Is It Naptime Yet

Luckily we’ve been able to visit my sister Andrea and her husband Brien once a year since they’ve moved there.
It’s always fun to just visit them and enjoy the delicious food they feed us.

This year we went camping with them at Great Basin National Park at the Wheeler Peak campsite. We were about 10,000 feet above sea level. It was beautiful but the night was very cold. I’m not sure how low is got, but Ely is around 45 degrees at night and they’re only 6,200 feet above sea level so I would say 35 degrees is a safe estimate, if not modest.

We got to the campsite a little before 5 on Friday night. Andrea and Brien had camped there the night before so they had done some hiking that day. We went on the short nature trail to see how the girls might fare the next day. It was fun and we decided later that night that we would attempt to do the 3 mile, round trip,  Bristlecone Pine trail that Andrea and Brien had done that day on Saturday.

While on our nature hike Brien made dinner. A delicious roast with veggies. We then roasted “smarshmallows“, according to Eden, for smores. Lilah had about 3 smores and 3 marshmallows. Eden had less because she was too busy going done the hill next to our camp with her little lantern. Brien said she was brave and that as a kid he would have never attempted to go that far in the dark.  It was only about 30 feet, but he would be scared because his father would hide in the bushes and then scare them as kids. I’m not sure if we are nice or not cruel parents for not scaring them and letting them be brave or if we’re boring for not having more fun and scaring the wits out of them in a dark campsite. (We do play games where we scare them at home, but I think we try to not scare them in new situations that might scar them for life.)

We extinguished the fire and went to bed around 9, I think. We had a lot of marshmallows and the girls kept saying how tired they were. I think they just wanted to get in the tent since we had banished them once the sleeping stuff was laid out so it wouldn’t get too dirty.

It was a very cold night. Jon and the girls appeared to sleep fine but I woke up pretty regularly due to my cold face. My eyelids were so cold that it had the affect like I was sleeping with my eyes open and they felt miserably dry. I had to go completely into my sleeping bag or cover my eyes with a shirt to keep from waking up from the cold.

That morning while getting dressed Lilah said it was too cold of a campsite. I totally agreed. Eden awoke around 6 am so, so did everyone else in our tent. It was fun.

We had some granola and Andrea heated up water for our apple cider. It was a cold but beautiful morning. We, in which I really mean Jon, started to pack up after breakfast so we could go on the hike later that morning. Andrea and Brien had a church activity that evening, which Brien had been put in charge of, so they had to go home to Ely while we went hiking.

The Bristlecone trail was beautiful and we saw a couple does as we started the hike. We also saw a doe on the way back. The girls did the hike fairly well. Lilah and I were wearing new shoes so our feet hurt. (I know we should have worn them before the trip to break them in, but who likes to wear shoes in 100 degree weather. She had to get new shoes because her feet had grown, and I needed new shoes because my current shoes hurt my feet because I have weird feet and thus mostly wear flip flops.)

Jon completed the hike but the girls and I rested while he finished the last 10 minutes, which would have been 20 minutes with the girls. (We had no idea how much longer the hike was, we just knew we we’re close to the end. It turned out to be pretty rough right before he got to the Bristlecone Pine grove so it was better that we had waited.) While waiting we ate trail mix and talked to passing hikers.

Jon carried Eden for most of the return on the trial. She was really tired so he carried her and then would have her walk and then carried her etc. I stayed with Lilah and we talked and sang a few songs, and made up some songs. Eden also made up songs which she sang to Jon. She loves making up songs when she’s by herself.
The weather was perfect for the hike. Since we were in the mountains there was always a cool breeze. It was perfect for long sleeves.

It took us 3 hours to hike the 3 mile hike. After the hike we packed back into the car for the drive down the mountain. We ate at the cafe connected to the Lehman Caves visiting center. We haven’t taken the tour yet, and hopefully we can next time we pass through Ely.

After eating we headed to Andrea and Brien’s. Showers and the comfort of electricity awaited us.  I stopped by the Church activity for food that evening and took Zarina back home so Andrea could help clean up. I enjoyed the Olympics while we waited for them to return home.

The girls shared a room with Zarina and Jon and I were in the living room. We didn’t have the air mattress pumped up enough so whenever he moved I woke up and whenever I moved he woke up. It was a warmer, but still restless night like the night before.

Zarina started making noises a little after 7 am so I checked in on the girls. Eden was awake and Z had seen me so I had no choice but to pick her up. I watched her until she got a little more fussy and then gave her to Andrea around 7:30.

We had breakfast and since church wasn’t till 1 pm for them we were able to visit that morning. Lilah and Eden loved Zarina’s toys, I guess I only need baby toys to keep them entertained, and Eden said she didn’t want to leave Ely. Too bad for her because we left there around 11:30 am.

It was a nice visit and I always just enjoy being with family.

I slept like a rock Sunday night. I don’t remember waking up or turning over till that morning. I was so tired that the bathroom light hadn’t awoken me when Eden went in there sometime that night. Jon found her asleep on the bathroom rug with the light on. (We sleep with our door open for better air circulation and normally the bathroom light is too bright for my eyes.)

Thanks for having us and bringing extra camping gear Andrea and Brien. We all enjoyed it and the girls are telling everyone about their adventure to Ely.

Here’s a video of our trip.  (The song is by They Might Be Giants and is called ‘C is for Conifer’.)