Maple Canyon

I love Maple Canyon. It's one of my favorite places in the world, and probably my very favorite place to camp. (Don't come at me, Summer Range.) David and I have decided to try to go camping here every other year. You have to book camp sites pretty far in advance, so we booked a week, and then when we realized that might conflict with David's schedule we booked a different week. As both weeks approached, it was looking like we weren't going to be able to make either of them work. I was very disappointed, but was managing it decently well. The first reservation passed (we canceled it beforehand) and it was just looking like the second reservation wouldn't work either. The first day was the last opportunity we had to volunteer at the Saratoga Springs Open House, then David was leaving for a work trip, then I had volunteered to help a friend with her daughter (months in advance) and it happened to be on the last day. I had considered trying to get Jenna to come camp with me while David was out of town, but it was just too tight. 

We had let go of the option to go camping, but apparently, I had been holding a tiny 1% hope that somehow I could make it work. I volunteered at the temple open house for the morning shift. David was scheduled for the afternoon & evening shift and I had volunteered to babysit for someone during that time so that they could volunteer, too. When I got home and he was leaving, I said something like "if they cancel on me - I might just go camping anyway, FYI" and he said "Okay". So when they called and canceled 5 minutes later, I shot him a text that said I was taking the kids by myself and we would miss him. 

We threw the camping basics into the car, and stopped at a walmart on the way down to pick up the easiest camping food that there ever was (cup of noodles, marshmallows, oatmeal packets). 

We didn't build a fire and didn't bring our tent. We just folded down all the seats and set up our sleeping bags in the back of the van. It left us with more time to explore our campsite and hang out that evening. 

Bedtime was the most stressful part of the whole thing because Austin got a bloody nose that wouldn't stop, and after about an hour of trying to read aloud and snuggle the kids, I was seriously considering taking him to the emergency room. Thankfully, it finally stopped and we all fell asleep quickly after that. It's the only time that I really really wished that there was another adult with me, because it's hard to know what to do in tricky situations when you're the only one making the decisions. I'm so glad that it wasn't a worse situation. 

The kids slept great and in the morning we went on my favorite Box Canyon hike. We went over and under boulders, played by the waterfall, and enjoyed the morning very much. 

After our hike, we ate lunch then drove in to Ephraim. I had REALLY been wanting to take the kids to the AC pool (The Snow College Activity Center) to go swimming. It's not a particularly special pool, other than it's the one I grew up swimming at each summer and the deep end goes down to 12 feet. The kids loved it as much as I hoped that they would. We stopped to get our traditional sodas at the Malt Shop and headed home. It was super short, but I am SO glad that we went ahead and did it. I hope my kids grow up loving Maple Canyon as much as I do. 

Garden Boxes + Shantel's Stubbornness

Last summer we started a Garden Box project in the back yard, partially because we wanted more garden space. Partially because the grass on our upper area had been taken over completely with fescue grass and we wanted to tear the whole thing out. It took us all summer, but we got the grass torn out, the dirt leveled, the boxes installed (with drainage system from roof gutter), and rock/gravel placed.  I knew that if I wanted to have them ready to plant a garden in them this summer I needed to order dirt even though we weren't really prepared. 

I called, ordered 5 cubic yards of dirt, and then told David. He was a little surprised because he's really busy with work right now and was a little worried because he wasn't going to have much time to help over the next couple of weeks. (Including one travel-trip where he would be gone.) But I was determined and I worked hard to move load after load of dirt (before we started our homeschool, after we were done with homeschool, while the kids were eating lunch and while the kids were playing outside, ect... Whatever group of minutes that I had, I worked on it. (Note: I listened to the audiobook of Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, which is a non-fiction book about the start of heavy perscription pain killers and abuse and the family that benefitted from the pain and addiction of people across america. Although it was incredibly long, it was both fascinating and awful.) 

I got started loading dirt into the garden boxes and I realized that if I wanted to add a trellis into my garden boxes, I needed to add it before I put the dirt in. Thus started the second stage of Shantel's stubborness. I called my dad to talk through how I could get a 4'x16' pig-panel home from the local Tractor Supply company to use for my trellis. (I had looked at dozens of trellises online and nothing was both in my price range and what I was looking for. I had determined that this fencing panel would be the best thing.) We talked through how to attach it to the top of my van and even watched several youtube videos about how to bring a fence panel home with a minivan. But it all seemed like a lot of work. When I asked, "But do you think I could fit it in my van - the answer was a hesitant NO. But me, knowing my van as well as I do, I thought it was possible. I convinced David to just TRY (determined that it would fit, out of force of will). We snuck out that very night after bedtime (leaving Lydia in charge) and ran over to Tractor Supply. We spent a good amount of time analyzing the panel, David unbeliving, and me insisting that it would fit. Finally, we asked if we could take one to our car and just try to fit it before purchasing it. A worker helped us unlock the panels and helped carry it over to our car. With an impressive amount of bending, it SLID RIGHT IN. There were less than 2 inches to spare. I was so excited I was hopping up and down with joy! We bought the panel, marco poloed my dad on the way home, and celebrated by letting the kids come and see. It looks like a dog cage or something, but it's my trellis! Yay. This is the thing about me being stubborn. Sometimes it's a problem and the thing that I want just dosn't work out and causes me a significant amount of extra effort and frustration. BUT SOMETIMES, that stubborness pays off and is the only way that situation would have worked out. This is one of those times that my stubbornness paid off! 

Finally the dirt was all in the boxes, and we were ready to plant our garden. We took the kids to the store and let them each pick something to plant. We ended up with pumpkins (Lydia), carrots (Austin), Honeydew (Caleb), Watermelon (Lucy), plus tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, strawberries, and blueberries. A real garden this year! I am so so happy about it.  

(Look at that tiny pile of dirt. I was SO happy when I moved the very last load of dirt!)