Last year we had such a great time, we decided to repeat our Fairview Motorcylce/ATV trip.
This year we add the Hartshorns to our numbers.
We all meet in Manti at Dirks for dinner Friday night.
(Dinner took FOREVER for all 24 or us!)
Then we went up to the campsite (James and Bill had gone up a day early to claim our spot AND get a fun filled day of motorcycling in without children or spouses!) set up tents (for the Hartshorns), made a campfire and had s'mores.
The next morning Sarah, Kammy and I got up at 7 and drove down to Manti for OUR annual Sanpete bike ride.
Manti to Ephraim to Spring City and back!
(Just over 37 miles!)
We showered at Kam & Cam's and then went back to the campsite where we promptly attempted to take a nap!
(We never really slept - too many women in the same bed - too much gabbing!)
We made it to camp just in time for the rain to start.....
And it really rained.
Bill and James in the down pour.....
Ry and Syd snuggling in the trailer
James gathering wood in the rain....
Syd and Bryn playing in the puddles....
Alex with his ingenious shoe covers!
More Syd in the puddle....
"Help me take off my socks Aunt Wendy!"
That blob on Austin's chest? That looks like a big, hairy mole? Not a mole. Mud. Mud is everywhere!
Oh, and don't forget the muddy dogs.....
Lot's of hanging out in the trailer.....
Silly faces....
Nicer faces.....
Grandma kissing Devree - despite her protest!
Saturday night S'mores......
Snuggling in the Taj.....
Swaddling Ella.....
Getting ready for bed....
My beautiful girls!
(I don't know why I have so many of these types of pictures on my phone?)
The next morning Kylee & Ainslee ran to the bathroom on the ATV - look at the mud!
It's so muddy - your shoes just cake into big mud blocks so Alex (aka Huck Finn) is out starting a fire in the drizzle and mud....shoeless!
Huck Finn and Huck Finn's Dad!
Eating breakfast in the Taj
Dad was the breakfast cook!
(Mom too - she just made her pancakes in her trailer!)
Just hanging in the trailer - waiting for the rain to stop
Playing with Kindles....
Playing with the dog....
Playing cards......
Relaxing....
Wall to wall children!
An Elle selfie - because we have nothing better to do than take pictures of the dog?
And finally just riding in the mud!
Celebrating Paul's Birthday!
(The candles would not stay lit!)
Kambree & Cameron
(Cameron was so sweet. He had Kam stay the night - he had to hold down the fort at the motel - but came up for a few hours Saturday and Sunday morning. He's so nice and clean compared to the rest of us!)
Austin heading back to school with muddy shoes in hand!
(He stayed Friday through Sunday afternoon.)
Singing songs during a let up in the rain - the fake green grass was a life saver - it's allowing us passage from one trailer to the next without wallowing in mud.
Sarah is braiding Bryn's hair.
No, Alex is not sick. He is not hurt. He is not even tired. He's just
sitting on my lap - or sort of laying/hanging off? (I figure he missed 10.75 years of mama hugs/snuggles
and being held so he has some catching up to do? Since he's almost as tall as me, he barely
fits on my lap but we still make the most of it.)
Z & T hanging out on the ATV (that's not running - boo!)
My big girls taking a turn in the puddles.....
Kambree - so very clean (not!)
Arron came up Sunday afternoon.....
Oh goodness Kambree!
Alex on the Blue Dart!
The boys with their helmets on!
Those are not freckles!
That's mud!!
Syd and Bryn
And making S'mores.....for the third time!
And more rain.....
(Please note that I am holding the umbrella - not Arron - heaven forbid!)
Playing more cards before bed.....
(Then we kicked the kids to the back bunks to play cards and we had an adult session of card playing!)
The next day the sun comes out!! Of course, the morning we're headed for home!?
(Which was a blessing for packing up - but it was still scary to get out of the mud with the trailers. I had to be pushed in my Accord just to get turned around. Luckily James had put a bunch of sticks down on the road out of the campsite and then drove over and over them with Moby in order for us to have enough traction to get up to the gravel road.)
One more quick ATV ride while we pack up camp....
Girls on the way home....
Devree's oh-so-very-clean shirt.....
And this is her "are we ever going to get home?" face......
(My girls use my phone to entertain themselves on road trips - can you tell?)
The kids were a great help cleaning up afterwards. No really. I'm not being sarcastic. They were awesome! (They had to be, if not we'd still be cleaning up!) That's the worst part of camping - the clean up! Especially this time, everything had to be hosed down - coolers, tarps, trailers, motorcycles, nothing escaped the MUD!
I am now on batch 6 of 12 of laundry but happy to be in my mud-less house and sleep in my comfy bed!
Next year?
We will probably try it again - but if the forecast is for rain? We're finding and RV camp site!
**We did have a minor motorcycle collision with between Alex and Brach. Bikes are okay. Bodies are not so okay. Luckily both were wearing helmets and probably learned a great lesson? Alex has a bruised hip and the peg scraped up his leg pretty good. Brach's knee swelled up like crazy and he went home with Bill Sunday night. Monday Kammy took him in to PCMC when she got home and he has a crack in his anterior tibial process (knee) and may or may not need surgery. We will know more on Wednesday. We're just grateful both boys weren't hurt worse.
But besides that collision and some major slips in the mud, a slammed finger and Austin showing up with road rash from a long board accident the day before our trip - we're not worse for the wear - just very, very, muddy!
