Iverson Family Camping Trip 2008- Payson Lakes

Despite my boo-hooing about the effort it takes to go camping, we had a fantastic time and I would do it again for sure! The number of meals worked perfectly with how many people were coming, so I only had to cook once and got to enjoy everyone else's meals the other times. The first day we all met at Mona Lake (near Santaquin) for a day of boating and wave runners. Romy and my dad especially loved the wave runners, calling them "four wheelers on water." After the lake we cleaned up at Brad and Melissa's in Payson and then headed for the hills of Payson Canyon.


Two funny things about this picture. First, Brett is holding one of those big rainbow umbrellas providing shade for the little ones and he seriously held it there most of the afternoon. Because that's the kind of guy he is! Secondly, for some reason, every time we set cousin McKell near Ivy, Ivy would start to cry! Not sure why she has a beef with sweet McKell, but it was for real! We made sure to keep her out of Ivy's eyesight here.

Aunt Sherry and Kate splashing in the water and letting Romy pour water over her. I'm sure it went something like this, "Sherry, do you want me to pour water on you? I know you'll like it."

We set up camp (for those of us with tents- for those with trailers, well, they "pulled into" camp- lucky!) and the kids managed to find the dirt piles in no time. For better or for worse, Romy has taken after her dad and is quite a neat nic, so she stayed fairly clean. Basically she likes to be "in" the dirt but not "of" the dirt, if you know what I mean. Some of the other kids didn't fair so well and literally had to be hosed off later that night. With cold mountain water. Poor Grandma felt so bad for them she couldn't watch and had to walk away. At which point Mason said to Romy, "Now look Romy, this is what will happen if you get filthy in the dirt." Needless to say, the kiddos steered clear of rolling in the dirt the rest of the trip. This is the extent of her dirtiness- ooooh, what a mess.

Of the 12 grandkids in my parent's family, 7 have birthdays in June, in addition to two sister-in-laws. So June is a very busy birthday month for my mom. Here we are celebrating all the June birthdays, cupcake-style.

Our humble abode.
Our tent was sooooo spacious, it was glorious!!! You could actually stand up in it and not have to get dressed on your knees. Sleeping in the tent and in our sleeping bags was one of Romy's favorite parts of camping. I worried the girls would get cold, particularly Ivy, but they both slept GREAT. We fit two cots for Mason and I, a port-a-crib and Ro's bag and pad and we had room for more! Mason set things up very nicely and I joked that if he would have had more time, we would have had some plants and pictures on the tent walls too! Of course there was a no shoe policy strictly enforced.

DAY AT PAYSON LAKE
In the canoe with Aunt Weeze- thanks to she and her hubby for bringing the canoes!
Uncle Chad helping Carson get his fish off the line while the others anxiously look on. I asked Romy if she wanted to touch the fish and she tentatively touched a fin. Way to go girly girl!

Sweet grandma. My parents were such good sports to agree to the whole camping idea. I gained a new respect for them and the fact they took 5 kids camping! It was such a treat to have them there with us. Romy was ecstatic that she got to be with both her mommy AND grandma at the same time.

Romy with her Princess Giselle hair.

THE TRIATHLON
So my brother Chad is kind of crazy at times- in a good way though. As we were sitting around one afternoon, he had the hair-brained idea to swim in the lake, bike around the lake, then run around the lake. It started out just he and Brad doing it, then morphed into a family-wide event, including the kids. I really didn't want to swim in the lake, but dude, family peer pressure is hard to turn down! The kids went first and swam for a bit, then those with bikes rode around the lake, then finally a short run along the lake. They were awesome!
Doing her run leg.

My team consisted of me swimming, Mason biking, then me running. Because we only had two adult bikes we could only go two teams at a time. So we squared off against Sherry swimming, my dad biking, and then my mom as the runner. I'm so glad my sis-in-law Sherry is braver than me because I'd still be sitting at the edge of the water!

It was then my dad and Mason's turn and they raced neck in neck around the lake. This was the first time I had EVER seen my dad on a bike- really! You rock dad!

And then my mom and I finished it off with our runs. My mom is 60 and my dad is 64 and they still are up for anything.


Here's Brett finishing his run leg. I chased him around the whole lake but couldn't ever catch him. He's the type that won't run for a year and still will beat me!

And then it was the race organizers turn to go. Brad and Chad swam, biked and ran their way to the finish of the 1st Annual Iverson Family Triathlon. I'm so grateful to be part of a family that values physical fitness and is crazy too! Can't wait 'til next year!

THE GROTTO HIKE
On our way out of the canyon we stopped to do a little hike. We crossed several "balance beams" as Romy calls them, over the river and finished with the view of a beautiful waterfall.




Camping is a lot of work but it is well worth it in my opinion. I am told that it gets easier as your kids get older, so I will hope for that too. I loved being with my family and seeing Romy and Ivy develop their relationships with their cousins and aunts and uncles. Oh, and we caught a fish too! Thanks Iverson fam for a rockin' good time!!!