Beaver, Utah 2011

5/26/11 - 5/28/11

Our Beaver trip this year didn't start off on a very good foot! Because I had to work Monday night, Memorial Day (3pm-11pm) we decided that we would head down to Beaver on Friday morning instead of our normal Saturday morning in order to get as much time up there as possible!

Korbin had two friends going up with him (Dameon and Ethan) and they too decided to head up a day early with us in Ethan's car.

Due to all of the flooding that took place this year the main road you take to get to the property had a nice little river running down it and we were told a different way we could take to get around it. The directions given to Nate weren't very clear and we didn't know any of the land marks used to help us find our way. We drove around for about 45 minutes trying to find the right city/road/landmarks in order to get us around this river but we weren't able to find any of them!

We decided that instead of driving around totally lost that we would head up the main road to check out this so said "river" and see if we could make it through.

Nate and I figured that we would most likely be able to make it through with the truck and hoped that the water would be shallow enough that Ethan's poor little car would make it too.

When we got to the "river" it was moving pretty quickly but we couldn't tell how deep it actually was. Dameon decided to be the one to walk through, from one side to the other, so we could all see.

Um ...... Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Ya, not a good idea!

To bad I was the only one who thought that.

Long story short - Nate jumped in the truck, reved the gas and sped through the river and to the other side with me freaking out the whole time! When we got safely to the other side we both looked at each other with pure relief! That is until we heard the hissing sound.....

We got out of the car and noticed that our rear driver side tire was leaking air and was already getting low! We left Korbin and his friends with their car on the other side of the river and sped as fast as we could up the dirt road to the property while Nate kept one eye on his side rear view mirror watching the tire. We made it about half way up when he stopped and said we would make it any further. When we got out, I saw this ......

The rear passenger side tire was also loosing air.

I went over to Nate's side to find........

The only problem with having TWO flat tires in the middle of nowhere is that vehicles only come with ONE spare!

Grandpa Keith, Grandma Gerrie and her brothers came down to try and help us out. Grandpa Keith brought down 2 cans of the green foam stuff and Richard brought down some air. We were all really hoping that we could at least make it up to camp with what they brought for us.

Our POOR truck with ALL of our stuff

Braxton LOVED the time spent working on the tires because he was able to get out of his car seat and run around. He LOVED playing in the dirt!

.......What's up there making all that noise?.........

....... Don't worry, it's just Chloee! .......

...... While we were waiting for help to arrive I figured I may as well enjoy the scenery a little ......

Braxton was able to play for a good 25-30 minutes and he loved every second of it!

We got the air and green foam in and headed back up the mountain.

Some others headed down the back way to meet up with the other boys and show them the way up.

Something goes wrong every year for the Nuttall Family. I decided that because Hollie and Brian hadn't headed up yet it was bound to be us! I learned my lesson and I think we'll go up with them from now on!

Last year Braxton was only 3 months old and ended up getting sick on the trip so he obviously didn't enjoy it to much. We were so excited to bring him this year. We knew he would have a great time and boy were we right!

He LOVED hangin' out with the boys ......

- in his COOL chair, glasses and hat -

...... our HANDSOME chef for most of our trip ......

........ Braxton and Chloee both LOVED playing ball ..........

..... the kids LOVED playing with all the fun sand toys ......

-Braxton, Tanner and Carson did really well sharing -

..... Chloee's ball thrower was also a HUGE hit with the kids .....

..... What a cutie .....

(can you believe that he and Brax are only a week and a half apart?!)

...... Chloee would get so sad when we had to tie her up. She would just get TOO CRAZY sometimes. She almost loves our camping trips TOO MUCH!

...... Braxton's first 4-wheeler ride. This trip was a little hard for Nate. It's the first time since he got rid of his 4-wheeler last year that he has really missed it! Beaver was the one place we would actually use it.

...... Hangin out around the camp fire ......

..... Chillin in the chair.

He didn't take very good naps because it would get so noisy and Braxton knew he was missing out on lots of fun! ......

.... While Nate and I were packin' up camp Brax and Chlo decided to do some relaxin' .....

~I LOVE that they could do it together~

Our SUPER tired .......

...... SUPER thirsty .......

......DIRTY Boy!

I guess that is all proof enough of all the fun he had!

Despite the double flats and the ant hill he set our tent up on we all had a GREAT time!

We usually rent a motor home with Nate's family but this year we decided to do it all on our own and it was so nice. It helped that we were pretty darn prepaired!

We had a

- 7 man army tent

- 2 single cots that you put together to make one double

- an air mattress that inflates itself and is guarenteed to stay inflated all night

-tent heater for the cold nights

-tent fan for the hot daytime naps

-camp stove

Needless to say, when you have all the right equipment camping can actually be quite enjoyable!

We ended up leaving Sunday afternoon because of our tire issue. We wanted to make sure we left with enough time incase something went wrong with one of our tires we could get somewhere before everywhere was closed! We kept a really close eye on the tires through out our trip and they seemed to be holding the air just fine but we would rather be safe than sorry! We said a prayer as he headed down the mountain and started our way home.

Thank goodness for the green goop and air that were given us. We were able to make it all the way home on our two previously flat tires!