I took Friday off from work and stayed home with Tyke (his regular babysitters, aka Steph and Grandma Cheryl, decided to go on vacations to Park City and Oregon for the long weekend). I was going to get so much done: laundry, clean house, get things packed, etc. so that when Chad got home all we would have to do is load up the truck and go. Things didn't exactly pan out that way. Tyke was an ornery little bear and just wanted to be held, so all plans went right out the window and I held him. I'm not complaining, I LOVE when he wants to snuggle, it just seems to always be when I have a list of things to do. What do you do?
Chad got home around noon and took a long nap while I worked on trying to pack. All I managed to get done was Tyke's stuff. Eventually Chad woke up and we got everything loaded and headed up the canyon. We left town around three o'clock and made good time getting to camp, not that it's that far away from home. Tyke slept the entire drive and he slept while we hurried and unloaded the truck with all of our belongings and put them away in the trailer. Talk about a pain! Leaving the trailer up the canyon like that has its advantages and disadvantages. We got all situated just in time for our little guy to wake up and want to play.
We spent the evening visiting with everyone as they slowly trickled in for the weekend. It was one of the largest camping crowds we've had in years! Someone counted there were 12 camp trailers! It was so much fun catching up with everyone. For dinner that night we grilled some jalapeno cheddar bratwursts and had chips and dip.
Saturday morning we slept in a little and then got right to cooking our portion of breakfast. Saturday was the day to share meals with the entire clan. We signed up to cook the hash browns. We were worried we hadn't brought enough because people just kept showing up! Luckily we did and some were able to have seconds. We had a super yummy breakfast of french toast, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit and juice. A little later on in the day Chad loaded up and went after another load of fire wood for home while Tyke and I stayed behind and visited with everyone.
During the day a good, long rainstorm moved in. Chad and Tyke were napping but I wasn't tired at all. I invited JaNae and the fam to come and play cards with me but only Carissa and Dayna took me up on the offer. We had an intense game of phase 10. It was fun getting to hang out with them and hear how life is treating them. The rain eventually let up and we all headed outside to visit with everyone.
That night for dinner we had another huge family gathering. We each brought our own meat and then a pot luck dish. As it got close to time to eat it started raining fairly hard. We all hurried and dished up and headed for the trailers. It was nice to have the awning set up so we could sit outside and eat and enjoy the storm. Grandpa Terry had come up for dinner and we enjoyed his company. For dinner we had BBQ steaks with sauteed onions and mushrooms. For our potluck dish we grilled crook neck squash and zucchini with a few spices and Parmesan cheese. It was a hit! Tyke got to enjoy one of his squeeze pouch baby foods. He kept eyeballing our food and it finally dawned on me that with all of that yummy food he could try some of the strawberry jello. To say he was a fan of it would be an under statement. He LOVED it! He couldn't get enough! He was so excited about it that we made the biggest mess of his hoodie. He kept hitting the fork out of my hand because he wanted to help out.
The rain let up a little bit and Grandpa Terry headed home. We got Tyke ready for bed and by the time we were done people had started gathering around a wet, soggy fire. We joined them and had a good visit with everyone.
On Sunday everyone did their own thing with meals. Chad cooked us up some pancakes, bacon and eggs. Tyke had fun standing against the windows watching his daddy cook and the other kids play. Jan (Sutherland), Lisa (Kay) and Tristan (Kay Memmott) had put together a little craft session for us gals later that day. Chad took charge of Tyke and I went and got my craft on. We made cute little Halloween decorations out of old cans. It was kind of a pain in the neck nailing the holes into the cans to create a "jack o lantern." Lucky for me I have two cute little cousins (Joey and Whitlee) that gave me a few pointers on how to make it work easier. It was a nice little break to craft with the ladies. We had a great time chatting and banging on cans. My can turned out just alright. After spray painting it orange the black marker I had used to sketch my pumpkin ran into a big mess. It just added to the creepiness. (That night Chad sat a light in it to see how it looked and it looked great! Only problem with that idea is the light bulb got a little too hot and melted the plastic cover over it, oops!)
Before the crafting session was over with (I was done and just visiting at this point) Grandpa Terry, Chad and Tyke decided we needed to take a little ride on up the canyon and see if we could find any animals. We loaded up and headed on up the canyon. We made it as far as the main overlook. The guys glassed the hill side while Tyke slept, hugging his little fire truck, and I watched all of the traffic coming in and out of the parking lot. It was a busy tourist kind of day. The guys didn't see a thing so we worked our way back down to camp. We had left over bacon from breakfast so Chad warmed it up in a dutch oven and I built some BLT's for us for lunch. Shortly afterwards Grandpa Terry left.
It sprinkled with rain on and off the rest of the day. Grandma Gaye and Grandpa Wally came up for a visit and somehow most of the camp got invited to Mark and Jamie's trailer for dinner. Jamie had made way too much food for her clan and didn't want it to go to waste. She had made some yummy BBQ chicken and gluten free funeral potatoes that were probably the best I've ever had. We felt guilty eating with them but it was nice not having to cook that night.
Monday everyone pretty much got up, cleaned camp and headed home for the weekend. Another great camp out in the books for 2013! We're so thankful to have such a great family with the Kay's and Sutherland's! We enjoyed every minute of weekend and were sad to see it end so fast! Tyke was super spoiled with lots of attention and treats. He got to try a few first: Swedish fish, strawberry jello and a tootsie pop sucker! Tyke had a blast getting so much attention from the other little kids around his age. It's going to be so much fun watching this next generation of Kay's and Sutherland's grow up together and watch these traditions carry on. The Kay's and Sutherland's have been camping together for well over 40 years now and there's no stop in sight!
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