August 19-21, 2009.

We had plans to go to Bear Lake with Kade's family this weekend, but our reservations got messed up. So, we had to make other plans. We still wanted to go camping because we hadn't been this year and this was supposed to be our last hurrah before school started. We did some researching and decided that Scout Mountain outside of Pocatello, ID looked like a good place to camp. So off we went. We camped there Wednesday and Thursday night. We enjoyed some nice nature walks, playing in the creek, and of course good camp food. On Friday morning, we packed up and headed in to Pocatello. We spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History and then went to Ross park to meet up with cousins and go swimming. The pool was a hit. Liberty, Halle, and Alyssa spent all day in the lazy river while the rest of us bounced back and forth between the lazy river and the kiddie area. The kids had a good time and I'm glad we got one good camping trip in this summer before we had to send the kids off to school.

Kade, Brylee and Brancyn setting up camp. Brancyn's favorite tools were the ax and the roaster sticks-of course. He couldn't play with something safe like a flashlight.

Deidra trying to get the monster sleeping bags zipped together. It was worth it-Kade and I stayed plenty warm. Too bad the same can't be said for the kids. I couldn't keep them in their sleeping bags for anything.

Kade helped the kids build a dam in the creek. They thought that was great and enjoyed wading in the pool on the other side. When it was time to go, they broke the dam and watched the flood of water head down the hill. Adding water to a family outing always means success.

Kade, Deidra, Brancyn

Kayson, Brylee, and Liberty

at Scout Mountain overlook.

I forgot to add the funnest part of our camping trip. We had some fun nighttime visitors-skunks. We had to be in our bed by about 10 and pray that you didn't have to get up and use the restroom during the night. You could here them scurrying around our tent all night. The second night I wasn't so lucky. 3:00 a.m. rolled around and I just had to use the restroom. I woke Kade up and asked him if he'd come with me because I didn't have my contacts in and I didn't want to run into a skunk. He said he'd come, but then looked at his clock and said "It's 3:00 if they were out, they won't be anymore they'll be in bed" I asked if he was sure of that ( I wasn't convinced) He said he was so off I went to the bathroom by myself. On my way back I heard scurrying in the bushes off to my left, so I picked up the pace. When I got back to the tent Kade started laughing and asked what he'd told me. He was still half asleep and thought I was asking to go visit someone. He said the skunks were probably still out and I told him I thought so too. Less than a half hour later they were scurrying around our tent again. Whew, glad I made it through that one ok!