American Fork Canyon

Last weekend, Cindy invited us to go camping. I really wanted to go, but a few days before we found out that Lance had to work on Saturday, and I didn't really want to go alone. By Friday, I wasn't looking forward to sitting home all weekend so I made a last minute decision to go with Cindy.

I spent the morning packing and getting ready, then right after lunch we made out way to Utah County. Cindy asked if I could give her a ride up to the camp site so Josh could go up earlier. When I was almost to Cindy's, I suddenly hit something ginormous in the middle of the road. My entire car shook and I heard metal crunching. I have no idea what I hit, somehow I didn't see it. After driving for a moment, I realized I should probably pull over to check out my tire.

It was completely flat. Fortunately I was less than half a mile from a Walmart and a tire shop. Not seeing many options, I slowly made my way to Walmart. Initially the guy told me that he could do a simple flat repair for $10, and I would be on my way in 20 minutes. Shortly after we started roaming the store, the guy came and found me and told me that I needed to see something. He took me back to my car and showed me my rim, which now had a huge crack in it. He told me he could put the spare on to get me to wherever I need to go get a new rim. The only place he knew that would carry that rim was a Mazda dealership.

I made my way to pick up Cindy while trying to figure out what to do. Lance called a Mazda dealership in Orem to see how much it would be to fix it. They said they didn't have any in stock and that it was about $500 for the single rim. My spare is pretty crummy and it made me really  nervous to drive very far on it. We called my brother Jimmy to see what he thought. He said I would be fine driving on it, as long as I didn't go too fast. And he thought he could find a used rim for a much cheaper price.

I decided to try not to worry about it and just enjoy a night in the mountains. We went up American Fork Canyon, up past the reservoir. We found a great spot right next to the river. The kids were quick to start exploring and playing in the dirt and water.

I didn't bring the right attachment to blow up my air mattress, so I ended up sleeping on the ground. A very rocky, uneven, ground. Plus I had two kids that wanted to sleep by me that move constantly all night. Let's be honest, it was quite miserable. My hip hurt so bad, I ended up stealing Will's pillow to try to relieve some pressure on my side. But even though I was so uncomfortable and wasn't sure I'd ever get some sleep, the night went fairly quickly and I was up and ready to be out and about. It rained a bit during the night so that morning was fairy chilly.

Shockingly, my kids slept in and were the last ones to wake up.

We sat around the fire for a little bit, letting everyone fully wake up. Then we had some breakfast and once again, the kids were off playing.

There were some large logs going across the river and the kids had fun going back and forth. Will said that his favorite thing about camping was crossing the river.

He was a little timid at first, but eventually he got the hang of it and was crossing without any problem.

Cindy also brought her four-wheeler and the kids all took turns getting rides. Blake kept asking for another ride.

If you ever need a chuckle, just ask Will to do his "chicken dance". I have no idea where he came up with it, but it's pretty awesome.

Blake was seriously a little magnet for dirt. She was covered in it. These pictures really don't do her any justice. I mean, sure, all of the kids were dirty; however, Blake was in a league of her own.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture before I washed her face. She had dark mud all over her face, it looked like she had a beard or something.

Normally when we hang out, Zack and Cory play together, Will and Lexi play together, and Blake just does whatever she wants. This trip, however, Will hardly ever played with Lexi and spent the whole time playing with the boys. It was really nice to see them all playing together and to finally see the girls spend some time playing.

Even thought the situation with the car put a bit of a damper on the weekend, we had a good time and are excited for our next camping adventure. The kids had so much fun and were talking about it for days.