Bryce Canyon Camping

Thursday, July 9th - Sunday, July12th. One of our all time favorite camping trips so far!! Calli had signed up to run the 1/2 marathon in Bryce Canyon a few months back so we made a weekend out of it!

Sadie and Gentry came up with us Thursday and Calli drove up Friday.

Sadie and Gentry had really been into this wii game called Tanks, so they wanted to bring the wii to continue their game. So funny!

Adam and I needed to run to the country store and grab a few things but the kids wanted to stay, so Ryan, Jenni, Adam and I jumped in the machines and took off. The views were amazing!

We got back to all the kids in our trailer playing a very competitive game of Mario Cart. 

Throughout the day, we kept smelling propane. Finally Adam realized that the regulator was bad. After not finding parts at the Country store, Adam and Ryan took matters in their own hands. After three tries they actually fixed it...Always something with these two. 

Morning Walk. Adam and I love getting up before the girls and going for walks. 

We find the coolest spots. 

Friday morning breakfast!

Time for a ride. We promised it wouldn't be as long as the last one in Brian head. 

Gentry getting geared up to keep the dust out of her hair. 

She said she felt like a super hero in her cape. Haha!

Sadie is all ready as well. 

We all looked like we were heading out on a cold winter ride but it was mid 80's. 

A deer ran right in front of us

Cool nest. 

We rode out to Tropic Reservoir

Charleigh idolizes Sadie and Gentry. She wants to be everywhere they are, doing what they are doing. 

Skipping rocks while the fish aren't biting. 

After our ride, Adam and I drove to Tropic to pick up Calli's marathon packet. It was fun to drive the course and see where she would be running. 

We got toilet papered after they got doorbell ditched. Haha!

Every night we listened/watched Austin play in his baseball games in Georgia. Sadie gets so stressed when he is up to bat. 

Playing soccer. 

Sitting around the fire after dinner chatting and waiting for Calli to get there. 

She pulled in around 9:30pm and we tucked ourselves into bed around 11:00pm knowing we had an early and busy morning. 

The race started at 6:00 am but we had to have Calli there by 5:30. We all got up between 4:30 - 5:00am and headed to the start line to drop her off. 

She was sooo excited. She finished better than she thought at 1:55:39. 

(Her Marathon Race is in another post)

Later that day while the girls took naps, we took off on another ride. We were trying to find a way to Losee Canyon. We never did find it from the back trails but we found Peterson Point. 

It was awesome. 360 degree views. 

After we got back from our ride, it started to rain, so we all jumped in the trucks and drove to Panguitch for some ice cream shakes from Henries. 

It had stopped raining by the time we got back and felt and smelt so good. 

We pulled over for a quick hike. Looks just like Thunder Mountain 

The entire hike was so gorgeous. I took more pictures during this one hour hike than the rest of the trip. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. 

Calli kept wanting candid pics. Haha!

I love cool old trees. 

Gentry and Charleigh ran up ahead and Bo started running like Mario, we were dying laughing. 

Yep, they really do smell like Butterscotch.

So dang pretty. 

I could not get enough of the views!!

Love my Crew!!

Adam "pushing" off the huge boulder.  

More cool trees. 

Peterson's can't just walk or hike they have to wrestle along the way too. 

It was the perfect hike. 

Got back just in time for pizzas before we headed to the Tim Gates Concert. 

This is our 2nd annual trip with the Cains to Bryce Canyon and to see Tim perform. I think I see a tradition forming. 

It's always so good and so much fun. We hung out to talk to him afterwards. We really miss their family now that they have moved to Bryce. Good thing it isn't that far.  Tim invited us to go to his new home and to go fishing the next morning. 

Sunday morning, we took the machines to Pine Lake where Tim showed us the correct fishing method for this particular lake and everyone ended up catching a fish. 

4 fishing holes in 2 weekends...Adam was in heaven. Fishing, Berta's Tamales, Kayaking, Chatting and then a little rain...it was the perfect end to our camping trip. 

Rain is falling but Adam doesn't care.

Love  Love   Love!

Girls hunkering down under the umbrellas...

while the boys kept fishing. 

We seriously did not want to go. It was so fun and so relaxing. We stayed way longer than we should have but no one wanted to head home. Usually Sunday mornings we are ready to get home and are up  early and packing but this day we were still fishing around 2:00pm.  

We drove back to Gates and helped him move some batteries for solar panels and he took Berta for a ride in the razor hoping to convince her to get one. They literally live in the middle of no where. They have no neighbors and live off the grid with well water, solar panels and windmills. With the way the world is right now, I think they have the right idea. There was some land by them for sale, maybe we'll become their neighbors:) We pulled ourselves away around 3:00 pm and went back to camp to load up and head home. We pulled into home around 8:00pm the latest we have ever gotten home from a camping trip but we didn't care. We loved every minute of it!! Until next year Bryce Canyon. Thanks Cains and Gates for a great trip.