We decided to go camping. All year we thought about it. We were going to do it. Go camping. For the record years ago, Mike and I declared ourselves a "No Camping" family. We decided it was not for us. We didn't like the hassle of packing, setting up, not sleeping and then taking it all down and being tired and grumpy for the next few days. Well, then we had Jack. Jack wants to do anything and everything that has to do with being outside. He's 7. We should probably take our 7 year old boy camping at least once. A family council was held, a vote was taken and it was decided that on Oct 16 the Bearden's were going camping. Well, on Oct 15 we watched Harry Potter (it being Halloween season and all) out side projected on a screen in our back yard. It was COLD! It was then that our grand idea of camping in October lost some of it's excitement. We thought, "If it's this cold here in the valley, what will the mountains be like?!" So we did the next best thing and we booked a hotel in the mountains! It turned out to be such a fun mini family vacation. We didn't want to completely give up on the camping plan because we all LOVE the mountains. (just not sleeping in them). So we headed up to American Fork canyon armed with hot dogs, chips, veggies, grapes, sodas and...wait for it...here comes a super campy word....a dutch oven!! (we stopped at an outdoorsy store on our way out of town and grabbed one.) We made dutch oven cobbler. It was really good! We spent the day just hanging out in our picnic area. Annie and Ellie floated bowls down the river, Casie and Lily went and found a quaint place to sit and talk. Jack hunted for snakes and had a blast throwing dry ice into the river (we had dry ice to keep our ice-cream cold). It really was a perfect fall day. It was warm with a crisp breeze. The trees were yellow and every so often a breeze would send leaves floating gently from the trees to the ground. It was perfect. I love spending time with my family in the mountains.
After leaving the mountains we drove to Midway to the Zermatt hotel. We all fell in love with the quaint little mountain town. It's nestled right next to the mountains and is full of beauty. We decided to move there when our kids are all graduated so they can bring their kids to our cozy mountain home. :-) After checking into our hotel we went across the street and swam in a crater full of warm spring water. It was a really fun and unique experience and I'm so glad we did it. Ellie was freaked out because she thought there might possibly be a whale in the water that would eat her...(the crater was 70 ft deep and i'll admit it WAS a bit creepy not knowing what was down there) but we all survived. I honestly hate swimming, but warm crater swimming is ok.
Then we headed back to our hotel and made spaghetti. I love that our "camping"experience involved a two bedroom hotel room with a full kitchen and jetted tubs.
That night we played games and laughed really hard. One of the games we played was called the Game of Things. The topic was "Things you shouldn't write on a Valentine card" Then we all wrote random things down and tried to guess who said what. Casie wrote. "Your breath smelled really bad yesterday, but not today". That silly sentence made us laugh really hard, and became a theme throughout the night. The next topic was "Things you wish you could erase." Someone wrote, "The memory of your breath yesterday, but not today." Jack played with us too. Of coarse most of his answers had the word poop in them, but he was writing them himself so I was happy. (he's never showed much interest in writing)
The next day the kids swam in the morning then we checked out and headed to Park City to ride the Alpine Coaster. It's a roller coaster that is built right on the mountain side. It was a 2 hour wait to ride but that wait was actually one of my favorite parts of our trip. Casie, Annie, Lily, and I played games, sang songs and talked...(hopefully not annoying those around us) Plus we were in the mountains so the scenery was gorgeous. Mike was with Ellie and Jack down jumping on another attraction, (trampoline) and joined us a little later. The coaster itself was really fun as well. The kids loved it.
I can't wait to go camping again!!
After leaving the mountains we drove to Midway to the Zermatt hotel. We all fell in love with the quaint little mountain town. It's nestled right next to the mountains and is full of beauty. We decided to move there when our kids are all graduated so they can bring their kids to our cozy mountain home. :-) After checking into our hotel we went across the street and swam in a crater full of warm spring water. It was a really fun and unique experience and I'm so glad we did it. Ellie was freaked out because she thought there might possibly be a whale in the water that would eat her...(the crater was 70 ft deep and i'll admit it WAS a bit creepy not knowing what was down there) but we all survived. I honestly hate swimming, but warm crater swimming is ok.
Then we headed back to our hotel and made spaghetti. I love that our "camping"experience involved a two bedroom hotel room with a full kitchen and jetted tubs.
That night we played games and laughed really hard. One of the games we played was called the Game of Things. The topic was "Things you shouldn't write on a Valentine card" Then we all wrote random things down and tried to guess who said what. Casie wrote. "Your breath smelled really bad yesterday, but not today". That silly sentence made us laugh really hard, and became a theme throughout the night. The next topic was "Things you wish you could erase." Someone wrote, "The memory of your breath yesterday, but not today." Jack played with us too. Of coarse most of his answers had the word poop in them, but he was writing them himself so I was happy. (he's never showed much interest in writing)
The next day the kids swam in the morning then we checked out and headed to Park City to ride the Alpine Coaster. It's a roller coaster that is built right on the mountain side. It was a 2 hour wait to ride but that wait was actually one of my favorite parts of our trip. Casie, Annie, Lily, and I played games, sang songs and talked...(hopefully not annoying those around us) Plus we were in the mountains so the scenery was gorgeous. Mike was with Ellie and Jack down jumping on another attraction, (trampoline) and joined us a little later. The coaster itself was really fun as well. The kids loved it.
I can't wait to go camping again!!
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