Uintah's Camping Trip

July 10 - 12, 2009

Kind of a last hurrah before the Peden's moved to Arizona (sadness) we decided to all go camping together with the McGuires. Not the Peden's favorite activity, but the kids all have so much fun that everyone decided it would be worth it. Well, maybe except for Richard who put on a half smile and tried to have fun amidst the bugs, the dirt, the sleeping accomodations in a tent, and the smoky campfire.

We took a day trip up the canyon a bit further and ended up at Provo River Falls. How can I have lived in Utah for 30 years and never seen this amazing place!!! It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. We spent a few hours walking and hiking all around the many waterfalls and taking lots of great pictures. Each of the boys came to the conclusion that it was a perfect spot for a proposal in the future....the far future, right?

We ate lunch at this fun little diner, but I think they saw the size of our group and the rowdiness of our kids and seated us outside on a nice, but private deck out back. We had a boys table, a girls table, and the grown ups sat in the middle table trying to dodge spit balls between them.

The food was great and we were stuffed, but the boys went for the challenge of eating The Pig Trough which was a ginormous banana split. They ate the whole thing in just a couple minutes!

We walked around Mirror Lake a little unprepared for the chilly temperatures that the higher altititudes brought. I had one jacket and two very cold girls. This was how they ended up walking most of the way......

We camped right by the river in a beautiful little spot where the kids spent hours throwing rocks and exploring. Our nights were filled with amazing food, games of charades by the fire, and marshmallow roasting.

The kids had a blast telling jokes and being goofy and renaming The 1:00 club from last year to The 6:00 club this year. That means that they stayed up until 6 am and THEN went to bed for a few hours until their tents got too warm in the morning sun. Crazy, but super fun memories!

(Emily Peden, Dillon McGuire, Kennedy McAvoy, Jordan Smith, Cameron Jeffers, Jake Smith, Sarah Richey) A.K.A. "The 6 o'clock Club"

Farewell Richard, Debra, and Emily! We will miss you so much. Thank you for the many, many years of wonderful memories. We hope that we can continue our traditional annual family trip, maybe not always to the mountains, but always with some of our favorite people.