Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, we decided to try camping in one of the canyons close to our house. We chose Big Cottonwood Canyon because it's only 20 minutes from home, which would allow Samantha to attend her final Saturday rehearsal for the Temple Dedication Celebration. Oddly enough, our super short car ride still contained the usual amounts of "are we there yet?" When we pulled up to our campsite, I saw a little creek running 15 feet from our fire ring, and I thought, "Oh, this will be a fun weekend trying to keep Henry out of the water." Then, when I got out of the car, I saw that a clogged up culvert under the ground had created a large pool just a few feet from our trailer. Since we didn't request a "poolside" campsite, we tried to get a new campsite, but they were all reserved.

It didn't end up being a problem - The kids stayed clear of the water for the most part. We had other water problems, however. Although it was sunny when we arrived Friday evening, it started to rain right after I went back into town Saturday morning to retrieve Samantha from practice (and a few forgotten items from home). It rained constantly until Monday morning. On Sunday, when we had our fill of playing Dominoes and Phase 10 in the trailer, we got in the car and left the canyon looking for something to do. We decided to go to Emigration Canyon to find this diner we saw on TV. We got lost looking for the entrance to the canyon and enjoyed a lovely tour of the University of Utah campus. The campus is actually very nice. We drove by some dorms, all of the fraternity and sorority houses and the biggest Institute building I've ever seen. (Gillian thinks she wants to go there now instead of BYU!) We drove up and down some streets in The Avenues, saw a bunch of really cool old houses, passed the This is the Place Monument and finally found the canyon we were looking for. The diner was cute and we had the best homemade malt pudding ever. Yum! It wasn't raining in Salt Lake City, so overall, it was a relaxing getaway from the camping rain. When we got back to the trailer, we took advantage of a break in the storm clouds and went on a hike that Nathan wanted to go on.

The trail was mostly muddy and still covered in snow, so it was a little slow-going, but the reward at the end of the trail was Donut Falls, a waterfall that falls into a perfect hole that looks like a donut. It was really pretty - and unique!

On the hike back, it started to rain again - and hail. This was not the first time we've been rained (or hailed) on during a hike. We hid under a tree to see if it would let up. Nathan decided to run the rest of the way to the campsite and bring the car back to get us. We went and hid under the roof of a nearby restroom.



That night, the freakiest thing happened. Elliot and Henry share the bed that converts to the dining table. Elliot has a habit of falling off the bed at least twice every night, so we always have our sleeping ears half open. In the middle of the night, I heard a thump, so I rolled over and shined the flashlight on the boys' bed. I saw two sleeping bags, so I turned off the flashlight and rolled back over. Suddenly, Nathan (very alarmed) said, "There's someone outside!" I jumped up and ran to the boy's bed. Henry's sleeping bag was empty and the Velcro that keeps the canvas wall closed was wide open! Just as I was putting two and two together, Henry started to knock on the front door of the trailer, crying. My son had fallen out of the trailer! I was totally freaked! We pulled him inside, and Henry said, "Why is the door locked?" Henry said that he landed on his feet, and he seemed to have no injuries, which was a relief, but I put him into my bed and stroked and kissed him until he fell asleep. I couldn't sleep, thinking of all the different ways he could have landed on the cement outside - like on his head. The morning finally came and we could ask him what really happened. He just said that he got outside with his "invisible potion". What? Finally, when we were home, I got the real story out of him: He had woken up and decided that he wanted Dad. He got out of his bag and thought he would slide off the side of the bed feet first - only it wasn't the side of the bed. He said that when he fell out, he was able to grab on to the trailer and was hanging. By then, the storm clouds had cleared and the moon gave enough light that he could see his way around to the front of the trailer. Thank goodness he could see where he was going (remember the pool just inches away?). Here's a picture of where he got out:

Even with all the rain and the "incident", we still managed to have fun. See?

There was a big pile of snow in our campsite, so we took advantage and used it as a second cooler!