5/25/2009

Weekend Out West

Every Memorial Day weekend my family likes to do a four-wheelin’ camping trip. Most years we go “out west” (take highway 30 west out of Snowville towards Park Valley and out around Pilot and Copper Mountain just before Monticello) there are soooo many fun rides to go on and places to see like old mines and awesome rock formations. My mom’s co-worker/friend-Elaine’s family usually comes along too they are such fun, nice people!

This year we all went (except Jake still in Brazil) a little bit to the north and camped around all these huge granite rocks, they were fun to play on and have a lot of holes and wind caves to climb in too. I went on a couple rides and saw some neat places where you could see nothing for a hundred miles (but if you looked really close you could almost see the back of your own head!). Back at camp we did a lot of target and clay pigeon shooting and took turns watching Lauryn and going riding. Lisa (Elaine’s daughterinlaw) almost stepped on a rattlesnake but heard the rattle and backed away. I went and got Jared who dug it out from the sagebrush, stunned it with the shovel and decapitated it! Then my dad showed Christian (Lisa’s son) how to gut, skin and cook the rattlesnake and preserve the skin. The weather was really nice most the time we were there, but little dark clouds would roll in, sprinkle, and blow over then get sunny hot again. Nothing seemed to bother Lauryn not the wind/rain, sun, gunshots, thunder or people, she was happy the whole time, slept all night, napped each afternoon...she really likes being outside she’s the perfect baby! Sunday night the mother-load hit us just as we were getting ready to eat, but it ended up being really nice all together in the tent eating hot chili, listening to the hail and thunder outside. (I have had 2 bad lightning experiences already so I really don’t like it)

Jared and I packed up and headed home that night cause I had to work Monday morning. It was a craaazy ride home, we caught up to that storm that we just had. There were some huge puddles from the downpour on the road that really slowed us down they were so deep we had the truck in 4wheel drive. Lightning was everywhere it was kind of freaky driving along that flat desert all alone in the middle of the storm windshield wipers on the highest speed. Then, just past Park Valley, headed home there was suddenly a good inch of hail on the road without warning the roads were all white and slick like winter! Just before Tremonton we passed a really bad wreck like 4 police 2 tow-trucks and an ambulance were there, the truck looked like it had rolled several times and was carrying a U-haul that dumped it’s cargo all over, pretty scary from the looks of things. I am so glad we all made it back, truly grateful for our safety on this trip, what a blessing! We made it home just in time to experience the storm a third time but this time safe in bed J!

Pictures will be posted soon! (kev has the camera)