We met my dad and Suzanne in Evanston and followed them to the campsite to help set up. It was a great location, close to the water and the bathrooms, and there were antelope roaming through the campground. Dylan, Preston and I went for a walk to see the antelope up close. Of course they just ran away from us, but the kids were determined to keep chasing them. After getting a little frustrated that they didn't want us to touch them, Dylan decided it was a good idea if we pretended to be deer (he was convinced they were deer). In the middle of our excursion, he leaned over to me and whispered, "Hey Mom, maybe if we pretend we're deer and run like them, they will know us and not be scared." We tried it, but they still ran away. Funny kid! He's got a solution for every problem. We got everything situated and ate dinner. Unfortunately, Preston thinks he's much bigger than he is and he took a scary dive off of the picnic table - he's got pretty good road rash on his face in the pictures to prove it. After that, I attempted bedtime with Preston, which went surprisingly well. Wa-hoo! That was my biggest fear. We brought the playpen for Preston and the portable DVD player to play their bedtime music, which worked perfectly. Dylan didn't last much longer before he went down for the night. Melissa pulled in about 11:00, we helped her get settled and chilled around the campfire for awhile, and then headed to bed.
Dylan and Marcos woke up and needed a bathroom break first thing. I think the tent unzipping woke Preston and he started talking and moving around. I grabbed him out of the playpen and tried to put him next to me to see if he'd go back to sleep, but he was jibber jabbering away and soon attacking me. It was one of my favorite Preston moments. One of those times you wish you could just freeze everything and enjoy it longer. He rolled over me and started touching my nose and my mouth (a pretty common occurrence) but just didn't stop. I'd touch his nose back and say "nose" or whichever body part it was. He just smiled and would do it again. His baby touches became big slobbery baby kisses, which made me start laughing. It was so sweet how he was loving me. Of course my laughing made him giggle over and over again. It was the best thing ever! Moments like that seriously make being a mommy worth it. After our love fest, we built a fire and waited for grandma and grandpa to wake up. The kids played for quite a while before we saw grandma and grandpa get out of the motor home. They said they'd been awake for awhile, but I don't believe them. :) Dylan was content to dig holes and collect rocks. We bought a little backpack with some tools that we brought up and they were a hit. Dylan took that backpack everywhere and took very good care of his tools. Preston just ran around eating rocks and dirt and getting into mischief.
We had a grab and go breakfast and headed out to a little Labor Day parade they do in Manila. It's such a small town and the parade is so cute. They had a guy who flew over us in one of those glider things that's like a go cart with a fan on the back. Whatever those are called. He tossed little parachutes with candy tied on them from his "plane." The kids LOVED chasing those parachutes as they fell to the ground. There were quite a few old fashioned tractors, fire trucks, horses, covered wagons and even a goat in the parade. All of them threw candy to the kids, who loved every minute of it. It was kind of nice to go to a parade in such a small town. Marcos was his boisterous self and yelled encouraging words to all of "Manila's finest." Crazy man...I can't help but love him.
After the parade, we headed out on the water. It was a little choppy with all the boats there, but we found some decent water and got some play time in. Melissa and I slalomed and Marcos and my dad knee boarded. Marcos had to try to show off like my dad and flip around backwards. He did it a couple times and then biffed it. Luckily I captured the whole thing on film for your viewing pleasure. Okay, so I debated whether or not to put pictures of me and my water sports on the blog. I usually avoid showing pictures of myself in unforgiving tight wetsuit shorts, but decided it was worth it. You just can't appreciate how much fun I was having without a visual. I could not stop smiling! It's been awhile since we've been able to play that hard. And don't worry, my knee was fine. We drove around seeing a lot of the lake and then later we stopped and let the kids swim in the water. Dylan was so brave and kept jumping off the platform. He and Marcos had so much fun playing together. Preston acted like he wanted to get in, so we put him in with Gustavo. He was a little sad so I pulled him out, but he wanted to get in again. It took a minute for him to get used to the water, but after that he thought it was great. He was splashing and getting Gustavo all wet and laughing about the whole process. Cute kid! It was just a great day on the water. That evening was super fun. We ate dinner, put Preston to bed and sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and talking.
In the morning, it was pretty windy and cloudy so we waited to see if we wanted to go boating. We finally decided to go out and take the kids tubing. Unfortunately, after about 10 minutes on the water, the motor just died. My dad thinks it was probably the impeller that went out. It's the part that sucks in water to cool the engine so the engine was overheating. This is the first breakdown he's had in 17 years. We had to call the coast guard and get towed back in. It was quite the adventure getting the boat back to the marina and onto the trailer. Just another crazy memory of our Flaming Gorge trip.
The kids still wanted to get in the water, so we walked down to the beach and took a dip and washed our hair. Dylan was so brave again. The water was so cold walking in and I was definitely taking my time. Dylan finally asked if I needed him to come help me and hold his hand. He's such a sweetheart! Anyway, it was fun.
Since we weren't on the water all day long, we actually ate dinner before dark. We were making s'mores that night when out of nowhere, the wind starts blowing like crazy. Dylan starting freaking out and Tony didn't know what to do so I grabbed the kids and headed for the tent while everyone else put out the fire and put stuff in a safe place. We had to put on a movie for Dylan to take his mind off of the strong wind that was rattling the tent all night. And then it poured and poured sheets of rain all night. The kids slept fine though. Our stupid air mattress went flat on us though so we were sleeping on the ground most of the night. Needless to say, we didn't sleep very well. In the morning we had a pretty decent puddle in front of the door that had blown in because of the direction of the wind. We took the kids and some dry clothes to the motor home to watch a movie while we packed everything up in the rain. Marcos, Gustavo, Melissa, Suzanne and my dad were soaking wet by the time it was finished. Most of my work was packing our stuff inside the tent and keeping the kids in the motor home, which was no easy task, but at least I kept dry.
After four days of fun, we headed home. The kids did really well on the drive and we were able to get home in time to unpack and start the laundry. It was a really fun trip, despite all the unexpected moments. Dylan was so sad this morning when he found out we had to go home. He kept asking if we could go back out on the boat again. Maybe next year, bud! Thanks Dad and Suzanne for the fun times. We love you!
Dylan's rock collection
Preston carrying mate around (that's a drink from Argentina and Uruguay)
Marcos, Gustavo and the boys walking down to the beach
Waiting for the parade
Grandma Suzanne helping the kids collect candy
Preston sleeping comfortably on the boat
Marcos and Dylan playing in the water
Waiting eagerly to ski
Loving every minute
Showing off for my hubby
Tony's drink
Preston swimming and splashing Gustavo
Marcos getting up on the knee board
Showing off his "360"
Crashing big time
Dylan goofing off and running from the camera
Preston drinking mate with Gustavo
Eating red licorice
Always on the run
Tony and Dylan around the campfire
Preston begging grandpa for food
The three boys
4 comments:
Looks like a great trip. Its always a great opportunity to go on family trips. I find that it brings you closer as a family. FUN TIMES!
Sounds like a crazy blast! Soooo, you were only an hour away from us and you didn't visit....disappointing. J/K. Glad you had fun. We've been to that parade and even talked about going this year, that would have been fun if we met you there...maybe some other time.
Audra-Next time for sure. Marcos' cousin and his family is moving to Vernal so maybe we will be in the neighborhood and can get together. That would be so much fun.
What a fun camping trip! It looks like a blast out on the water! and ahh camp fires, smore, and smelling like smoke!
oh and I love those mommy moments that help bring back some sanity!
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