Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend this year we went camping at Trial Lake with Daniel's family including Grandma and Grandpa Tucker from Colorado. For those of you who live around Salt Lake, you may be wondering if we ever listened to a weather forecast. Yes we did, and we went anyway. The forecast: Rain and snow in the mountains. On our drive up to the campsite on Saturday morning, I asked Daniel "What does one do when it rains or snows and one is camping?" Daniel said that you do the same things you do when it isn't raining, you just wear warmer clothes and a rain coat. Oh. Good. To be honest, I think I was hoping for an answer like "you go home early."

On Saturday we went on a hike up to Twin Lakes and Clyde Lake where Daniel fished and got skunked (fishing lingo for didn't catch anything). We had a pleasant evening talking and telling stories and laughing around the campfire that night back at camp. That night it rained. Good thing we have a great tent and we kept absolutely dry.

Sunday was cold, soggy and cloudy, but didn't rain much. We put up a bunch of tarps to cover the table and area around the fire pit so we could stay dry and still play games and watch all the sane campers pack up and drive home. My sister-in-law and I made big plans for a gymnastics meet we were going to compete in. I mean, this was going to be big. We had the balance beam (a fallen tree with no branches), the vault (basically just leapfrogging over a fallen tree), floor routine (dancing around in the confines of a designated tent spot), and the uneven bars (limbo with a couple fishing poles). We even had an awards podium (a tree stump with 3 levels) and medals to give to the winners (some particle board rings used to keep the fire going). The meet had to be canceled due to the incoming storm.

During our yummy dinner the storm hit. In what seemed like less than a second it was pouring rain and the wind was threatening to rip down our tarp cover! We all left our plates on the table and manned our battle stations. With my back to the wind and pelting rain, I tried to hang on to a pole that was preventing the tarp from falling on our dinner. Well, the pelting rain quickly turned into stinging hail! After about 5 seconds of that I decided that I needed a new battle station. I found one and waited out that part of the storm (which was about 3 or 4 minutes) like a cold, wet wimp: scared and crying. Good thing Grandma and Grandpa Tucker brought their 5th wheel camper. I hid out in there as my good husband brought me dry clothes and stayed outside trying to dry my wet ones by the fire. What a man!

When it was time to go to bed I got in our tent and put my camping pajamas on and we slept just fine. Camping pajamas = tall socks, long sweat pants, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, beanie and sweatshirt nearby. We awoke Monday morning to this beautiful but very cold scene: Daniel took a picture of our tent: And this is where I give a commercial for our tent: MSR Mutha Hubba 3 man tent. We and all our stuff stayed completely dry and warm inside this tent!

We didn't stay very long into the day on Monday. Daniel did a little snowy fishing and then we packed up and went home. We did have a fun time. It was good to spend time with family. One thing's for sure: every outing with the Tuckers is really an adventure! Now I can say I've camped through a storm and survived it.

P.S. Rebekah, I promise next time we go camping we'll have our gymnastics meet!