When we got our trailer, one of my sister-in-laws told us that she used to love trips in a motorhome with her family growing up. They thought it would be fun to rent one for a weekend and go somewhere with us.
This plan was mentioned in front of mutual friends, who also wanted to come, so it started to grow a little bit.
Then we found a great place to go and discovered that they have little cabins for only $35 a night. Since it would cost way more than that to rent a trailer and drive it down and rent the parking spot, they decided to just do that instead.
And then that plan was mentioned in front of family, and they wanted to come too. The more the merrier!
The friends didn't end up being able to make it, but all of the cousins had a blast together.
That's not even all of them- one was out of the frame! Nine kids and six adults. We watched the movie at the visitors center, and then headed off on a hike.
Everyone loved the hike . . . except this family. They were good sports about it, but the littlest one doesn't like sand and insisted on being carried the whole way, it was really cold that morning so Dad was in long jeans for what turned out to be a hot afternoon, and the little girl wanted desperately to keep up with everything the bigger girls did. I think they were the most happy to see the cars when we were done!
These pictures crack me up. These girls wanted me to take a picture of them in the shady spot they found.
And then Jasmine jumped in, screaming because she wasn't involved in the first picture. None of the other girls wanted to be around someone that loud and mad, so they left. Which made Jasmine more mad.
Then I took a picture of how angry she was, which made her even MORE mad.
Too bad, little lady.
The kids all liked hiking, but their favorite was the tiny little pool. It was heated, thankfully. We noticed that every morning it was cold and windy while we were there, and then by 11 am it was hot. The evenings were cool, but calm. The cold and windy mornings didn't stop these kids, though. They swam every morning almost the instant the pool opened.
I am so grateful for my husband on these trips. I'm not a huge fan of swimming, and I'm just not a "goofing around" person. Thanks to my husband, the kids all have a blast, though. He spent a lot of time throwing them around and going into "submarine mode" with Tyler on his back. It was non-stop laughter in the pool!
I've been experimenting all summer with how to run these trips. Especially the meals. This is a new thing for me, so we've had hits and misses, but I am learning. One of my experiments this time was making my own "Kiwi Crate". We are almost out of the real Kiwi Crate, and they wouldn't have enough stuff for 9 cousins anyway. So I spent time on Pinterest and packed all of the stuff for a few crafts in a box, ready to go. The "glow stick ring toss" didn't go very far, but the kids really loved making these "lanterns"!
One family only stayed one night, another stayed two nights, but we were able to stay for three nights. Which means that our second day of hiking was all by ourselves.
Somehow, the part that excited Kaitlyn the most was the apple orchard. We stopped there briefly with all the cousins on the first day, and she spent the next day and a half asking when we could go back.
Capitol Reef now contains what used to be a small, Mormon settlement. I think the last people moved out in the 60's. When they converted it to a National Park, they kept the orchards going. Now the fruit is free to eat in season, and just a $1 per bushel to take out of the orchard. We have an apple tree and a pear tree in bloom at our house, but we don't have the awesome pickers on a stick, I guess.
It was even a really sour variety of apple, but the kids still thought it was so awesome to pick an apple by themselves and then eat it.
Or, just eat the whole branch. Why not.
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