Camping at Nine Mile Canyon

This past weekend we ventured out into literally the middle of nowhere to go camping...talk about do or die! We were like 70 miles from any services, camping at Nine Mile Ranch where they pretty much just make you up a spot by throwing down a picnic table and fire ring! Luckily I made some serious lists and triple checked them all..oh and four season packing really paid off as we did indeed experience all four seasons while we were there! We kinda underestimated the distance to the Ranch(though the directions on their website are kinda misleading) and how long it would take so we ended up pulling into the ranch about 7:30 pm and setting up camp at double speed but we got it all up before the sun went down! This was Elizabeth's first time sleeping in the new princess cot and sleeping bag(we found it for a major steal of only 12 bucks at Toy's R Us!) I was a bit concerned as it's not toddler bed style, but she didn't have any problems at all with it! It kinda naturally cradles her. She also didn't do bad going to sleep either, we just left her in the tent with her bedtime music and she played for a bit then passed out on her cot which we loaded up with like six extra blankets! And good thing too as it got way colder than we anticipated at night. She made it til 5 am though when I woke her up getting up to go the the restroom, so as we were not even close to being ready to wake up yet we brought her in bed with us to keep her warm and she fell back asleep for a few hours. Saturday we drove through the canyon and looked at the different sites there are to see like Balance Rock which from the right angle looks like Porky Pig! And we got some great pics at the Great Hunt Panel. and we even found the grainery! Elizabeth took her nap while we were driving through the canyon. The morning and early afternoon were nice not too warm not too cold, but after we got back to camp the seasons started to change it went from pleasant spring to wet spring real fast, and of course right as Tony was starting to build a fire, it started down pouring which quickly turned to hail and sleet, bring on winter! That's when we took cover in our tent. Tony and I did some madlibs and played skip bo while Elizabeth watched a Baby Einstein on the portable dvd player, and that's how we waited the storm out. Then Tony miraculously got another fire started and we were able to cook our hot dogs and marshmallows over the nice warm fire. That night was even colder than the last so it's a good thing we put Elizabeth in her jacket with her hood up to help keep her warm, but even so she ended up back in our bad about 5 again to keep warm and sleep a while longer. Sunday we took our sweet time packing up as there is no check out time at the ranch. Then we stopped by the CEU Prehistoric Museum and had a good time looking around there. Elizabeth of course called all the dinosaurs "doggie", but she's not too far off on some of them! Then we had lunch at a very nice and fun park in Price were Elizabeth had lots of fun swinging and playing on the playground and going down slides. It was such a fun trip! Elizabeth is an amazing camping girl! She just loved playing with all the dirt and rocks and sticks and everything she could find! Tony and I really enjoyed just camping again! And seeing the amazing beauty of this earth! We can't wait to go again in July! We're going to do more hiking then! From here on out we have a trip planned pretty much every other weekend! Next is Memorial Day in Logan with my parents, then Lava Hot Springs again with my parents, then we're going to Las Vegas Baby! Just us, then we're going camping again this time in Manti. Then the end of July is our big Oregon Coast trip with my parents, then we're camping at Mirror Lake just us and a couple more after that, one with my parents and the other is Labor Day with Tony's family! It's going to be such a great fun summer I'm so super excited!!