Family Camp amended for Covid-19/Corona Virus

Family Camp - well, it wasn't a camp this year in the regular sense.  We didn't sleep over together in the woods or anywhere else this time.  But, we did get together with those who could, and we did have fun.  At first when we had to cancel our planned Beach Trip to CA we just thought we wouldn't do anything.  But we decided to at least attempt some time together.  We kept throwing around ideas - some could work and some couldn't because of the virus restrictions.  And we just kept amending and adapting as we went to meet the circumstances.  It's the people - not the place!  That would be our theme for this year I think!  

Our final product was this:

Thursday we met at Yankee Meadows for a day in the mountains/at the lake.  Everyone who had kayaks/canoes brought them.  And the weather was cool, but not too cool for the lake and the wind didn't come up enough to create a problem.  We had picnic lunch and just relaxed and enjoyed the lake and a little bit of hiking.  That evening we went down to Cedar City and had such a yummy dinner that Lou and Juge put together in Weaver's beautiful backyard.  Some jumped on the tramp, some played volleyball, some played basketball and some just visited.  It was great!

Friday morning we met at Ryan's brother's cabin in Kolob and just hung out there for the day.  We had lunch and dinner and hiked a little.  The kids had a blast playing games and playing outside in the trees.  We celebrated Derek's birthday with cake and ice cream. It was a wonderful day too. I didn't take enough pictures though.

We ended up with 30 being able to attend this year.  We missed Jay, Brynn, Essie and Clara, Supe and Beacher, Moss, Christie, Brenden, Eliza, Kai , Brayden and Tavin.  We had 2 dogs (Indy and Roxy) in attendance - both very well behaved!  

I, for one, missed the extra time we have when we camp - the long evenings when we have time to play games, just talk and watch the kids play with cousins, cook really amazing food on Camp Chef stoves and in Dutch ovens, visiting all of the forts the kids build and are so proud of, going on some kind of camp outing without being rushed, just relaxing around camp, taking a nap in the tent, having a kids talent show.  Yes, I did miss that, but I'm thankful for what we had, and thankful that no one has gotten sick so far and that for the most part, everyone is still employed.  I'd say we are very blessed in these stressful times full of sickness and social unrest.

Special thanks go to Jay and Brynn.  Even though at the last minute they had serious things come up that made it impossible for them to attend, they worked hard to the last minute to put a plan in place for this camp...even though their turn (for the Beach Trip) kind of made this double duty for them with this year's Covid-19-craziness.

Between Lou's Camera and Derek's set up skills, we got these pretty decent family pics of everyone who at one time or another was there.  The last shot turned into Tasia being the goat...she was a good sport and smiled anyway!

Checking out good spots for Family Camp Fun!

Since we can't go to our planned Family Camp location at the beach in California this year, we are staying local and  just sleeping at home/eating breakfast every day and then getting together for fun activities during the day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Yesterday we went to find some nearby hikes that we could possibly take on our day at a cabin in Kolob.  And we also just stopped by at some cool spots we just wanted to check out for ourselves.  

We started at Virgin Falls Park and it was so beautiful that I almost wanted to just stay there and play in the water and forget the rest! 

Next we went up Kolob Terrace Road and stopped of by an old bridge we had played in the water under in the past.  We explored the area a bit more just for the fun of it and enjoyed seeing some beautiful things there.

Then we went to Cave Valley and hiked to the pictograph cave.  In route we did see a little rattlesnake who was just to busy going somewhere to rattle or hardly even be bothered by us.  It did freak me out so much that I was too slow to take his picture - he had already hidden in a bush by then.  It left me wanting to watch my step pretty close afterwards.

After that we took the Northgate Peaks hike which is one of my favorite little hikes.  It's only 4.2 miles and goes through a lovely forest and ends in some magnificent Zion views at the end.  It was a perfect weather day for all of the places we went.  And it was just enough mileage wise for hiking.  We live in such a beautiful area!