The Great Outdoors

"Did someone say 'Let's go camping'?"

Well, we took a chance...camping with the wee one, and it turned out splendidly! We went up to a campground near Hanna, Utah to escape the desert heat and landscape. Utah is quickly becoming my favorite state in the Union and this trip helped solidify its ranking. Oregon is in the running, but given I've never been there, Utah definitely has an advantage.

On the way up I had a talk with Mikayla that went something like, "There are only two things that will make this trip a bust...rain and a baby who doesn't sleep at night. Let's focus on what we, and by "we" I mean you, can control." My little speech worked and the baby slept great at night. We did have to contend with the rain a little, but not enough to ruin the trip.


Where Mikayla has learned to give the camera a big grin, Hubby delights in perfecting his scowl.


It turned out our campground was part of an open range for cows. Initially this was novel when they were separated by us with a fence. But when we woke the next morning they were literally in our campground, the novelty wore off. They would have been in our campsite if they could muster a little bravery. Actually, one tried, but that story in a bit.

Mikayla is picking up a few words, one of which is "Hi" and one of which is "doggy". Every time she saw a cow (all day on Monday) she would say "Hi doggy" and I would say "Hi cow" and she would say "Hi doggy" and I would say "Hi cow" and on and on to infinity, so you see we kept pretty busy all day greeting the 20 or so cows in our campground. I also had my hands full directing her away from the cows; since she thinks they're dogs, she thinks they're free for the petting. Lots of learning in the great outdoors!

One thing that I learned is that when Old McDonald says he has a "Moo moo here and a moo moo there. Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo", he isn't exaggerating, cows are noisy and enough of them stay awake at night to keep the party going.

So Monday night as I'm putting Mikayla to bed in the tent I hear a cow very VERY close to our tent and I would have mistaken the noise he was making for a bear growl if there hadn't been 20 cows in our campsite all day. The next thing I hear is Hubby banging a stick and shouting "GET OUT OF HERE BULL!" repeatedly. Fortunately the bull retreated, but in his effort to intimidate Hubby, he rubbed his nose in cow poop. I was relieved that Hubby didn't feel pressure to do the same! Needless to say, we were happy when we woke up Tuesday morning and the cows had moved on.


Prepping for a hike at 10,000'! The temperature was marvelous, unfortunately marvelous for the mosquitoes as well, but once we got moving they weren't too bad (if you ask me, not Hubby).





When we weren't battling cows, we went hiking and enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery and fresh air.


Mikayla enjoyed playing around the campsite and getting dirty. I love the little dusty bottom!




We did have to hide in the tent during a few thunderstorms one afternoon, so it gave Hubby time to practice smiling for the camera. I think he's making progress, if you ignore the sarcasm on his face!


On the last day we drove into Park City, Utah, which hosted several of the Olympic Events during the 2002 Winter Games. We spent the afternoon walking their Historic Main Street and enjoying nachos and a few sweet treats. Here, Mikayla is really enjoying the nachos!

All in all we had a great time, and will definitely make room for future camping trips.