Browns Hole Camp Trip

A few weekends ago we were able to take off for a quick camping trip down to Browns-Hole with my side of the family. My two brothers and Dad were going camping down there with their families for the archery hunt and we got invited to go along last minute. Adam had been backpacking in the Wind Rivers all week and so I wasn’t sure if he’d be up for another adventure, but he was a trooper and did the back to back camping trip thing so that I too could get out of the house for a bit.

So Friday morning we got all packed up and headed out for the Fish Lake area. As we were pulling out we called my Mom to find out what the exact location was where we needed to go and she suggested we call my two brothers who were already down there. So we did and left messages on both their phones. We called Mom a bit later when we realized there where two different ways to go down and were told to pull off the freeway and wait until my Mom could get a hold of my Dad, because she wasn’t sure whether my brothers were really at Fish Lake or not. So we stopped and got some ice cream cones and shakes at Dairy Queen until they called. We got the directions (which were actually to Browns Hole) and took off in that direction. Dad gave us great directions and we arrived at around 4:30. However, even with Dad’s good directions we could not for the life of us find my brothers anywhere.

Mind you we had no idea what we were looking for either since my brothers trailer is one we had never seen and my brother had contemplated borrowing a bigger truck from my other brothers auto shop. So we didn’t even know what his vehicle would look like. My Dad said they were supposed to leave a paper plate with where they were, but because my brothers didn’t know we were coming they hadn’t left anything. So we dove up and down Browns Hole several times and stopped at almost every camp spot to see if one was theres. But we still had no luck.

We then decided that we would just explore the area a bit and then try back later that evening to see if my brothers had left any sort of directions. But the directions never came. It got to be dinnertime (6:30ish) so we just stopped near the entrance to Browns hole and made up some sandwiches from our ice chest. It rained on us briefly, but not hard, and then the sun came out and we were able to finish off our meal. A few minutes later a girl from a nearby campground game down to where we were eating and started texting on her phone. “Do you have reception up here?” we asked her. “Yeah, its on roaming but I have reception.” In an act of desperation we offered to pay her to use her phone so that we could call my parents to figure out where my brothers were. We luckily were able to reach them and they informed us that my brothers were unable to find a spot the night before and therefore camped down a different road. Mom gave me the directions to their camp spot and we were off.

It sounded pretty easy to get to, but when we actually got driving down the road that would take us to their camp spot, we didn’t see the turn off. Therefore, we ended up driving the entire way down the road until it finally came to an end! ahhhh! So that was fun! We found it on the way back down there and were so relieved to pull in and see familiar faces! 🙂

However, the craziness didn’t end there. As soon as we arrived, and after catching up a bit, I asked my sister in law Stacey if I could use her generator to heat up a bottle for Dawson in the microwave. We had one that Dawson had been sucking on off and on, but after time had gone cold and so he wouldn’t finish it. So we heated it up and gave it to him. However, around 8:00 that evening I started trying to get everything ready and set out for that evening and realized that I had LEFT THE FORMULA HOME! (Dawson boycotted nursing about 2 weeks prior) In my defense the formula was actually the very FIRST thing I had packed, but right before we left I had decided to make Dawson a bottle and pack the bottle it in the ice chest in case he got hungry on the way down. But I left the formula sitting out on the kitchen table and never ended up putting it back in with our camping stuff. Ahhhh!

So we were off on yet another adventure. My parents still hadn’t arrived so in a last ditch effort Adam took off with one of the 4-wheelers to drive down the road to see if he could get reception on his phone to call them and have them stop and pick some up if they were near Salina. However, Ad didn’t return for almost an hour and by then it was pitch dark and my parents had arrived. So we put the two younger boys in the car with us, and took off for Salina to find some sort of gas station open that might have formula. It took us about an hour to get to Salina, but after stopping at a gas station we were told that we would probably not be able to find formula any gas stations in Salina (and all the grocery stores were closed seeing as it was almost 10:00 pm) so we would need to go to the next closest city which had a Walmart. So off we went again.

The good news though is that 1) we were able to find the Walmart, and 2) it did have formula. However, the bad news is that it took us 3 hours round trip to get the darn stuff! So we didn’t get home until after 11:30 or so. It was quite the night! But Adam was a champ and didn’t even once make me feel like a complete idiot for forgetting to put the formula back in with our stuff and we had a nice time talking for 3 hours! Bless him!

So anyway that was our fun adventure. The rest of the trip ended up being really nice and relaxing and we had a great time spending time with my family. Thanks for inviting us guys. It was a blast!

Saturday morning we woke up and had Pop Tarts and waffles toasted on a hot dog stick! Yummy!

Branson had a great time playing with Kaden (who loved running around in his pajamas without his shoes much to his parents dismay!) he he.

Adam and I made us a nice hot fire to warm us all up!

The kids enjoying a leisurely breakfast

At one point Jakes Dog jumped up on this Chair with Dawson and Dawson loved having his furry little friend there to pet!

We all got a kick out of the fact that Jake put on Kadens Jacket backwards!

All the Grandkids love spending time with Nana!

The kids were having fun throwing sticks into the fire and at one point a gust of wind came up and blew the fire towards Kollins face. Poor little fella got singed hair….

AND Eyelashes! 🙁

Stacey and Jake then got out their breakfast of cereal and all the kids got together for 2nd breakfast! 🙂

At one point Chewy (Jakes Dog) got a hold of Harrisons sippy cup and started carrying it around with him everywhere he went. We thought it was hilarious!

Its only 9 am and already Harrison is a filthy mess! 🙂

Dawson loved hanging out with Daddy and looking at the camp fire!

I so love his cheese grin!

These three little boys had a ball playin together. I think for this activity they were taking rocks from outside and putting them inside Jake and Staceys trailer!

I had to put this picture in too because the big joke was that the fire REALLY did follow us everywhere. We ended up putting 4 chairs in different spots around the campfire where we could all change to when the fire came our way. But it didn’t seem to matter. Wherever any of us went…it followed.