A couple weeks ago we took our first official family camping trip to Lake Hill. It was an absolute blast! After arriving and setting up camp we grabbed our fishing poles and started fishing right away. Scott and I were shocked at what great fishermen Brynn and Mason were. They would cast out their lines with a little help and then just sit and wait patiently for a fish to bite. What was even more amazing is we only had one tangled line the entire time. Miles even got in on the action, but he was more interested in trying to eat the fishing pole than catch a fish. The fish were active and we never had to wait too long before we would have a nibble or two. Altogether we caught five fish, but only kept two to cook up for dinner. In all honesty, I was expecting the fishing portion of our trip to be a disaster. Boy was I wrong. The kids loved every second of it and it turned out to be a very relaxing and fun time spent together as a family. The rest of the night included gutting our fish; cooking the fish, hotdogs, and marshmallows over a small fire; rafting out on the lake; and bedtime stories in the tent courtesy of Mason. I wasn't expecting to get much sleep camping with 3 kids under the age of 5, but we put Miles to sleep in his pack and play in the back of our Sequoia (where I later spent the night with him) right at his normal bedtime and didn't hear a peep from him until morning. Mason and Brynn washed up and got in the tent as soon as the sun went down and both slept until 8am. Scott and I were able to sit out under the stars together and have our own little date night once the kids were in bed. Perfect.
The next morning while we enjoyed a yummy birthday breakfast for Brynn, a deer wandered right through our campsite. Scott took the big kids for a hike around the lake while Miles napped and I cleaned up camp. They encountered some kind of large animal, most likely an Elk, that gave them a little bit of a scare, so they decided they were done hiking. On our way out we drove up Skyline drive, sharing Grandpa Thompson stories along the way. After standing on the top of the mountain and looking out at all the beauty, we headed home. I'm glad we were able to take this trip when we did, because less than a week later wildfires started up all over the state of Utah, including areas close by Lake Hill. We don't think the fires have reached Lake Hill yet, and we pray they never get there. Our time spent at Lake Hill was straight out of my daydreams from 7 years ago when I watching Scott fishing with his little brothers and sisters and thought how I couldn't wait for the day when I would be watching him help our children. Well folks, we have arrived and I am not disappointed at all.
 |
| Miles was one happy camper...literally. |
 |
| Brynn loved the fish she caught...until it started flopping around. She was very concerned when Scott was gutting her fish saying, "Daddy, your hurting him!" |
 |
| Campsite 11, the ideal location. |
 |
| We brought a present for Brynn to open on her birthday. She loves her pink laptop and we're hoping she'll stop messing up our computer by pretending to type on it. |
