Camping -- A Hundred Miles from Nowhere

Over Labor Day weekend our family and my brother Mark's family went camping at Great Basin National Park in Nevada. For those who have not been there, it is really in the middle of nowhere!! It's just a wasteland with NOTHING until you get to the mountains. It's a high peak, 11,000+ feet surrounded by desert (hence the name the Great Basin). It was really pretty, though, once you get up into the mountains. I realize now I should have gotten a picture of the wasteland, but I could never move when we were actually in the car.

I didn't really know what to expect with a two-month old, but I was pleasantly surprised! He slept almost the whole way there (just 3 hours to get there), and when he was awake, he was smiling and happy. Great! We had him sleep in his car seat, and the first night he slept NINE hours STRAIGHT!! He has never slept more than 5 or 6 at home. My sister-in-law, Melyssa, said that her mom went camping a lot with babies, and that was her experience. The fresh air seems to agree with them. Of course, that doesn't mean I slept well. I was constantly waking wondering why he wasn't awake. But I was still happy for the accomplishment. The second night he woke up after four hours and slept til morning. The third night the temperature really dropped and so he kind of cried off and on all night without fully waking. Poor guy!
Kate had the time of her life playing with her three cousins. And they were all so cute with her and worked hard on including her in everything they did. The youngest is two years older than Kate. The first full day there we went on a couple of short hikes. We borrowed a Snuggly from Melyssa's sister, and Andrew carried Christian like that. We tried our best to keep him covered, but the poor guy got a little burn on his nose (which, yes, made me feel like a horrible parent...) :( In this picture the girls are standing by their accomplishment -- building a bridge!
Here we are at the Bristlecone Pine Grove with trees that are or were thousands of years old. Kate liked the one that acted as a slide. :) These are Andrew's favorite trees. Kate was pooped by the time we had to hike back, but I wasn't too interested in carrying her. I would carry her for a little ways when she asked me to, then I would put her down. To distract her from the hiking, I told her story after story which captivated her, and she walked almost all the way back! An older man stopped us on the way down and said that he was happy to see little ones getting such an early start on the trail. Me too!

Enjoying a lazy game of cards on Sunday.

Sunday afternoon nap.

Since we were so far from anywhere, we got permission from our bishops to bless and pass the Sacrament. Because it was fast and testimony Sunday, we had one of those, too. It was a neat experience to be out in nature bearing our testimonies. Reminded me of girls camp.

Cute girls loving Christian. He's a lucky boy to have so many adorers.

The girls by their "Welcome" mat of their tree house, where they spent many hours playing.
I was worried about Kate going potty in an outhouse, since she is deathly afraid of flies. And screamed bloody murder when she saw a fly in the gas station bathroom on the way there...But she did great! She never cried about it at all. I think she was too fascinated about seeing all the poo/pee in the ground to worry about a few (LOTS) of flies. No accidents! Yay! And nobody fell in -- double YAY!!

I really don't know what Kate was thinking in this one. Celeste was just bending over looking at Christian, and Kate ran over when she saw I was taking another picture and hugs her bum! Uh...anyway, it makes me laugh whenever I look at it. :)

I really enjoyed camping with Mark's family. Kate had so much fun she cried when we took the tent down. It made camping with a baby so much less stressful to have so many people willing to hold him. It was so neat to see SO many stars in the sky at night and even some bats flying overhead! I'm glad we went!