Little Sahara

Last week Matt's supervisor at work invited 

him to the sand dunes down by Jericho, Utah.

 Matt has a new dirt bike; so now the guys

always want him to go ride with them.

I was very excited for him

 but also really wanting to go myself.

Not to ride but to go camping 

and get out of town for a few days.

Over dinner I brought it up to Matt

that we should all go, as a family.

He said, YES!!!

I was thrilled and got to work right away

making all the arrangements necessary to go.

I took care of everything so all Matt had to do was

prep his bike for the trip, and drive us down to Jericho.

I was so excited to go that I did not even care

that I knew none of these people we were camping with.

Matt only knew the one guy and met his wife once.

We figured if things were not going well, 

we would just go do our own thing.

So anyway, we left Friday afternoon.

Checked the kids out a bit early from school

and hit the road.

The drive down took just over an hour. 

Freakin rocked!!!!

Utah is so amazing that way.

You can go a short distance in any direction

and be in a totally different environment.

We just drove straight down Redwood  Road

along the backside of Utah lake. 

The drive was fun, quick, and the kids

 didn't even have a chance to get bored.

We checked in at the fee area.

Signed the visitor's log.

And found our campsite.

We were greeted by Ben, his wife Jo, and 2 boys.

 Zane, his wife Jen and their 3 kids.

Tyson, his wife Carrie, and 2 kids.

David, and some other kids that came along.

We had 4 dogs to add to it all.

Ben is the guy Matt knows from work.

It was the nicest, most welcoming bunch.

I knew right away I was going to be fine.

The boys were of and digging in the sand 

before we could put the car in park!

The other couples even commented on

how much our kids liked to just dig in the dirt.

Totally entertaining themselves for hours.

Guess that is what you do when you don't have

cool toys like 4-wheelers or motorcycles??

Every kid there had some sort of vehicle of their own.

Even 3 yr. old Mason had an awesome set of  power wheels.

Crew & Mason chillin' in the pow, pow, power wheels!

The other families also each had their own

camper or trailer, or motor-home.

We just camped in our tent.

I totally loved it though.

Camping is one of my favorite things

we did as a family growing up.

So many fun memories with the tent.

After camp was set up Matt was already taking

the boys on rides with the 4-wheelers.

When the guys would go for rides 

I would hang with the boys. 

This pond was one of our first little hikes.
The boys wanted to stay here and throw rocks all night.

Our first night there was very windy.

We had to keep our sunglasses on just to keep

the sand out of our eyes.

Matt even adjusted all his goggles to fit the boys.

Once it was time to get ready for bed
the boys seemed to perk right up and get super goofy.
Their favorite part was playing with the flash lights.
Shadow puppets, telling scary stories, even dancing.

Everyone slept pretty good; except Matt and I.
It was so windy all during the night.
Felt like someone was outside our tent
 holding onto the poles and shaking it like crazy!

I was feeling so bad for Matt since he never
 even went to bed the day before.

The next morning the wind had died down and
the weather was turning out beautiful!

I played lots of baseball with the boys.

Went through a gallon of bubbles.

Took many walks, even went garbage collecting.

Rides on 4-wheelers and motorcycles.

Lots of playing and digging in the soft sand.

Matt took us over to sand mountain

so me and the boys could see how cool it is, 

play, and watch people ride up the dunes.

 Was trying to take a family pic but Crew
was choosing not to be in it.

 Cody digging a big hole.
OF COURSE!!!

 Ladnen was pretending to be a dead body
we found in the sand.

 Cody with his head buried in the sand.

Matt teasing Landen.

 The boys wanted me to try out the hole in the sand.

 Crew taking his turn.

 Crew wanted us to try and pull him out. lol

 More of those dead bodies we keep finding.

and Cody just can't keep his head up!

And a  crazy thing that happened....

Roxy (a chocolate lab) had half her ear

ripped off by the other dog, Sunny.

It was a crazy bloody mess but we manged

to fix her up good with some paper towels

and electrical tape. :)

Matt went looking for the missing chunk of ear

and found it lying in the dirt. So gross!

 Poor Roxy :(

Matt and I being cheesy.

Our second night here was great.
No wind but did get chilly.

Sunday was our last day at the dunes.
The guys took one last good ride.
I packed up our little camp while they
were gone. Then we headed back home.

I believe we all had an awesome time.
I know for sure I did!

Definitely can't wait to visit here again!!!

In parting, here are some fun shots
we took at an old Sinclair station we
passed on our way home.