Sunday, June 18, 2006

An Oasis in the desert...

This weekend we went on a camping trip to a place outside of town (well, a ways out of town) in the middle of the desert. Here is the view from the parking lot. It's a true oasis in the Nevada desert with a natural warm spring that has been made into two swimming pools. It used to be owned by Howard Hughes but now belongs to my church who has improved the springs into pools. There is camping and swimming and it's surrounded by palm trees. Beautiful. We had a great time and came back a little burned. All our girls love the water. LOVE.

Ashley was swimming really well and doing all sorts of stunts. There are two 'cliffs' that you can jump from and she was braver then me. There was also a water slide (click the link for a video) and all the girls went down that over and over (well, except Cori). Megan is almost swimming. She's so close. There was an area that was shallow enough for Megan to walk in and she kept practicing swimming (she's in the back in the blue suit) under the rope. Annika LOVES the water and has no fear. She went down the slide about 20 times in a row by herself. The problem is that she doesn't realize that she doesn't know how to swim. She'd take off her floaties and not be able to figure out why she'd sink. Even Cori was having a blast in the water. She liked climbing up and down the steps in and out of the water.

We've not gone camping as a family in at least two years. Last summer was just so busy and stressful with Cori being a newborn and selling our house and moving that we never went anywhere. The girls really enjoyed the camping too. We were worried that it was going to be a really hot night- but the weather was perfect. They actually all slept quite well considering how many marshmellows and how much chocolate they ate.

It was nice to just spend the time together hanging out. My mom and sister Jessica came up on Friday night and swam with us. Jessica had to catch her plane back to Boston at midnight though so they didn't spend the night.

15 comments:

Lynn said...

It looks like a beautiful place, and sounds like a very relaxing weekend!

QueenMeadow said...

Sounds like a great time!!! And a beautiful place :)

Valarie said...

that sounds so fun! I need to go camping again someday.

Missy said...

I have camping envy! So beautiful and what fun you had!

Rachau said...

Oh that looks like heaven.I wish the church owend something like that in Australia!You girls all look like water babies!

momofalltrades said...

How cool! I didn't know the Church owned stuff like that! Do they use it for youth camps?

Anonymous said...

wow! that looks like a fantastic time!! and i hate camping.... but that doesn't look or sound so bad!

Lanell said...

That makes me want to go camping so bad! The place looks beautiful!

Rachau said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ShelahBooksIt said...

cute, cute, cute girls. And for a second I thought you meant Hugh Hefner instead of Howard Hughes (I always confuse them). I was ROFL at the thought of all of the little Mormon kids swimming in the former playboy bunny pools.

Sabra at Sew a Straight Line said...

dude! I've been there! It is awesome.I didn't even finish reading your blog, I was so excited to tell you that. Which, really isn't that odd, since I did live in LV for a summer (and went to church there) and all. Anyway, way cool place :) And way cute kids you got there.

Amber said...

Shelah that would make for an awesome story!!

It was a blast- although I got swimmer's ear from spending two days in the water and now I'm in agony.

Rachel I'm not sure what hint you're talking about.

Alicia said...

That looks like so much fun!

I have the same confusion problem as Shelah and had the same image there for a second!

Nettie said...

What a beautiful place! It sounds like a perfect place to camp. And I can't believe how well your girls swim for being so little!

Blackeyedsue said...

That looks so fun and so refreshing! I am so jealous! It is SWEALTERING here and nary a pool in sight!