a time watching the ripples and looking for the next big splash.

Salamander Flats

One of the best parts of being a nurse is the totally awesome schedule. Josh works Monday, Wednesday & every other weekend (Saturday/Sunday).

The worst part of my job (and maybe the ONLY negative) is that I work every day. Monday - Friday. It's only in the afternoon, but it sortof steals the awesomeness that comes with Josh's job.

But he refuses to let the awesomeness go to waste. Yay Josh.

We were planning to head up the canyon on Thursday night right after work, but we sortof forgot about the preparation part of going so by the time we were ready to go Thursday, we were slammed with that crazy wind storm and decided we may as well get a good night's sleep before heading up first thing Friday morning.

We drove up the canyon thinking it would be easy to find a spot (ba ha ha ha! - that was dumb.) so after driving up and down and in and out of anything that looked like a camp site we finally landed at Salamander Flats and rushed to set up camp so I could get back to work.

I left Josh with a set-up tent, 2 hungry boys (John starting to run a fever and hacking up a lung), and boxes full of gear.

I had stashed my wardrobe change in my car so that I could change before heading up the canyon, but I was in such a hurry to get up there, I mostly changed at red lights (and one pull over) on my way.

 

I believe in camp hair, so the do-rag is always the first part of getting ready. Dumb I know - but I don't do hair hair while camping.

I never really know what happens while I'm gone, but when I came back they had eaten all of the snack-food, almost none of the meal-food and they were all happy, hungry & filthy. So I call it success.

We made toastite pizzas for dinner (easy because I knew Josh wouldn't want to try making something time consuming while keeping the boys out of the fire).

Toasttites on the fire.

Pizza ingredients.

After dinner we headed out for a short hike. And by short I mean a couple miles. And by hike I mean walk down the curving canyon road. Because that was the only way I knew how to get to the water. We took a trail on the way back, which was much more enjoyable.

Josh had taken the boys on 3 short walks (but we were in the mountains, so hikes right? Full credit there.) earlier in the day, but they had failed to find a water source and we all knew we'd die if we didn't find a river or stream or SOMEthing in which to throw rocks, pinecones and people.

John rode on my shoulders, Tommy and Josh walked ahead of me and we found the water.

Of course we were enormously thrilled with ourselves. Though the young couple having an intimate moment across the stream were probably embarrassed to find our young family invading their space.

During our walk back we found a trail that was beautifully shaded and had extraordinary views of the mountains all around us.

John says  "booya!" 

 When we got back to camp the boys were happy to sit and watch the fire while we waited for the sun to go down so we could get out the glow-sticks grandma gave them for Easter.

It was glow-stick mania in our tent. And everyone was happy - for almost 10 minutes.

Now, you know I love camping. really. Honestly. And there's nothing like waking up with the cool crisp air and the sounds of nature all around. But the reason that sunrise at 6am is such a beautiful thing is that the night is so so long.

There are a lot of skills that you learn when you camp a lot. How to cook over a fire, ignore the filth, pee in the wilderness....the list goes on. I have learned most of these skills, but the one I've never quite mastered is sleeping.

I used to get cold, so I got a mummy bag.
Then I got claustrophobic, so I got a two-man bag to share with the human space heater I married.
Then we had kids, and cold and cramped were the least of my sleep problems.

Now that Tommy is old enough to sleep in his own bag (all night long without moving at all !!!!) John has taken over the feet-in-face, tossing-and-turning, whinging-and-crying, whimpering-and-coughing position in our family.

And that is why sunrise when you're camping is so so beautiful.

I also love waking up with my boys. They are beautiful in the morning, but I am rarely in a position to capture that beauty. While we're all on the floor snuggling (and rolling around looking for marshmallows to eat) I am glad I get to soak in their goodness.

After breakfast we packed up and headed home so we'd have time to clean up, water the yard, and do all of the regular Saturday stuff.

Camping is one of those things that always makes our little family love each other more. Here's hoping there's lots of it this summer.

"Camping"

We do plenty of real camping, so I don't feel too bad about putting this "camping" in quotation marks.

And I definitely don't feel about how much fun it was!

This year's addition to my parents ridiculously perfect backyard is the fire pit.

So after setting up camp

And forcing my baby to sleep

We started the fire and ate s'mores.

Then rigged up a projector to watchee show. After dark (aka sleep deprived). ON A SUGAR HIGH.

Let me tell you, there is no better way to watch The Muppets.

Camping in the backyard was definitely one of my favorite nights.

Camping

Sometimes I like to think we're hardcore campers because we THINK about camping so much.

But the truth is that this weekend was the first campout of the season (first of John's little life!) and it was just an overnighter in a place with picnic tables and toilets with concrete walls.

So.....really how hardcore can I claim to be?

Whatever, I ate s'mores for breakfast so that's probably as hard core as it gets.

Bottom line, we went camping this weekend and it was awesome.

Josh miraculously found a space that met all of everybody's criteria for camping.

I require shade + water because I grew up camping in the Uintas and I believe that is the only true way to camp.
Tommy requires water + rocks.
John requires nap space availability.
Josh requires 2 strong trees close together for hammock purposes.

Ordinarily I don't hesitate to share a good thing with the internet, but I'm having anxiety about telling you my new favorite camping spot because if you reserve it for the rest of the summer and I never get to go again we might not be friends anymore.

Somehow, I love you just enough to share the wealth.

Affleck Park. Site 14. You're welcome.

"I'm the king of campsite 14!"

Tommy and Josh got to work setting up the tent right away. Tommy was a bit heartbroken when he learned that tent poles are not "whacking sticks" and we took them away.

Dad & Tommy build a tent.

But he immediately fell in love with the tent and found more whacking sticks so it was OK.

"I said, come on in mom!"

John-Boy had to wait while we built a camp. He was not thrilled. 

As soon as John got down for a nap, the "big boys" got straight to work.

Josh & Tommy swinging in the hammock by the river.

Meanwhile I sat around reading about the horrors in a concentration camp. Something about reading about crematories then throwing garbage in a campfire to watch it burn made me feel a little creepy. 

So I put the book down and threw rocks with Tommy instead.

I can't explain to you how much this child loves throwing stuff in water. We managed to pry him away long enough to play in the tent while Johnny ate. This kid is remarkably good at Go Fish. But he cheats. He was holding the 10s the whole time!

But the child can only read books and play cards so long before he drags us back to "that pond up there!"

See all that white stuff up there in the pond? It's cotton. Even if we called it snow. and it didn't stop coming down the whole night. It was crazy.

The stream really was perfect. Plenty of low on the water standing space. Enough rocks to last us all summer.

And even a plank to walk.

Probably the best piece of camping equipment we own is our big fat 2 man sleeping bag. It changed my camping sleep forever. 

But this year it became a 1 man and 2 boy sleeping bag and I got the boot at 6am. Rude. 

The good news is that my boys love me in the morning. They each need a turn on my lap first in the morning. And I am happy to comply.

Anytime Tommy wasn't throwing rocks, he was looking for bugs. I was less thrilled about the invasion of the wildlife. But even I couldn't tell him this one wasn't cute....

I came back from the bathroom to find my boys lounging by the river in the hammock. And this was the best part of the weekend for Josh. These boys, they love each other. 

The weekend was short, and filthy ("dirt EVERYwhere!") and beautiful. Simply beautiful. 

I love these mellow kind of weekends. Even if they require a week of cleaning and laundry to recover.

Camping: One Last Time

I've been saying summer is over for weeks. I've been mourning the loss and writing about how horrible fall is. And how much I love fall.

Apparently Josh was listening to all the whining and took Labor Day weekend off so we could pretend it was summer for just 3 more days. THREE. MORE. DAYS.

Since I'm a-scared-a the dark and woodland creatures, I went to work convincing other people to join us.

And that's the story of why the cleanest people we know agreed to play in the dirt and not shower for 3 days.

The children were thrilled. Ignore the odd-faced grown-up in the middle. The children are worth the picture.

Within 5 minutes of getting there both kids were covered in black ash and Ashley was wounded. We were off to a good start.

It's OK, we walked it off.

At night it got cold. So we warmed our hands by the fire and breathed in smoke. 

We mostly sat around doing nothing the whole time with occasional spurts of eating and cooking.

Except when the kids convinced us to color and blow bubbles and throw rocks.

Our first night was creepy. There was a person (or other 2 legged creature) wandering around our campsite at 3am and I swear we heard one animal eat another alive. Fortunately the 2nd night was a little better (for us - poor Stella must not have been feeling well, so I don't think anybody in their tent slept at all....) and Tommy even went down to sleep without crying.

This was the trip where we ditched the pack 'n play and gave him his very own grownup sleeping bag. He did great until he woke up in the middle of the night and didn't know where he was. So he did join us in our bag after 4am making for a VERY squishy night. (Pregnant Amy + sideways Tommy + average-sized Daddy in one sleeping bag = squished.) But he woke up happy and warm, and when Tommy's happy, everybody's happy.

We had such a great time and were glad to have one last weekend off now that Josh has work & school 7 days/week. Besides, there's something about the mountains that just makes me happy.

And when you add good friends to the mix, the weekend is guaranteed to be fabulous.

I've said it before, but I'm fairly certain this really was the last camping trip of the summer. Until next year when we will be a family of 4.....