there is no better definition of quality time.
spending time with my family - and with Devin especially - up at Grey's is truly therapeutic. that place heals! I had been so anxious about this trip forever, but I didn't realize how much I really needed it until we got there.
Thursday night, Devin mentioned that if by some chance he got off early enough, we should just try and leave Friday night. So when he left for work Friday morning, he said he'd text me and let me know what his day was looking like.
About half an hour later, I got a message saying he had a short day and could be home as early as noon! (eeeee!!!) I spent all morning doing laundry, baking treats, packing, and getting our gear ready. In fact, I was so anxious that when Devin came home around 1:30, I was taking loads of gear outside and putting it all on the grass by the driveway.
We were on our way by 2:30, and watched Into The Wild on the way up via MacBook (we bought a power converter. best $20 we ever spent!)
My family wasn't expecting us until Saturday afternoon, and we were excited to surprise them. We hit McDonald's drive-thru in Heber and didn't stop again until we got to Alpine.
We made it to the campsite by 7:30 (5 hours to drive 250 miles...? yeah.) and definitely surprised everyone. Mom, Dad, Kayla and Kyle had been up since Wednesday, and Grandma and Grandpa Houston, Grandpa Larry and the dogs, Sammy and Buddy, were all up there, too.
Since it was a holiday weekend, the canyon was pretty packed and we were camped about 30 miles up the road, which is a pretty long ways for Grey's River. Every year we come, it seems like there are a few changes, and this year, there were signs everywhere saying you weren't allowed to camp within a 1/4 mile of developed campgrounds anymore which a) explained the packed-ness and b) jipped us of all the best camping spots!
We were in a cool area though, except for the high grass and bugs, but we were quite a ways from anybody else, which was nice, and the dogs could run free: another plus.
The nights are always cold, but Devin and I slept so good in our trusty Kelty tent. Never got cold, not even once. When we woke up, Dad and Kyle had already left to go fishing down at Murphy Lake and Buddy had managed to steal one of each of our chaco's. Do you know how hard it is to find a shoe in tall grass? pretty hard. We found them both though. Buddy is such a menace, but a cute one, at that.
After breakfast, Devin and I took a 4-wheeler some 20 miles down to Murphy Lake to meet up with Dad and Kyle. The ride was so dusty and windy that we both got wind-burned, and when I took my hair out of it's ponytail, it didn't move! eww.
(hiking around murphy lake)
(murphy lake)
We hiked about half way around the lake and hopped in the raft with the boys and trolled them around for a little bit until heading back to shore.
(riding back down from murphy lake)
(gutting the fish)
When we got back to camp, we re-grouped and went about 5 miles up the canyon to North Three Forks with Dad, Grandpa and Grandma to hike to Lake Barstow. Part of the trail is 4-wheel drive, and Devin hasn't had a lot of experience on 4-wheelers, but he maneuvered like a champ!
The hike to the lake is only about 1/2 mile, but it was pretty rough on my knee. It's too beautiful up there to not be worth it, though. We hiked around a little bit so Dad could fish and Devin brought his camera and took some awesome photos. (we've turned one wall in the APT into a gallery-type wall, and it's pretty much just wedding pictures. we decided we need more variety, plus proof of the cool things we do. so devin made sure to document our cool-ness.)
(hiking to the lake)
(silkworm)
(Lake Barstow)
(trying to get pictures of the three-toed-something-or-other woodpecker)
(oh, i just love them)
TAKEN BY DEVIN:
We took a small scenic detour on the way back to camp, and I was so gross and dirty after that one day of camping that I took a shower in Mom and Dad's trailer while Devin and Kyle shot BB guns.
(me: "babe, do something more exciting")
(aren't they the cutest?)
TAKEN BY DEVIN ON SCENIC DETOUR:
(okay, so I guess this was taken by my dad, not devin. but still on dev's fancy camera)
After dinner, we had Dad's amazing peach cobbler and most everyone piled into the trailer to watch Jesse Stone movies.
Being up there was a bit of a "back to basics" feel for Devin and I to me. There is nothing distracting us from having quality time and it makes me reflect on our relationship. There haven't been a better 9 months in my life, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that I was in a place in my life when I met Devin that only he could fix. I didn't know it then, and I feel like I only understand to a certain extent at this point, but nobody else could have done for me what Devin has. My life is 100% better since he made an appearance in it. He is a huge blessing, and I could never take that for granted.
It also puts a huge smile on my face to watch Devin spend time with my Dad and brother. He loves them, and that means so much to me. To know that Devin looks up to my Dad? That's huge. My dad is my hero. And Kyle has been so thrilled to have 2 big brothers (finally, haha). It's so awesome to watch them act like brothers. Like it's always been this way. I love it!
(buddy)
(sam's a little camera-shy sometimes)
On Sunday, Dad made omelets for breakfast and we packed everything up. We drove back down the canyon with the family, but Devin and I stopped at Kennington Flat to set up our tent (we had to save the spot for when his family was coming up the next day). Then we drove the rest of the way down the canyon and met my family at a car wash to help them clean the 4-wheelers and say goodbye.
After they left, we had lunch at this awesome place we found called The Cheeseburger Factory. SO.GOOD After that, we got some groceries and our fishing licenses and went back to camp.
Once we got the rest of our stuff set up, we drove to Murphy Lake and Devin fished while I read the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. He caught one fish but let it go (after enlightening me that his family is a "catch and release family" -- I like to eat the fish!), and we got back to camp because the bugs were bugging us (ha).
(more murphy lake)
(what a fisherman)
(my only goal the entire trip was to get a chaco tanline)
(success! kind of...)
(strangers in a canoe)
We spent the evening getting clean! We boiled river water on the stove and washed our hair and faces and then watched Marley and Me on the Mac in the tent and had junk food for dinner, which is funny and ironic, because that sounds like a pretty average night at home...
*sidenote: normally, i don't care enough about my post-length to break them up (mostly because i'm lazy) but we were in wyoming for over a week, and there's a lot of ground to cover. rest of the trip coming in next post (hopefully i'll fit it all into just one more)
