City of Rocks

This year we ended up going to City of Rocks for Scott's "Friend" Reunion.  I don't know why we call it a friends reunion when most of the time it's Scott's sister Amber and her family with Scott's parents.  We are always looking for places to go that is about 1/2 way between everyone.  This year we decided to go to City of the Rocks and see how it is.  We ended up staying at Smokey Mountain campground.  Scott said if we were going to pull the camper that far we were going to stay for more than two nights.  So we had originally planned to go for 5 days but ended up cutting it back to 3 nights.  We also added an air conditioner to our camper because we knew there wasn't going to be to much shade where we were going.  Amber and Scott's parents weren't coming until Friday and so on Thursday we made it there around 5:00 and got the camper all set up.

 We hurried to make dinner and then took a walk around the campground.

 The view from our camping spot.

 Hanging out after dinner.

I realized that I didn't bring anything for myself to do.  I couldn't believe it.  Scott got tired of me bothering him and so he said we were going to town to see if anyone had any word searches or things like that.  Of course everywhere was closed.  We then went and took a drive up to City of the Rocks to see exactly how far it was from the campground.  When it got dark we were invited to go star gazing because there were astronomers from CSI at the campground.  We went down and they showed us the constellations and we were able to see the starts through their telescopes.  It is a lot more interesting when you actually see it first hand and have someone who knows exactly what they are talking about.  Rachel didn't care for it very much and so we took her back to the camper and we all went to sleep.

The next day we texted both Scott's parents and Amber to tell them no one was in their camp spot and so they could come in sooner than 2:00.  So that morning we got up and ate breakfast and then went into the stores.  Unfortunately they had nothing.  I was able to buy some little kids cards so when we went back we taught Rachel how to play "Go Fish."

 We stopped in at the visitor center to see what they had.  We were able to get some maps of easier hikes for the kids that we can go on tomorrow with them. 

Rachel of course found a tree to climb on.

 I got her to ride on the old wagons.  She told me I needed to starting pulling.  I had to explain to her I wasn't an ox and couldn't pull them.  Trying to tell her they were pretty much just for show didn't make to much sense to her.

We went back to our camp and hung out waiting for everyone else to show up.  

We were so happy when we had company.

 We were right next to each one.  Made it great to be able to hang out with each other.  We actually had the opportunity to go look at the sun through special telescopes that had filters on it just so you can see the sun.  It was really neat to see this. I of course didn't get any pictures of this activity.

 Everyone hanging out waiting for dinner to get started.

 Rachel playing in Amber's camper.

 Playing in the dirt.  Of course she loves dirt and she loved going on walks with the kids through the "Captuses'.  We kept telling her it was a cactus but she wasn't about to change the way she was saying it.  She also met her match with one that got the best of her feet. OUCH!

 Before the hike started.  We stopped by the sign to get pictures.  Rachel really wasn't in the mood to stand in front so we got her at least showing her face so we could prove where we went.

 On Saturday after breakfast we decided it would be fun to go for the hike that we were told was a good hike for kids.  I'm not sure it was such a good hike for kids.  There were some steep parts for the little kids.

 Starting out on the trail.

 Finding Rocks to climb on.  Picture op for all the kids.

 Rachel found her winter hat in the backpack and thought she should wear it for the hike. 

 Yeah someone got tired and started to get whiny and wanted to get a ride.  Scott of course did all the heavy lifting with her.

 If you look close you can actually see someone on the rock.  They were rock climbing all over these rocks.

 Yep we got in the truck and guess who fell asleep.  That walk in the heat did her in.

 Well if Hunter won't go for a walk maybe I can talk Bryson into being the pretend dog.  Yep they both took turns having the leash tied onto their shirts.

 Playing with her buddy.

 At night we have to give Rachel a bath because she gets so dirty.  Since we don't have a tub in our camper she gets the tub outside.  She loves take baths in this tub.

We left her in the camper with a movie on while Scott and I spent time out talking with Amber and Wayne.  We ended up finally going into the camper about 11:30 and this is what we found.  We have no idea how she got on the floor.  I'm not sure that she didn't fall off but I don't think so since her duck was being the perfect pillow.  

On Sunday it was cook breakfast and then pack up.  We always seem to be really quick at packing up and leaving before it's time to actually get out of our campsite.  It was another fun camp trip and I'm so grateful that we are able to do this every year because it's always so much fun.  Hopefully next year more of Scott's friends will actually come but if not at least we always know that the three of us will be camping together.