Scout camp and camping trip

Monday, July 6th at 6 a.m. Ethan was ready to go to scout camp.  He was packed and Bryan took him to the Church to meet with the rest of the deacons.  Our entire Stake was going to Maple Dell Scout Camp above Payson on the Nebo Loop.  They were pretty excited because they were going to shoot guns, bows and arrows, swim, kayak and generally have a lot of fun.

On Thursday morning, we headed up so Bryan could be an adult leader for the second half of the week and we could bring a load of boys home on Saturday.  After a stop on the way so Bryan could meet with a client, we made it to Maple Dell in the late afternoon.  We dropped Bryan off and Courtney and I took off to find ourselves a camp site so we could camp too.

I had printed off a bunch of information on the Nebo Loop but right near Maple Dell there was a sign with a map of all the camp areas.  We decided to try to camp at Maple Ridge.  This was right above where the boys were camping so it didn't take too long to get there.  We found a great camp site and set up Courtney's tent.  It looked like rain so we made sure to get the rain fly staked down good and tight.

We then drove to Payson to meet up with my cousin, Connie, and her girls.  Courtney is the same age as her daughter, Hayley, so they played in a water park while we sat and talked.  It was cloudy and really windy so the girls were pretty cold, but it was fun to see them and spend some time with their family.

Then Courtney and I went to dinner in Provo before heading back to our campsite.  We were tired so we got in the tent and read books/listened to a book on tape and just chatted until Courtney fell asleep.  Then all...you know what...broke loose.

At about 10 p.m. it started to rain...hard.  And then the wind began to blow and it was blowing so hard I was really afraid our tent would blow over.  It was really noisy too.  The tent would almost blow in half and it would fold over right on Courtney's face. I would push it back up and then try to brace it with my legs to keep it off of her. It's a new tent so it is still stiff and noisy.  I couldn't believe how loud the rain and the wind was until about 2 a.m. in the morning.  And Courtney slept through the WHOLE THING!  I was amazed.  I finally put ear plugs in around 2 a.m. which muffled it quite a bit so I could finally fall asleep.

The next morning I was afraid to go outside and see what damage had been done but everything was fine.  My flip flops were still outside the tent door like nothing had happened.  It was crazy!