Camping at Duck Creek

We were brave and felt like we could take the family on a two day camping trip to a little village are a few miles out of Cedar City. I was a little apprehensive about the trip but Kai was all excitement and spunk.

On our way we stopped in Cedar City to visit one of my long time friends and old BYUH roommate Betsy Miller- now Betsy Carlile. She worked at the police station and gave us the grand tour. Our kids thought it was so cool to be in the holding cell. Malachi didn't want to come out. Now it makes me worry about his future:) I am so mad that I didn't get a picture with Betsy. I did however get a picture of this very old LDS Church right next to the police station. It was either the first in town or the second. Either way, they sure don't make them like that anymore!
Camping was both not fun and fun. Overall it was a great trip but there were a few things I would do differently the next time; like bring a high chair to strap Bubba into and bring easy little crafts for the girls to do while Kai and I did things like set up and take down camp.

When we need Bubba to be safe and out of the way we kinda locked him in the car. He repaid us by sticking nickles in the air conditioning vent.

Cambria took this picture of us . . . so funny!

One of the highlights was the many chipmunks who came to visit us at every meal. At one point there must have been a 8 trying to decide if they should breach an imaginary border to get some food. When we had left the table one actually scraped our pancake batter (in a bowl) with it's little paw. Luckily we were done eating.

After we came back from one of our walks, a rat had climbed into an empty trash bag that we had left hanging on a tree. It was so disgusting. Kai walked up the road by the trash can and let it go. Kiera couldn't understand while we were all so grossed out. She said the rats on Rataoui (sp?) were cute so why wasn't the one in our trash bag?

These faces crack me up.

The campfires were with out a doubt the best part of the trip. Cambria said his is a night "I will never forget!" Then she tried one of Kai's sausages that he roasted for her and said, "Now this I will forget." She did not like it one bit.

We went wading in Duck Creek. Kai actually did a polar plunge. The water was so cold.

My job was to corral the little man.

Love Malachi's little tongue hanging out!

Kai took the girls on a hunt for firewood and had to give Kiera a ride back across the river.

As you can imagine the sleep schedules were severly disturbed, but it was worth it just so I could capture this shot.

This was the view from the tiny general store- the only store in duck creek. For those of my family members who have been to the Kamas ice cream store, it was maybe an eighth of that size.

We had a little rain fall on us, but the weather was so cool and enjoyable we never wanted to return to Mesquite. All in all, I am looking forward to our next camping trip.