The Rawlings are going camping.

(Warning: super long,,,ok amazing long post, but the pictures really do make it, so feel free to scroll through and ignore my comentary unless you want to know what I was thinking, which come on you are a little curious, I mean why else would you be reading this..)

The Rawlings family decided to branch out this year and got together for a family camp-out. Jeremy's little sister Stacey just finished building their home just a 1/4 mile from Glendale Reservoir( just outside Preston ID) and luckily enough Dustin's dad owns some lake front property for us to camp on. It was a beautiful location and we had lots of fun toys to play with but most importantly lots of fun people to play with. We started out by pitching our tents in the hay field.
The view from our camp. The lake was just great and luckily enough our little cove was nice and private enough to help us feel secluded.


The kids had a great time playing hide and go seek in the hay field. It was so fun to watch them wade through the alfalfa only to trip and lose total sight of them.

Leah and Abby found dandelions and made wishes until dark.


It was so nice to get out in the country.

My favorite part of camp had to be everyone sitting around the campfire. Dave played the guitar and we sang along (only in the Rawlings family would you hear all 4 part harmony to camp songs). It was so awesome.

Everyone had fun singing songs, listening to Tammy and Dave sing some of their favorites and hearing funny stories.

Will wandered the entire camp convincing people to give him more cookies, except Will can't quite say cookie yet instead he sounds like some sort of alien saying "ccccckkkkkkeee"

And what would camp be without delicious smores. Oh they're making me hungry just looking at them....
Nice and golden.



We sang songs until the kids couldn't keep their eyes open any longer and tucked them into their sleeping bags. When the adults decided to hit the hay (some of us literally) we noticed a ruckous party starting up. After about an hour of the party getting way too loud and me singing along with "knocking on heaven's door" in my head Dave and Jeremy went to have a "chat" with the camp. When they arrived they were welcomed by some puking drunks who were kind of enough to turn their music down a tad. Their party didn't die till about 4 in the morning but it was still nice to sleep in the cool of the mtns for at least a few hours. I woke up with the sun and decided to go for a scenic run around the lake. It was glorious! After a good hearty mountain breakfast we waited for the air to warm up and took some 4 wheeler rides.


Lizzie and Savanah waited so patiently to get their swimsuits on but I couldn't resist these pictures. They sure are the best of friends.

Grandma had a great idea and decided to bring some beads for the kids to make bracelets. All the girls where so excited the boys were a little less than thrilled but...


That didn't stop these work worn hands. Dave was so great to help the girls make their beautiful jewelry and even helped them pick out the beads.

Seriously Dave is such a wonderful Grandpa and would never let a silly thing like pink beads get in the way of spending time with his beloved grandaughters.

Each girl had a blast stringing the beads, trying on different styles and most importantly talking together.

The results were F*A*B*U*L*O*U*S!!



The boys found something equally awesome to do and picked up a whole bunch of really good skipping rocks!
Ethan was learning from the master skipper himself.

Jeremy sure can skip a rock. I lost count of his farthest skipped rock but it was a long long way!

The other uncles were able to take some the kids for 4 wheeler rides

Dustin even had the brilliant idea to let the girls "pick flowers" on one of their rides. What a great uncle.

Soon enough it was warm enough for boat and jet ski rides...Sorry I was too busy playing to take pictures so this is about all I have of people getting the water. Thanks again to Dustin and his Dad for the loaner on the boat and Jet Skis. What a blast!

Soon enough the sun was setting on our little family campout and it was time to go home. So we cleaned up camp and took off to our perspective homes. Amanda and Curt were blessing Kambria in Logan on Sunday and we all wanted to make sure we were well rested for the big day.

I rode up to the top of a hill close to Stacey and Dustin's and took some shots of the beautiful scenery. This is where we camped and the Lake that I ran around. It was so beautiful. I so love Cache Valley and just couldn't get over how green it was...I guess I've been in the desert too long.


The girls wanted to pick flowers just one more time so we let them go.


It was such a good time and I can't wait to do it again. I hope everyone else had a good time. Maybe we should make it a tradition??? What do y'all think?