Cove Mountain Porter Trip

The summer after Zak and I married, we drove to the "rural" Porter cabin, just the two of us. This time his parents invited us to camp there with them and two of Zak's siblings. They helped vacuum up the dead flies in the cabin once we got the generator going. Mom, Dad, Zak, and I took turns making meals. We tried to follow the shade or the sun, depending on the time of day, so we hauled our camp chairs around the property several times. They are comfy, and I got my s'mores, so it was definitely worth it. The boys went fishing in Deep Lake, while V and I went exploring around the lake.

Fishing for Baby V

Braids make excellent camping hair and crimped fun
afterward.

Grandpa and his airplane, which
unfortunately hit a tree.

Grandpa, Aunt Niki, and Uncle Cohen panned for gold. Grandpa found a fleck.

Grandpa and Aunt Niki played the ukelele for us around the campfire. V loved it.

Miss V "driving" Grandpa's new Beefy truck.

V helping Grandma in the kitchen before cake time.

Aunt Niki's birthday! Oh, the Porters and their torches.

Dinner by Campfire-light

Last summer, while I was quite pregnant, we didn't do much camping, but the summer before that, we loved exploring our new town and going to nearby campgrounds for an evening. The most memorable time was getting stuck in the mud. This year we've started the mini-camping fun, this time with our little addition, complete with her own camouflage travel high chair from Grandma and Grandpa. I think becoming a parent has shifted Zak's desire to do some daring things, like driving through a puddle of unknown size in a campsite. He helps me feel safe and protected. Having a baby definitely gives a purpose. Everything is more fun, thinking about what it's like for them, and what they'll be doing in a year or two when they understand.

We packed some mashed green beans for Miss V, and some tin-foil dinners, with meat already cooked. Zak is amazing at building fires. I helped gather some firewood, which is much easier in springtime before all of the nearby fallen wood has been used. 

Zak had earned some gift cards from his previous job, which we used for a zero gravity camp chair. I could sleep in that thing. After dinner, we enjoyed the sounds of the river and trees swaying in the wind, and made it safely home without incident.

Camping at Massacre Rock

All winter long Zak has been hankering to get away, climb into those mountains, and go camping. He's been doing a compressed work week, in which he works an extra hour each day, and then gets every other Friday off of work. The first Friday we used to travel to Bear Lake for General Conference weekend with family. This last weekend he got to pack all of our gear in Beefy the 4Runner so we could venture south to Massacre Rock, near Pocatello. Most campsites are still closed until summer, but we gratefully found this state park named after a skirmish between the Native Americans and Oregon Trail travelers.

We hiked to some wagon ruts from the Oregon and California Trail. It rained quite a bit, but stopped long enough for us to put up our tent and have campfires Friday night and Saturday morning. Unfortunately, our strike-anywhere-matches were cheap and fell apart quickly, so we did have to run to the store 10 miles away for a lighter. Also, I appreciated the flushing toilets at the campground, even if we did have to walk a little way to reach the closed museum toilets. There were some beautiful views around the campground, which we got to enjoy along with the bike-riding scouts and celebratory Muslims from the local university. The very friendly state park ranger informed us of some strong winds likely to come during the night, so we chose a great spot nestled by boulders/mini mountains, perfect for climbing, with foot holes already created.

I'm still adjusting to sleeping as a pregnant woman, so I didn't have as many pillows as I would have liked to stuff under my waist and between my knees, but I'm learning. I've since prepared a personal and family packing list, so hopefully we'll have what we need next time we go, but all in all Zak and I had a wonderful weekend campout. We look forward to many adventures this summer for as long as I can travel, and then it's Baby Time!

Zak's close friend for life.

Handsome Husband!

 

Fishing in the snake

23 weeks pregnant, my jacket barely zips.