Cousin Campout gets SNOWED out.

Okay, Note to self, remember not to camp in Utah mountains in September!!! We left Friday night to go to Tommy's camping family reunion at Fairview Canyon in Utah. It was a little wet, but we blew it off. It started to rain and so we all returned to our tents to sleep. Tommy's brother Jim and his wife Cynthia, and their two little girls Riley 2, Savannah 1, slept in our tent with us. I couldn't sleep much because the rain kept me us. I dozed a few times but never really slept. It was pretty cold and I was very worried about Howie being warm enough so I kept checking on him, putting his fleece hat back on, etc,. At one point in the night, I remember thinking that it was warmer now and I wasn't so worried about Howie, plus the rain had stopped. A little while later, CRACK! and down comes the tent on all of us. The poles of the tent couldn't hold the weight of the SNOW, yes, snow that was on the tent and so the poles bent and down came the tent on top of us. (Note: the warmer feeling I felt in the tent was because we were covered with snow, an igloo around us helped keep us warmer.) Tommy went back outside to tie the tent up and it worked for about 20 more minutes. Then it fell on us again, this time putting a nice tear in our tent. At this point, (4am mind you) we decided to pack it up. We placed the babies in the warm cars while we hurriedly shoved all of our belongings into our cars and caravanned down the mountain. I had a quick thought to grab the camera because this would probably be funny after a little time had passed, further down the road. So here are some photos to tell you how much snow we had on our little family reunion that got broken up and dissolved at 5am (everyone went home after we came off the mountain). It isn't that much snow, but our tent isn't made to hold up snow and so we had to trash it with the broken poles, and ripped tent that it was. Note to self; next time no camping in September.

This is our tent, half fallen down. If you look closely, you can in the center of the photo exactly where a snowflake is, one of us holding up the tent from the inside so that we could pack up camp. Tommy is literally holding up the tent and when we lets, go it falls completely down.

Down comes the tent at 4am.

This is to show how much snow we got dumped on us.

burrrrrrrrrrrrr ya, it was really, really cold!! This was our main canopy/mess hall.

Tiffany and Shawn's tent being crumpled up quickly.

Look at our cold little guy. He was happy to be up at this time of night, but as you can see, a jean jacket doesn't really do it when surrounded by snow.

Here is as many of the adults as I could get in a photo. Most of the kids are all warm in cars. This was Julie and Steve's camper. They were pretty warm the whole night long. We all ended up calling it a trip and headed down the mountain.

L to R: Cynthia, Kris with Tyler, Shawn, Julie, Steve, Grandma and Grandpa Rushton in the camper, and Tommy.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND CAMPING AND HIKING TRIP

For the long weekend we decided to take a road trip. The following are some photos from the fun trip. We drove to Telluride, CO first and stayed for two days, then drove back to Moab, UT for some fun hiking in Arches National Park. Enjoy the photos, it was a fun trip for all.

The Delicate Arch

The Delicate Arch in Arches National Park is a pretty famous hike. The arch is pictured on utah license plates. We thought since we were driving back through Moab, UT that we would spend a day hiking in Arches. Boy, was the 1.5 mile UP HILL hike worth the energy. It was really hard for us since we both are out of shape and packing howie is no easy feat. We wondered if it was worth it and it definately was.

The Rushton's at the Delicate Arch.

Howie chillin at the arch.

How cool is this shot??

It doesn't look this big, but here is another view of the arch up close. It is really large.

It is just beautiful. Breathtaking.

We made it!!!

One of the MANY breaks we took along the way.

The last leg of the hike was along a cliff. Thank goodness for the shade. Tommy ahead packing howie.

Hiking in Arches National Park Moab, UT

We finally got smart, and bought a pack to carry howie in. We learned a hard lesson when we were in Telluride, CO without one. Howie liked it a lot. He was up high and could see everything.

Howie loved playing in the pathways, since ROCKS are his favorite toys, Arches National Park was his playground.

Tommy and Howie atop of Sandune Arch.

Couldn't resist this one.

We made howie wear daddy's fishing hat even though he had sunscreen on. With his fair skin, the sun in torture on him.

Howie playing in/on the rocks.

mommy and howie taking a break in the shade. Blessed shade, there isn't much of that in Arches.

After a long day of hiking, granola bars, water, and sun check out what you get. Even through all that, howie is happy and saying cheese to the camera. I think we might have found howie's favorite place to be, in the middle of tons of "ROCKS". A boy's heaven.

Camping with Howie

Breakfast of champions: Cereal!!! Don't bother howie, he's eating. He focuses pretty hard on breakfast. Cereal is one of his favorite meals of the day.

Howie playing around in the tent with daddy's beanie on.

Daddy and howie enjoying some popcorn made over the fire.

Howie had a ball with roasting marshmellows. Well, it turned into burning them and doing it again. "more" as howie would say. He loved it. Funny how camping has a whole new fun added to it since howie loves it. It is a lot more fun with howie.

no explaination needed.

howie's first marshmellow.

howie is a little dazed and confused. this is the first marshmellow roasting experience for him and he isn't sure what to do. He caught on real fast and laughed as we did more.

Telluride, CO

Telluride, CO was just beautiful. It is a little town tucked down in the valley of beautiful mountains. There is so much to do in Telluride, we needed a week to enjoy it all. We went here for the film festival that happened over labor day weekend. We couldn't afford any of the showings, but they play a free film each night in the park, that was the plan, but we didn't get to see one because it started raining and it was too cold for howie.

There is a free gondola that takes you to a mountain village and up to the ski resort. Here is a not so good one but it gives you perspective. We were decending down into the town.

The mountains are just beautiful, it is an awe-inspiring place. We loved it.

This is called bridal veil falls. We took the 1.5 hike to see it. It was pretty laborous with howie, but we enjoyed the end result.

Howie wanted my jacket hoodie to place on his head. He called it his "cape". Check out those mountains behind us.

The falls were beautiful and cold, so refreshing.

We are rookies at hiking. We didn't plan for howie. We tried to push the jogging stroller up the trail for a while and got very tired very fast. Howie also got tired during the hike. This is a fun shot of howie resting on tommy's head.

The Rushton family with Telluride, CO nestled in the background.

This was a short walk from our campsite. Constantly, I am blown away by the beauty on this earth. We just loved this trip.