Memorial Weekend = Beaver, Utah

Nate and I spend our Memorial weekend every year in Beaver with his family. I know, most of you are probably wondering why Beaver? It is a pretty random place and I asked myself the same question when I first met Nate. It all made sense though when I finally asked him about it. His family owns a huge amount of property up in one of the mountains there! His grandma and all her siblings have built little cabins out of tough sheds and have decorated them all cute! I think his grandparents spend more time at Beaver during the summer than here at home! Every Memorial weekend the whole extended family goes up to Beaver to hangs out and be together all weekend. Considering how I feel about camping it's weird to say that I actually enjoy it up there. There are all kinds of cool things to see and do! We went up on Saturday morning and spent most of the day just hanging out! On Sunday we went on our huge Sunday hike. I think it ended up being about 5 miles. We got to see some mine shafts, Indian writings and burial grounds, and a coyote skeleton skull!! On Monday, the cousins and a couple of the uncles went on the famous 4 wheeling ride to the bus! I unfortunately stayed behind because I was super sick. Come to find out there were about others who were also sick and it was due to dehydration from the hike the day before!! I have never been so dehydrated in my life and after learning the hard way, I hope to never get so dehydrated again!

We decided to take Chloee this year and I'll be honest, I was totally against it. I even tried getting out of going myself by telling Nate it was either me or the dog going!! He didn't go for it. Luckily though she was really good. We actually let her off her lease most of Sunday and Monday and had no problem! She loved being able to run around and play with all the kids! Not only did she go camping for her first time but she also went swimming for her first time! She was so scared at first and after finally deciding to go in and realizing that her feet wouldn't always touch she freaked out and swam back. Nate decided to put her on a paddle boat they had up there, paddle to the middle of the pond and push her off and she swam all the way back to shore! She didn't go in again after that though. I just hope that after that experience she is not terrified of water forever! She also meet her love! Nate's cousin Jason also has a golden lab who is about 4 months older than Chloee! They hit things off at the pond and spent as much time together the rest of the trip as we would let them. They were so cute together!!

I have had the opportunity to go to Beaver 3 times. Last year was the first year I went that I wasn't able to sleep in his parents motor home because we were married and slept in a tent. Of course it ended up raining the whole time we were there and I voued after that experience that I would never sleep in a tent up there again! We ended up renting a motor home with his parents and were very comfortable during our trip! As comfortable and fun as it was I am so glad to be home and clean!

............. until next year!!!!!!!!

Nate with our adorable neice Brynnlee trying Squirt for the first time and loving it!



When Chloee realized that she couldn't reach the bottom the whole way out and freaked out!!



Chloee on the paddle boat and trying to get her out




Chloee swimming back to shore! She did such a good job! Duke jumped out as soon as he saw Chloee in the water! (Chloee is the one in the front)





Chloee and Duke




Our Sunday walk and some of the things we saw:



The coyote skeleton



A mine shaft



What used to be a miners cabin





Our cute littel family



Little Brynnlee - I'd bet she's the best dressed camper you'll ever see




Yummy banana boats we made over the fire