Happy Boys getting ready for our RoadTrip! We had a Robertson weekend – Mom and Pots were driving out to bring Sean to BYU Provo and then Shannon to BYU Idaho. They convinced Michael and Kelsey to come for the ride. Then it was decided that since 2 forks of the Robertson family live in Cedar City, Ut, then the trip would need to pass through there as well. Tracie and John and Ryan and Tara planned a camping spot for us at Cedar Breaks so that’s where we all met up on Friday night.

Joel jumped in our car for a ride down and we got camp all set up in decent time and enjoyed our tin foil dinners. Ours is the Blue tent and I had to apologize for Packer screaming MaMa mama for a good half of an hour at 2:30 in the morning – you can see that our tenting quarters were rather close so I was not the only one to suffer his out burst. Tara and Ryans 2 month old did much better sleeping than The Pac Man. We took our dog for his first camping trip and he did really well. He slept in his cage in our tent and was a good dog.

On Saturday we ventured to Mammoth Caves. You crawl through the grate here and can hike quite a ways and come out on the other end. I was the only one not to get the flashlight Memo but it was still a neat place. Benji and Packer slept through most of it (in the car with Dad) but Benj woke up in time to explore the little cave with his cousins.

We also hiked to a waterfall – I think it was called Cascade Falls. It was a fairly short hike which was perfect for us pregnants and little kids. I forgot the camera so no pics. The “kids” – Joel, Tracie, John, Sean, Shannon, and Kelsey stayed and hiked for a mile or two back up into the cave of the waterfall. Will I ever be that adventurous again?? I’m too mom now – those things I used to do without thinking don’t have the same pull anymore. We’ll see how I feel after these child bearing years!

Shannon, Ryan, Taylee, Annette, Tom, Joel, Sean, Michael, and Benji. Some of the fam just chillin after the caves. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the trip because we had a really good time. We are due for a new camera so that will inspire more pics and pictures without smudge mark glare across them. 🙄

This was our last campfire on Sunday. We admit to being wimpy campers. Let me explain. We came with plans to camp Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. On Saturday after our hikes and as we made dinner it started to rain so we started to pack up some of our stuff and as the hail came pouring down and the wind picked up we jumped in the cars and headed to Ryans house for the night where we could be warm, play cards without getting wet and cold, and be able to get to church on time for Baby Brinlees blessing. And my air mattress was not comfortable! So we left camp and slept inside, we had the baby blessing and luncheon and then Sunday evening we went back up to check on camp and with another 50% chance of thunder storms and dark clouds over our heads we decided to break camp and enjoy one more fire and then we again headed for the safety and warmth of Ryan and Tracies homes. 😀

Here are the boys after breaking camp – happy to be in the warm car. The trip was tons of fun. I learned a new card game called “Hand and Foot”. We said goodbye to the Ryan Robertsons and the Lewis family and came home on Monday. Sean got to check into his freshman dorms and started school on Tuesday. I got to see the movie Mama Mia with my mom and sisters. “thanks Kelsey”. We spent time with the Johnson side of the family on Tuesday and with Uncle Russel and family. And then Mom and Dad left Wednesday morning to get Shannon settled in Rexburg! I love busy weekends. That was a fun end to our summer.

We also got to meet up with the Nettesheims and celebrate Grandma Beckers birthday on Monday. Grandma was impressed that 16 kids in one house could be that quiet. Bens mom was also in town so we got to spend time with her as well. We enjoyed seeing all of Grandpa Beckers slides and especially the comentary that they shared with us. I love holidays and family.