Grimes Creek Day 3

Day 3 brought more playing in the dirt and some 4 wheeling.  We were out of water and so we decided since the Sheriff told us there was a trail that would take us to Idaho City it would be good to go there to get us some more water.  

So this is Rachel ready to go for a ride.

We ended up being on the trail for about an hour and a 1/2 when we looked and could see Idaho City but we weren't anywhere close to it.  Rachel was complaining she wanted to go back and so we decided to give up on our quest and headed back to camp.  Yes she took two naps while on the 4 wheeler with us.
When we got back Rachel was bored and so we told her she could watch a movie outside on the laptop.  Well she found a little friend to play with while she watched the movie.

 It's tickling her because it's moving in her hand.

 Yep those are her hands actually holding that beetle.  She loves to play with bugs.

See how happy she is that she made another friend.

After dinner that night she had done so well potty training and so she got to make smore's.  She was so happy to be able to do this.  She had watched us do it the night before and had wanted to do it also.

 Dad helping her to keep the marshmallows out of the fire so she can get that nice golden color.

 Look at that color.  Rachel did so good on her 1st attempt.

She ended up eating the marshmallow that was falling out of the cookie and then handed it off.  She didn't like them very much.  I'm guesings it had to do with the fact they are so sticky.  She wanted her fingers washed as soon as she was finished.  The rest of the night was uneventful except for trying to keep from being eaten alive by the mosquitoes.

Grimes Creek Day 2

When Scott and I both went to bed we each thought the other one had closed all the windows.  Come to find out we had left two windows open and the vent in the bathroom open. When we woke up the next day it was pretty cold in our camper.  We actually had to turn the heater on to take the chill off the camper.  I ended up snuggling with Rachel under her blanket and we read Dr. Seuss until it got warm.  After that was breakfast and then getting the 4 wheeler out to go for a ride.  Rachel really wanted to go on a ride.  So we headed out towards Centerville because it's supposed to be a ghost town.  We also wanted to see if there were anymore camping spots up this road.  It was a great ride but Rachel fell asleep on it so we had to put her in between Scott and myself so that she wouldn't fall off the 4 wheeler.  We turned around and went back to camp after we hit the town and since Rachel was asleep we didn't do to much once we hit the end of the road.  When we got back we just relaxed.  Scott slept in his lounger, I read my book, and Rachel played in the dirt.

 Rachel hanging out while I was reading.  She was constantly telling me she was hungry so she's snacking.

 I'm reading my book of course.

I don't know how many times we cleaned this girl up but it wasn't five minutes and she would be totally dirty again.  

After lunch she wanted to go for a ride again and so I told Scott I would take her so that he could sleep.  We ended up going the other direction and found another road to ride on.  We found butterflies.

I was hoping these pictures would come out better but none of them did.  There were at least 100 butterflies in this area.  They had all kinds of different varieties also.  We picked them out by colors with Rachel.  After our ride we made dinner and just hung out at camp.  The road was really busy with people coming up to camp for the weekend.  We got neighbors that said there would only be about 15 people and their ended up being 6 cars with adults and lots and lots of kids, and a camper.  I actually knew one of the ladies though from Primerica in the group.  It was fun to get to talk to her and find out what she is doing now.  This time when we went to bed though Scott and I talked and we got the windows all closed.  Amazing how much warmer it was in the camper the next day when we woke up.

Camping Grimes Creek Day 1

Scott had a rare weekend off so he really wanted to go camping.  We decided to go up towards Idaho City since its so close and its about the only place around where you can find free camping.  Scott checked out google and found Grimes Creek and decided there were some pretty good camp spots up there that we could go to.  So on Thursday after Rachel's swim class we ended up heading up to Grimes Creek.  We got out of Boise about 2:00.  It only took us an hour and ten minutes to get up there.  Since not ever being up there we actually got really lucky on a spot.

Campsite

Wider view of our campsite.

After we got our camp set up we ended up cooking dinner and then went to look at the creek that was across the road from us.  Rachel really wanted in but we just let her put her hands in for this first day.  She of course really loved getting dirty.  Needless to say she kept finding the ash piles from the fire pit that had been moved all over this camp site.  We usually don't bathe Rachel at night but she was really really dirty.

 She was filthy from head to toe.  She liked dumping the dirt on her head.  

You can tell on this picture how dirty her face is.  This is what her whole body actually looked like. 

We don't have a bath tub in our camper so this is how we have to bathe her.  She thought it was pretty fun being outside in it.  We of course had to sit close so we could keep the mosquito's off of her.  The 1st day she wasn't very willing to put her head in the water so we just had to dump water over her head.  As the week progressed she got braver and was actually getting her head in the water. 

Getting Rachel to bed was a bit of a chore.  She didn't like having to be in the camper by herself while Scott and I sat out by the fire.  The mosquito's were ruthless and I ended up sitting with my long sleeve shirt over my head while I read my book.  I wish I had taken a picture of the moon because it was so bright.  I didn't need a light to actually read my book until 10:30. 

2nd Day of Swim Class

It's amazing what one day can do.  These teachers are completely amazing with the kids.  Today she was willing to actually put the goggles on. She of course kept taking them off after each turn but at least she had them on.

 Hanging on the stair but she has goggles on her head.  The little boy next to her was a fish.  He could hold his breath forever under the water.  They have to tap him on the head so he knows when to come out of the water to take a breath.

Going with Karen for a swim.

Swimming

Learning to dive in the water.

I love how her little legs kick as she learns to dive into the water. 

The last 5 minutes of class the kids get free time.  So that means the little kids get tubes to hang in the water with.  Rachel always picks this blue tube. 

Well this is the last day she picks this tube because right after this she was trying to put her face in the water and the tube dumped her out and both me and Kammi went jumping out of our chairs to yell for Carrie to grab her and she did.  Needless to say Rachel was scared and it took some convincing the next day to get her to use a smaller tube and that it wouldn't dump her out.