Oh What A Night!

Our first trip to Bear Lake was a memorable one for sure.  We had planned a wonderful long weekend with Kevin, Cara and Tristam at Rendezvous Beach in Bear Lake State Park in northern Utah.  Our original plan was to head there on Thursday but both Andy and Kevin were swamped with work so we decided to delay a day.  We all arrived shortly before lunch on Friday.  We got our tents up, trailers unloaded, and headed to the beach.  Thankfully we were a very short walk from our campsite to the beach.  We took sand toys and all of our kayaks with us.

The kids played so nicely together (as they always do) on the beach.  The boys had a blast on the kayaks together - ramming into each other, riding double on the yellow one, etc.  Kendall kayaked by herself for the very first time as well.  She did a great job and with another lesson and she'll have it mastered.

While we were playing on the beach, Andy took his dirt bike out for a ride.  When he returned we realized how late it was and decided we needed to clean up for dinner.  Kendall and I got our showers and headed into our tent when this storm blew in and literally trapped us in our tent.  Poles went flying (and actually broke), water was pouring in, pop up canopies went flying - Kevin's went into Bear Lake and another family's flew into Kev's tent and bent their poles.  I've heard the term "microburst" thrown around a lot here in Utah, but that's exactly what we experienced.  The winds had to easily be 60-70 mph.  Nothing felt "micro" about it!  There was a tree about 50 feet behind our tent that came crashing to the ground.  Thankfully there wasn't anyone in the direction that it fell.  Not only was there crazy, wicked wind, we also dealt with thunder and lightening.  That made for a rather scared little girl.  She survived the first part, but when the rain and wind kicked up a second time, she couldn't keep it together anymore.

When it was all said and done, WHAT A MESS!  Trees down, tents down, canopies down, everything was SOAKED!  Our tent had filled with water while it was collapsed.  Sleeping bags, clothes, pillows, towels, everything, completely drenched!  With all of our stuff completely soaked, darkness beginning to set in and the threat of more storms that night and the next day, we decided to pack it in.  We were all envisioning another storm like that hitting us at 3 am in the dark - that was enough to motivate us to pack up!

We did our best to pack up without grumbling, but Andy was anything but happy.  He said it's a sign that we are no longer meant to camp in a tent...He was right because we pitched the old girl in the parking lot dumpster that night.  Lots of memories with that tent - we had it before we had our kids, when we would go camping just the two of us.  Both of our kids fell in love with camping in that tent...It was bittersweet, but much easier to do with poles broken and it dirty and wet.

We packed our truck and Kevin packed theirs and we headed out shortly before 9 pm after arriving just before noon that same day.  We stopped to grab a bite to eat around 10 pm in Evanston on the way home.  The kids were all tired and a bit loopy and the adults were just plain worn out from all of the days events and emotions.

By the time we arrived back here at home it was after midnight.  We parked the trailer in the garage, locked up the truck and everyone headed right in to bed.  Today we are going to unpack and hose everything down and let it dry.  I'm not looking forward to cleaning up everything but I am anxious to have it all behind us.

To continue our camping themed weekend, Kevin, Cara and Tristam are coming over for dinner tonight.  The kids were bummed to miss out on raspberry shakes, fishing, jet skiing, etc this weekend.  So we decided to make our hobo meals on the fire in our pit as well as our campfire cones for dessert.  It will at least "feel" like camping.  Kendall was heartbroken that we weren't camping so I told her I'd set up her play tent in her bedroom for her to sleep in so she could still "camp" this weekend.

Ironically, Andy and I had talked at length this past week about the possibility  (hopefully reality now) of purchasing a camper next spring.  If we have solid walls then rain and "microbursts" will be less of an issue than in a tent.  Guess we're all going camper shopping next spring!  Our camping days are over for the remainder of this year.  Bummer!

Here's a little of video of Sissy during her first kayak adventure:

Gotta end this post on a positive note, right?  This video makes me smile watching her strive to be a "big kid" like the boys.