Roughing It

Yes, this picture was taken in Arizona! OK, this kind of greenery may seem like no big deal to those of you who live in normal, non-desert areas, but it has been a long time since I've gotten to enjoy real trees.

No, we didn't go camping. After much debate and wrangling of everybody's different schedules, we finally settled on a day trip instead. No sleeping overnight in tents involved. It still took some interesting maneuvering to get everyone up there. On Friday my sister took M and her cousin Jaci up to my parents' house, where along with their other cousin Kylie, they spent the night. Then at the crack of dawn Saturday morning my parents loaded the three girls up, plus the majority of the supplies and food we would need, and headed up to claim us a picnic site before they all disappeared. (Labor Day weekend being kind of busy for people escaping the valley and heading for the mountains.)

Saturday morning I dropped B off at Amy's house-- my sister and her husband left around 8 am or so, carting B and little Livvie, plus another load of food and drinks. Then I continued to my sister Camie's house. The plan was that I would collect Camie and her two boys, and then we would head up to the picnic area not far behind Amy.

But with kids, even the best laid plans get overthrown. Ours didn't get completely wrecked, but Friday night Camie's youngest son Braden had a hard time breathing and she ended up taking him to an urgent care center. And you know how long it takes to get out of those places! So I ended up waiting at Camie's house for an hour and a half. But eventually she made it back, Braden was breathing better, and we got on the road. We figured our drive should be smooth by this point-- wouldn't all the vacationers have already left by now? Mid-morning Saturday should surely be a non-traffic-jam time.

Hah! We ran into a car quagmire in Payson. My goodness, apparently everyone had decided to sleep in Saturday and then get on the road. It took forever just to get through the little town. The boys in the back were complaining constantly by this time, and I was sincerely wishing my van could suddenly transform into a helicopter so we could just bypass the whole town. But inching along, we eventually made it through.

The picnic site was lovely. There was a creek (my kids wasted no time in getting themselves muddy and soaked to the skin) and a lot of Ponderosa pine trees. Nobody got bitten by annoying insects, and I didn't see any sign of poison oak or sumac.

Still, by late afternoon, most of the moms had had quite enough of the faux-camping. Turns out I am not the only one who dislikes campground latrines. Plus trying to keep adventuresome toddlers from wandering off on their own or playing in the campfire or pouring out all your drinking water on the ground really gets old. I was lucky that my cousin Daryl was there-- he tromped all over with J and Bryson, so at least there was one child I knew wouldn't get lost. But on occasion I couldn't figure out where M was, and once I had to track down a missing B, only to discover that she had gotten herself stuck in the creek.

Overall, by the end of the day the moms were unanimously opposed to overnight camping anytime in the near future.

However, the kids had a wonderful time, and I'm glad they got to experience some fun times in the mountains with their cousins. This picture of B kind of sums it up for all of them:

Ah, the delight of escaping the desert in the middle of summer!