Manti Pageant

So we decided that the kids were finally old enough to appreciate going to the "Manti Pageant" this year, so we tried it out... On our way down we remembered that some of our good friends from college (Mike & Anne Scottorn) lived down in Ephraim there, so last minute we stopped by their new place to visit them.  It really was one of our main highlights of the trip!  All of our kids really had SO much fun playing together & it was fun to see the life they've made for themselves there.

Then we quickly went & set up camp at our camping spot & headed back to the Pageant just in time.  Surprisingly, ALL of the kids stayed awake for the entire thing (which got over at like 11:00!) & they were pretty excited about watching everything.  We had to explain a lot of what was going on & Skyler was a little nervous about the Lamanites, but overall it was a good teaching moment.

The next morning the kids LOVED just hiking around & exploring.  And it got SO hot SO fast that that's about all we did all morning.  A little later we decided to try out the canoe we had borrowed from my parents, but Bailey just cried the whole time because she didn't like the life-jacket, so it wasn't as long of a ride as I'd hoped for.  And then Laron got the great idea to bring a tube to tie onto the back of the canoe for a kid to ride in, which Skyler LOVED for the first few minutes, that is until he got too confident on it & started rocking it until it fell over.  He was pretty scared at first, but luckily he had a life-jacket on so all turned out well.  I think it kind-of scared Laron though, so no more kids got to ride in it after that.

 After lunch my family showed up (they were going to go to the Pageant THAT night) & so we went canoeing again with them.  This time Skyler decided that he never wanted to ride in a canoe again!  And Bailey of course was done.  So we all took turns & had fun rowing around.  One time I even tried riding in the tube on the back & was surprised at how tipsy it was (at least for ME)... But it was fun for one ride I suppose!

Here I am holding a little water snake that the kids kept following all along the water's edge.

 It was fun to have some company to break up the day & to distract us from the heat & lack of shade at the campsite.  Thanks for letting us borrow your tent trailer and canoe Mom & Dad!

And who'd want to go camping without these little munchkins?!  Without someone being excited about every little stick & rock, I just am not sure I'd even go... So thanks for bringing a little excitement to the trip guys!