June 27
Mar had to work in the morning, so we didn't head out until 1:30pm. We had heard that construction on I-70 was nightmarish, but decided that we would go whichever way the Google gods said was best. We ended up going up through Steamboat Springs (I've never been, and it was a lovely drive), then through Vernal. We had to stop and snap a pic by the Utah sign because... we never do haha.
We rolled into the Aspen Grove campground by Strawberry Reservoir that evening.
Just as we were crossing the damn, we slowed down and came to a stop on the signal of a stopped car going the opposite way. We saw two tiny fawns, one that was standing, another that looked like it had possibly been hit by a car. The man from the other car walked over to the baby curled up in a ball and shook it, then lifted it up and over the cement half wall, then chased down the other fawn and helped it over the wall also. Apparently he had seen the momma deer jump the short wall, and the babies didn't know how to get over it. By the wobbliness of the standing fawn, my best guess it that they were quite literally newborns. Phew. I'm so glad the babies were okay. Hopefully they found their momma.
We put up our tent in the dusky light of evening, visited briefly with the fam, then hit the hay.
June 28
We started the morning with a lovely boat ride around the reservoir.
Once we got back to the campground, we noticed that a couple of the campsites that had been occupied the previous day had been vacated. Since we had a few less-desirable sites (think full sun all. day. long.), we decided to move our camp. Believe me, it was a whole lotta work, but definitely worth it in the long run (except, perhaps, for mi mamita and papa, whose tent ended up STILL being in the sun all day... boo). Before we knew it, the Andersons arrived.
Photo creds Britt
That evening, some of the fam went for a {brief} leisure ride around the reservoir.
{Brief} because Ellis did NOT enjoy it, especially the part with the life preserver haha.
June 29
Since Ellis had not enjoyed the boat ride the evening prior, Britt decided that he would be better off staying in camp during boat excursions. Great Grandma G. played with him while we took a morning boat ride.
Photo creds Britt
Photo creds Matt
Later that day we did some crawdad catching. Initiailly I thought it was going to be a bust, since we couldn't see any, but after a while they started coming out of the woodwork. Or rocks haha. We were using raw chicken-on-the-bone pieces, a couple of chicken leg bones left over from Bill's lunch the previous day, and some weiners as bait, all of which were quite effective. It was my first time, so I was anxious and excited to see how this all went down. Sookie had grown up in South Korea catching them, so she was pretty much the expert in all things crawdad.
Sookie washed those babies up,
....then boiled them...
...then a few enjoyed eating them. I tried a couple... they tasted a bit like chewy lobster. At least if my memory serves me correctly... it's been a long time since I've had lobster haha. It's not necessarily one of those things I'm dying to eat anyway.
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Austin
Photo creds Austin
Photo creds Austin
Photo creds Austin
That evening the Paulls joined us. Initially they were going to drive up, hang out for a bit, then head back home, but we convinced them to stay overnight to make the hour-and-a-half drive worth it.
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Lex
Photo creds Austin... amazing, right?
June 30
Photo creds Matt
Most of the guys woke up early early each morning to go fishing. 5:30am early. I slept in every day until my bladder told me to get up haha. I'm not exaclty sure what day these pics were taken, but let it be known that there was a whole lot o' fishin' going on, early morning and late evening.
Photo creds Matt
Photo creds Lex
Emmett thoroughly enjoyed his first ever camping trip... and even slept in. It probably helped that he had the most comfortable arrangements out of all his tent mates. Lex and Jase slept without a pad of any kind, and one of them forfeited their pillow for Emmett's comfort. The parental sacrifices have only just begun {wink}.
Once we had packed up camp and were ready to start heading out, we snapped a group pic.
Photo creds Austin
Bill, Mar and I hadn't been to a family campout for a couple of years, and it was so fun to be able to get to one. Nothing better than family, nature, campfires, food served in bread (haha), boating, fresh fish, and flushing toilets.
I love you guys!
I love you guys!
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