Camping!

Paul's coworker had reserved a campsite at Payson Lakes for Friday night, the weekend before school started and was unable to use it.  So he asked if we would like to use it.  We had been wanting to go camping for a long time and this put us in motion.  We gathered up our things and stopped at the grocery store for some food items we needed and headed up Nebo Loop right after Paul got home from work.  The camp site was packed, which made me feel safer.  If we were going to be in the middle of the wilderness, at least there were a lot of other people out there too.  While looking for our site, we happened to run into our old duplex neighbors; Jeff and Emily Peterson ands kids; James, Rachel, Louisa, and David. 

We set up our tent and then got our fire going and roasted hot dogs and s'mores with just enough time to set up our sleeping arrangements and get ready for bed.  Well, we only have a 2-man tent and there are now 6 of us in our family.  Paul and I slept right next to each other lengthwise and the kids were perpendicular to us.  I thought, "This will be cozy, fun and memorable."  Well, kids can sleep anywhere, scrunched in any place and apparently, so can Paul, but not me.  I did not get very much sleep, but looking up at the stars was beautiful.

We woke up the next morning to a car panic alarm, which I was certain was ours, but apparently not, since our clicker was not the one that turned it off.  But, Good Morning!  We  were all awake.  It was then that we heard some leaf crunching noises in the distance and saw large brown figure.  I was about to get a little scared, but I saw that it had a big horse-like mouth and was eating leaves.  It slowly made its way through the trees, getting closer to us, so we were able to get a good look at it.  It was a large moose!  (We had been told there was a moose roaming in the area, that was blind in one eye and very old.)  He wandered closer until, he was not more than 5 feet from the opening of our tent.  We took lots of pictures.  He looked at us a couple of times, but didn't seem to be bothered and just kept eating.  Paul kept the bear spray in hand, just in case he decided to charge us.  It was fun to have a morning visitor, although we were trapped in our tent for 20 minutes, until he wandered far enough away that we were brave enough to get out.

We ate breakfast, walked to the lake, played frisbee and were able to hang out with the Petersons.  Parker and Autumn loved exploring with James and Rachel.  We loved camping and think we might be brave enough to do it more often, but first we need a bigger tent!