The warm spring weather plus an invitation from our friends was more than enough to entice us out on our first family camping trip!  We went out to Cedar Mesa in southeast Utah for a few days of camping, hiking and sight seeing.

Here are a few photos from our adventure:

Beautiful baby girl disguised as grown-up toddler (complete with food on her face).

Papa hung up the hammock and everyone enjoyed swinging in it. Upon our return, Mia has been requesting to “swing”. We’ve accommodated this request by swinging her in a big beach towel. Building a swing is up next, after chicken coop. And, yes, we brought the potty with us.

Peeking out from behind her sun shade. (This PocoPack is AMAZING! We highly recommend it. Made by Osprey, a local company that does a great annual local’s sales event.)

Mia’s ride

Family photo, with Tico hiding in the back. (The Abajos are the mountains to the north, near Monticello, UT)

Did I mention that she likes walking?

Walking everywhere

The Citadel/Pinnacle House (note person on top for scale). There is some scrambling involved to get out there, and the dogs weren’t too happy about that. And since a couple of us were top heavy from carrying little ones, we decided to pass this time. Yet another reason to return to this lovely place. (Note the Sleeping Ute Mountain way in the distance, due east.)

Watering hole on mesa top.

Eating graham crackers around the fire! We passed on the chocolate and marshmallows for now…maybe next year.

Sunset over Valley of the Gods

Drive through Valley of the Gods

We had a fabulous time and, since we were outside ALL THE TIME, Mia was quite content.  Plus she loved playing with and observing her two little friends that came with us, not to mention having their cool parents around.  Honestly, the sleeping didn’t go so well for us…Mia slept ON me most of the time and on the first night woke up so frequently that I don’t think any of us slept more than a couple of hours.  In fact, I was about ready to drive home the next day.  But since we were already out there and were having so much fun during the daytime hours, we decided to stay (who needs sleep?).  The second night was much easier, perhaps because I mentally prepared myself for minimal sleep, and then she actually did sleep more.  (Thankfully, she went right back to sleeping through the night upon our return home.  Whew!)

Sorry, dear daughter, that we made you wait until you were 18 months old to enjoy a few days of sleeping in a tent!  So glad you enjoyed it!

And, thanks to the Weather Gods for cooperating: 40s to 70s and minimal wind (especially for the spring).  It started raining dirt today (yes, dirt…albeit wet dirt), then just raining, then hailing and finally snowing.  Temps dropped pretty quickly down to the 20s.  Brrrrr….but thanks for the sneak peak.

Now, back to building a chicken coop.  Those girls are getting big.