A New Summer Tradition

When we woke up on Monday morning, there was steady, light rain coming down. We hung out in the tent and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a while. It didn't look like it was stopping any time soon, so we ran down the mountain into St. George to grab a propane cook top. We definitely weren't going to be making breakfast over the fire today.

We got back to camp and the girls colored, while Isaac and I made breakfast burritos. I took some pictures of our awesome tent to give you a better idea of where we were staying. I gave Isaac a hard time for picking out such an expensive tent, but after it started raining, I was glad we had so much room to hang out in.

After breakfast, we played Uno with the girls. Grace was over it pretty quickly after Charley won the first two games in a row. We let them play one another, while we sipped on some wine and watched the rain.

Soon the girls were hungry and snacked on honey buns as the rain stopped.

They were so excited to finally get out of the tent and wear the new My Little Pony sweatshirts that they got down in St. George.

We decided to go on a little hike the opposite way from where we went the day before. The girls couldn't wait to explore some more and ran and skipped all over the place.

Daddy stopped to pick some pretty purple flowers with them.

We came across this sign by some Ponderosa Pines. With all the rain, you could smell butterscotch from where we were standing. Daddy took the girls to the tree and let them smell it. 

We continued on our walk and found some big trees that had fallen over. The girls loved trying to balance as they walked across them on their own.

We could hear the creek and started heading that way when Char found more baby Christmas trees. She was so funny trying to hug these trees that had pokey pine needles.

When we reached the creek, Daddy crossed first to test out the rocks. He added one more to give the girls an extra stepping stone.

They did their best to cross without getting soaked this time around.

Grace found a medium tree and told Charley that this one was hers, because it was bigger like her.

Char saw Grace gaining some ground and ran to catch up with sister. She wasn't a huge fan of the wet grass that was as tall as she was.

The girls found some sister trees right next to each other, so, of course, we had to get a sister picture by them.

We got back to camp to find the cows taking over our site again. They even left footprints right next to our tent.

The girls snacked on Lunchables and played in the dirt with utensils, while I made them some hot cocoa.

We made a Camp Espejo sign near our tent.

When we went in the tent to get stuff to start dinner, I found Grace taking these silly selfies on my phone. She's such a goofball!

We decided to wait on dinner for a bit and do some fishing instead. I have no idea how long we were out there, but the family next to us was catching fish every time they'd cast, and we didn't catch one thing. I was a little bummed, but also a little relieved, because I didn't know who was going to get the fish off the hook or what we'd do with it. We're still new at this whole "roughing it" thing. The girls had fun either way, so fishing was a success for us.

We headed back to really start dinner this time, and the girls thought they were so funny sticking mini marshmallows to their noses.

They snacked on blueberries, while Daddy and I grilled corn on the cob and steak.

When they started to get chilly, we changed them into their pajamas, and they watched movies in their sleeping bags.

When dinner was finally ready, we ate in the tent, because it looked like more rain was on the way.

The sky cleared up just in time for us to start a fire and hang out making scones and s'mores.

The girls danced to their own beat around camp as the sun set.

We went to bed and woke up the next morning unsure of what to do. Since no one had booked our site for the next day, we had the option to stay one more night. The girls were ready to go home, though, and we made breakfast before we started packing.

The girls were excited to go see Toodles and head to the cabin the following day.

We stopped in Veyo for their famous chocolate pie, and Charley slept the whole way home, as per usual.

We already cannot wait to go camping again. It was a great escape from the heat of summer in Vegas and a great way to bond as a family. The girls even loved sleeping in the tent. Pine Valley is such a beautiful, quaint, little town. It's one of my favorite places, because I have so many memories from staying here as a kid. I hope my girls have some amazing memories to look back on of their childhood and special things like this that we did with them.

We're up for any suggestions if there are any other great camping spots close to Vegas. I think it's safe to say that this will be a new summer tradition for us.