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| The Cooley family having the time of our lives! |
When I was little, my Mom's side of the family used to have a big family camping trip in Pine Valley Utah every year. I have so many beautiful memories from those days. From playing in the river with my sister and cousins to snacking on Peanut M&M's in a hammock and watching the trees sway above me... So when those trips stopped, I was sad but I understood. We are all SOOOO BUSY!!! It's so hard to make time for anything, let alone a week long camping trip! Plus, there's all the packing and meal preparation that goes into it (and nobody actually enjoys that part). So we took a hiatus from camping for a while. But last year I started it back up again and it was such a success we were all dying to go back! I am happy to report that this year was no different! It was six days of pure bliss.
We had no cell phone service, no internet, no electricity... life became simpler and more meaningful. Every morning we woke up happy in our tent and braved the chilly temperature to start a fire and get breakfast going. My kids were in heaven and it made my heart smile to see them so free and having so much fun with their Aunts and Uncles, cousins, and Grandmas :). Just like last year, Austin was still our little fire stick retrieving professional, but this year was a little different. For the first time he stood amongst a field of possibilities and told me he was bored..... my heart sank and all I could think was "....and so it begins...." :(. He is getting older and the magic of childhood is starting to slip away from him. It was hard for me to accept so I made it my duty to bring it back for him. He's too young for that just yet ;). So I took the kids down to the river and told them about the fairy houses we built last year for them. They both faintly remembered and needed a little prodding with an elaborate story about King Huckleberry, Queen Violet, Prince Dandelion, and Princess Sassafras ;). Soon they were building elaborate fairy mansions for the fairy royalty we dreamed up by the water. We worked together, along with the help of Great Grandma Wiegel to create some pretty remarkable houses by the river for the fairies who were of course watching us and would move in as soon as we left ;). The magic was rubbing off on all of us and even Great Grandma Wiegel said, "Now I can die saying I built a fairy house!" haha! Sadly, we went back to check on our creations the next day, and to our dismay, someone had demolished our little village.... the kids were distraught. I had a talk with them about the law of Karma and how those people will get theirs so there's no point in being upset about it. So we picked up the pieces and built again! This time with Daddy by our side :). Our second fairy village was even more grandiose than the first and we all left for lunch with a feeling of pride, knowing that the fairy royalty would be kept safe and warm tonight :).
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| building fairy houses! |
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| Austin was very intricate in decorating his house with beautiful leaves and flowers! |
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| Evie was all about the blue bonnets and decorated her house with them! Every morning I woke up to fresh picked blue bonnets from my girl and it made me smile every single time :). |
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| Mom making the foundation of the house for the kids and then they finished it ;). |
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| Great Grandma Wiegel had fun as well! |
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| Daddy and Evie taking a step back to admire their work :). |
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| I sure love this man of mine! |
Every single morning after I finished making breakfast and cleaning up, I gathered up my little ducklings and we sat in the hammock under our favorite tree and read every single book we brought while we munched on peanut M&M's.....Yes, I replayed my favorite childhood memory with my own kids just as we did last year. I want that to be what they remember too. If I have it my way, they will never look at a Peanut M&M again and not think of that moment with me :). That's the goal at least!
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| There's nothing better than cuddling in the hammock! |
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| We read this Dr. Seuss collections book so many times that the kids had those stories all memorized by the end of the trip! |
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| Our favorite story was Wacky Wednesday :). We all got some good giggles out of that one :). |
Then, after hours of reading and laughing together, they would happily hop out of the hammock, kiss me goodbye, and run off to play; leaving one very happy Mama with my own books to read and thoughts to ponder as I soaked up the sun. Yes, those are my favorite memories....and can you blame me?
We went for walks every day, played in the river, played cards with Great Grandma Wiegel and her friend Annie, painted rocks and bird houses with Aunt Sadie, and at night we would light a fire and play multiple rounds of Mafia; laughing clear into the night. Sadie brought her latest boyfriend, Joey, and he was a blast! He was one of the few boyfriends of hers that I actually liked so I hope he sticks around! Family trickled in throughout the week depending on their work schedules but we had two camp sites so there was plenty of room for everyone! Josh showed up Saturday morning and we were so happy to see him! I missed him so much and wanted him to be in on all the fun we were having!
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| Aunt Heidi and Evie playing Go Fish for hours in the hammock. Evie STILL talks about it! She had so much fun! |
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| Grabbing my little fire starter for a hug in between his stick collecting chores (hehe). He didn't understand why I told him to bring those work gloves until we got up in the mountains and he realized how awesome it is to collect sticks without cutting up your hands! |
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| Sadie and Joey took Austin fishing at the reservoir. He LOVED the one on one time with them and felt like such a big boy! |
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| My little fisherman :). They didn't catch anything but Austin still loved it nonetheless! |
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| Playing in the freezing cold river! |
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| Reading stories to Minnie Mouse who is never far away from Evie! Needless to say, we gave that mouse a good washing when we got home! |
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| And Austin reading his rock book which is never far away from him! I love that my kids have their little obsessions they can't live without ;). |
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| Chatting by the fire after breakfast. I loved the slow pace of life and the ability to talk because we had nothing else that needed to be done! |
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| Grandma Wiegel cuddling for warmth with Evie :) |
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| Oh yeah... he felt like the coolest kid in the world with Aunt Sadie and started wearing his sunglasses just like she did (hahaha!) |
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| Playing cards, and painting bird houses :). Basically living their best life right there! |
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| Evie was all about the bright colors for her bird house. |
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| We also collected rocks and painted them! Since Austin LOVES rocks, this was right up his alley! |
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| Always going for walks... |
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| Oh we were so happy to wake up to Daddy!!! Hence the dog pile in the tent that morning :). |
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| Josh was all smiles and that was important. He is always so stressed out trying to work and take care of us. He needed this down time just as badly as I did! |
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| Playing Mafia around the fire at night. Our kids thought this was the greatest thing ever! |
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| Lots of laughing went on and I'm sure we kept the neighbors awake haha! |
My Mom also showed up late and Nate didn't come at all. Apparently my parents are getting divorced.... but that's a story for another day. All I can say is that I'm not surprised with how unhappy they have both been for a long time and I hope it works out for the best. Yes, it bothers me and will make family parties different and probably slightly awkward; but sometimes change is for the best. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
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| We had fun with Grandma Jill once she finally got there! The divorce was weighing heavily on her mind but she did her best to live in the moment and have fun with the kids! |
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| Taking a walk with Grandma :). We missed Grandpa Nate this year but I guess this is something we are going to have to get used to :(. |
I practiced yoga every single day and was able to fully connect with myself and nature around me. I haven't felt that whole in a long time. I honestly felt like I would give up the luxuries of modern life to live like this every single day in a heartbeat! All I need is my family and nature and I know we could be so happy!! Dare to dream right?
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| Connecting with nature. |
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| I had the most beautiful scenery to meditate in! |
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| Evie is never far away, watching my every move. She is turning out to be quite the little yogi herself! And that brings me so much joy :). |
Briana also had her baby girl while we were up in the mountains! Gracelynn Renee was born the second day we were there and we drove down into town so we could find some cell service to call Briana and make sure everything was alright! She is a beautiful baby and it killed me that they now live over a thousand miles away :(.
We also stopped by the old Pine Valley cemetery and picked wild flowers to put on the graves of our pioneer ancestors, Robert Gardner and his wife Leonora Cannon Gardner (one of his three wives haha). The kids were so intrigued by the stories I told them of Great+ Grandpa Gardner; the same stories my Dad used to tell me and my sister. Whenever we would go camping, my Dad would read to us from Robert Gardner's journal and we would fall asleep to the insane stories of one hell of a man who did whatever he had to do to bring the gospel across the plains and eventually died in Pine Valley after building the St. George temple. Yet another beautiful memory I wanted to pass on to my own children :). Hearing Austin sweetly say, "Goodbye Grandpa" as we drove away from the cemetery gave me chills and made my eyes well up with tears. And in that moment I knew he was standing there waving to us.
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| Family is everything. |
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| The Gardner family legacy lives on... |
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| Picking wildflowers..... |
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| ....and putting those flowers on the graves. |
Well, that about sums up our amazing getaway! We are already counting down the days until next year when we get to go back and do it all again! We hadn't showered in six days and we had mounds of laundry to do as we spent an entire day putting all of our camping gear away and washing away the dirt of our travels. But it was 100% worth it!!
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| Definitely worth it to be alone with these cuties!! Although we desperately needed baths by the end of this....haha! |
