Taking the Bad with the Good

It's become pretty routine for me to mutter 'hands down', every time I snap a picture of my boys.  Bunny ears are the favorite, but rock on, hang loose, or a peace sign are all a close second.... I've decided if you can't beat em', join em', at least for this trip.... yo, yo, bro, wiggity, wiggity, wiggity, wack (please let that be the last time I ever write those words).

Here it is, another blog post about another camping trip to Southern Utah, doing more of the same old stuff.... maybe this will be the last?  There is something simply amazing about these trips.... and it isn't just the scenery.  It brings out the best in us all, even when we're confined to small quarters waiting out the rain.

When you rely so heavily on one another for entertainment any arguments are settled quickly.  Which is why I have zero issues with the fact that in the time I planned and packed all cloths, bedding, food, and hygienic needs(yeah right), Monte packed 6 fishing poles (why 6, there is only 5 of us, & I wasn't planning on fishing... we never fished), nope no issues with that what so ever.

Even though we did see our fair share of rain, there always seemed to be enough breaks in the showers to do some exploring.

And on one exploration outing we found something pretty surprising.

Jonas thought he'd found a real Indian ruin, it was hard to tell him the truth.  It wasn't sandstone, I think it was mud that had been deposited on the wall of an overhang in really high water?  And although it was a pretty cool find, it was hard to explain to Abe that he couldn't leave his art work on other walls during our trip.

It did rain, we did choose a busy weekend to go camping, it did take us close to four hours to get out of the Salt Lake traffic (soooo glad we've left that behind), but our trip was worth every bit of the bad.  Is it bad... or is it the good?

We struck out twice in scoring our awesome old camping spots..... we found a new incredible, completely exposed but totally deserted camping spot, where the sand is the perfect texture to carve out a mini golf course, a four square, and an art studio.

The boys came back to camp completely wet and sandy from their 'deck' building on the river's edge.... I had a great deck platform to rinse muddy shoes out in the river.
 

We maneuvered our way through trails incredibly close to poison ivy and stinging nettle..... each trail we maneuvered our way through led us to beautiful places.

Abe has irritable bowel, and a small bladder..... Abe is years ahead in his outdoorsman bathrooms skills, and knows how to handle 'worst case scenario' sleeping situations.

We found quicksand.... Monte finally was able to take us to the cave he found quicksand in when he was in high school.

River water is especially cool when air temperature is only in the fifties..... Cool temperatures means we get swimming holes all to ourselves, and get a chance to find plenty new natural water slides.

Trigger had a hard time spotting pot holes, especially the smaller ones, in the sandstone river bottoms..... how cool are pot holes in the sand stone river bottoms!

Trigger almost went off a cliff, and is also confused by echoes.... Trigger will literally follow us to the ends of the the earth (I will never holler to hear my echo near a cliff with Trigger nearby again.... it's only my echo...I'm standing right next to you, you sweet dumb dog!)

The last stop on our weekend vacation was to see my Mom and Dad, at the only place I can anymore... a cemetery..... We ended our trip with a visit with Mom and Dad, to share some cookies, and spot six owls that love hanging out in the big trees nearby.

Really not all that bad.... definitely worth it for all that good.