Out of Service, Unplugged and Offline Can Be Great

Possibly some of you may have noticed I have been a little MIA again in the blogging world. I have missed reading some of my favorite blogs, and sharing posts but I have to say I've enjoyed being offline quite a bit too!


A few days after I returned from the week at the youth girls camp, I of course (because this is me we are talking about) came down with another bad cold.
But you know, it's just as easy to be sick at home as it is up camping.  We have an annual family camping trip, where my entire family tries to get together for a week and go up and spend some time with each other in the fabulous mountains of Utah.  So I decided sick or not, I was packing my bags and going up with the Fam!

This year we were going up to one of my favorite places. I love this particular area, it's seriously abundant in wildlife.  If you are familiar with Utah, these pic's are from the Smith and Morehouse area, as well as Mud Flatts area.

In fact, my sister (lucky her) spotted a large 400 pound bear the first night.  She took an early night drive down the canyon to make a phone call. Because the dirt road was so much worse than normal this year, it ended up taking her an extra 40 minutes.  Lucky her, because a bear decided to cross the road in front of her, just down the road from where our campground was at.  (Ya, I was kinda jealous she got to see one on the trip!)


Rest or Play?
I had planned to just relax and nurse my cold read a book or two.  Of course that wasn't going to happen, when you have 8 adorably cute and fun nieces and nephews up there who love you and want to play with you, you well skip the rest and play through the cold:)

I didn't do any major hiking as I would have liked.  But I did get some light hiking in, and have officially turned yet another one of my nieces into a hiker.  This 4 year old, can hike as good as most adults now, and go for miles!
I didn't get any fishing in myself, which was my own fault.  I thought I had left my fishing license in my pink fishing vest which I keep in my parents 5th wheel, but apparently I left it at home. So no fishing for me.  So instead I just helped my nieces and nephews fish. In other words, if you have been fishing with kids, it means lots and lots of replacing hooks and adjusting lines:)  Good think I love them!

We had beautiful weather all week.  At around 7800 feet, we were low enough in elevation to avoid some of the bigger rain storms that hit higher up, and we were high enough to sleep in the comfy snuggle in your sleeping bag 40's and have days in the t-shirt wearing 70's... Perfect temps if you ask me!
We were camped near a set of streams and a river.  So of course I spent a lot of time going down with the kids and watching them throw rocks in the water.
Campfires every night, and the kids are getting older so its fun to just leave them in charge of the fires and let the little Pyromaniac's in them come out a little.  Don't even have to cook my own marshmallows, one of the 4 year old nieces has learned to cook them like a pro and likes to make sure I have as many as I want:)

We saw lots of deer every day.  In fact three deer bedded down on the grass right near our camp every night.  We had some elk that must have passed through out camp one night, as they left us some poo, to prove they were there, haha. I had a raccoon that enjoyed running around on the tarp I had on the ground on my tent entrance in the middle of each night.  A few bucks, one was even a 6 point buck, he was a beauty to see!  The bear my sister saw, apparently stuck around the area too as a few others spotted him walking around the camps early one morning.  But unfortunately, I never did get to see him.
Freaked my sister out with a snake I found, it had just died and she is so easy to prank! (No I didn't pick it up, but letting her think her daughter did was good enough to do the job!)

Did I get to run in the mountains?  Nope, I don't really want to talk about it much, it frustrates the heck out of me.  I will share more on it next week maybe.  But in short, I haven't been able to run in almost 2 weeks now:(  Which is really a bummer because training in the mountains is my favorite type of running!

Whiplash and a Hurt Ego!
The entire week, I watched the kids having so much fun they tripped and fell and scrapped up lots of knee's.  I kept telling them to be more careful and watch where they were going.
I hate to even admit this, but ya as I was taking down my tent and pulling the cover off it.  I backed up over a tree stump and took a fall.  Right on my tailbone, back and head.  I am sure I will pay for the tailbone for months.  Woke up Sunday with whiplash, oh my neck is super sore, I literally cannot look up toward the sky, my neck is that hurt. Ouchy!
Apparently, falling as an adult over a stump does much more damage than it does to a kid, ha ha..
Truthfully, I think my pride was far more wounded than anything, as I secretly hoped no one but my dad saw ha ha:)

We did have a little trouble with my parents trailer as we were leaving. I rode up with them, and just as we were finishing packing up and ready to hitch the 5th wheel to the pick-up.  The hydraulics that lift the trailer jacks up to get it onto the truck, decided to break.
Apparently even though we took it slow on our way up a week ago, the rough road getting into the place jarred loose the part that makes it work.
I do have to pat myself on the back though.  I figured out a trick, and a lot of muscle and sweat and my dad and I were able to crank it up manually enough to get it onto the truck.

I should lie about this, but... I actually went an entire week without washing my hair.  Ya, it was probably pretty gross by the end of the week and there is a reason for the hat in the pic above! I put a brush through it half way through and realized it looked better unbrushed, LOL. *cringe* So I joined one of my sisters in the no wash, no brush week... I know terrible, but when you have a cold you realize you don't really care about stuff like that, and after a few days, it quit bothering me ha ha.  I know you totally are cringing right now!  The weird thing is, I totally could have washed it, especially on the day's I took a quick rinse off the sweat shower.

About a week my cold finally broke and has been in the process of making its way out of my body:)
My sis will want to kill me if she see's that I
put a no make up picture of her up on the blog.
But I don't think she reads my blog much and
I loved this cute picture I took of her son!
Which is great because I now get to throw together a wedding today.  Yup, you read that right.  I am a little behind and well I haven't done a single thing to get ready for tomorrow's wedding.  It's going to be a late night, but it will get done and look great!
But on the plus side, I have been booking weddings like crazy lately.  I am going to be having my busiest summer and fall in over 4 years.  Which is great, I am very happy about this!

So that is where I have been, and why I have been offline.  The great thing about the mountains, you don't really get cell service up in them, in my case this week not at all.  It was a 40 minute drive just to get to one bar of service:)
Truthfully, taking time away from phones and computers is a great vacation in itself!  Which is why, you may notice me go MIA quite a bit this summer.  I can't help it, I love to camp and love to hike!

This year I have come across a few new awesome camping gadgets and must have items for the outdoors.  I am totally going to share them with you, because they are fabulous and some of my greatest finds in years. But this post is long enough so I will save it for another day. But I promise to share soon, because they will make your camping and hiking adventures even better!







What have you been up to lately?  Any great news I may have missed?
Do you love to camp?  Planning any camping trips soon, or just returned from any?

19 comments :

  1. I would love to see all those animals you guys saw (from a far...lol). Especially the bear! Sorry you did not get a run in while you were there. Hope you are feeling better now.

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    1. I'm a huge animal person, I am always happy to see lots of wildlife:) But agree, bears are great to see from a safe distance:)
      Oh the running.... It's just same ol, same ol stupid injury flare ups!

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  2. I think unplugigng and going off to enjoy life is an awesome reason to be away from blogging! :D Glad that you've been having fun + making awesome memories, but also happy to have you pop back in when you have free time! <3 Those pictures make me want to be out on the river!

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    1. Thanks, yes sometimes you just need to take full advantage of a break, and since I had no choice where I was at, all the better!
      It's beautiful country up there, I love it, have since I was little!

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  3. I haven't camped in RMNP but it's fun seeing all the wildlife. My parents had a bear hanging around the neighborhood earlier this summer, so everyone was bringing in the bird feeders to get it to leave.

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    1. LOL, ya bears in neighborhoods are no good, I always worry for the bear they may put them down.
      I visited RMNP once and love it, we didn't came there though, hotels... But it was a great place to hike!

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  4. Welcome back, Kristy! I'm glad you were able to have a nice camping trip with your family, despite your cold! I know how much you love it!:) As far as unplugging, I totally get that! I just started school again and when the end of the day comes, the last thing I want to do is look at the computer screen again! Things can wait and it's important to enjoy that precious time with your family! I'm pretty jealous of your personal marshmallow maker haha. I would definitely take advantage of that;). And big congrats on all the weddings you have booked!!

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    1. Thanks Hailey!
      Oh yes, you definitely need your own personal marshmellow roaster, takes relaxing around the fire to a whole new level, LOL.
      Oh I loved getting away, I think I could have stayed another week:) Of course the bride today I decorated for, would probably not have loved me very much if I had:) I hope to get up again soon!!!

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  5. Welcome back! I've unplugged a couple times this summer and it really is great to just concentrate on the present and not worry about what's going on everywhere else. The scenery in those photos looks breathtaking, and it's so cool you saw so much wildlife. Though I might freak out if I saw a bear! Good luck with all the weddings :)

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    1. Thanks Chaitali! I have unplugged and taken quite a few more breaks from the computer and blogging this summer, much more than last year and to be honest it has been good for me!
      But ya, that area up there is very beautiful I have loved it since I was a child. I don't like to go the same place camping twice in a year, but I do enjoy when I can get up here at least once a year!

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  6. Good for you for taking a break from technology for awhile. I think everyone should do that.
    NOOOOO - That snake. Dead or not - NOOOOO!!!!!
    Well poo when it comes to your running... & colds :( Mercy!

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    1. My sister freaked at the thought of her daughter being near it, it was worth the joke to see her face:)
      But I agree, we all need to take a break from technology more often. I would really like to take one day a week from it, I keep thinking about doing it, but haven't yet...

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  7. Breaks are good for the soul! I did panic just a tad when you were in my Blog feed this morning, I was thinking I had ignored you but I am glad you have been enjoying a nice break! I would love to go for a week and not brush my hair, AWESOME! I hope that fresh air is making you feel better! Great pictures!

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    1. LOL, I am glad at least one person didn't cringe at the no brushing of the hair, LOL I have the longest and straightest hair, it doesn't tangle much so truthfully it doesn't look much different even if I comb it out, LOL
      Fresh air always makes me feel better:)

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  8. I got worried about you last week. I didn't see you on Fitbit and you weren't posting. I'm glad to know you were having a good time. A bear? Yikes. I'm saying you don't need clean hair to camp...

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    1. Oh thank you! Ya when I got back and looked on fitbit it had me down to 0, LOL I hurried and synced so I didn't look totally inactive. That is one of the things I love about Fitbit, it motivates me not to want others to think I was lazy, LOL
      Oh definitely, clean hair while camping... over rated, LOL

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  9. Looks like an amazing family trip! I would have been scared to death if I saw a 400 pound bear. Welcome back!

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    1. Thanks! LOL, she loved it. In fact she's waited 28 years to see a bear in the wild, I was happy for her to see it!

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  10. Sounds like a wonderful family trip! I've never been camping but sure do love the idea of campfire smores ;) Glad to hear you are feeling better - sounds like the fresh air helped the healing process!

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