Hike & Roasting Hot Dogs in Mantua

This night has gotten funnier as time has passed...but it didn't seem that funny then.  We decided the last night of Spring Break...Monday...for Family Home Evening that it would be fun to go as a family to Mantua and hike around the reservoir and then go into the campground and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.  Kylee turned down a shopping trip in Salt Lake City at the new big mall with a friend to be with us, and Chris turned down a Jazz game with his brother Bill.  We had great expectations for our evening together.  Well.....the first part of the night went anything but smooth.  The "walk" (not hike really) around the lake is almost 5 miles.  I thought if we brought the little girls bikes that we would be perfect.  Kade thought otherwise so pouted most of the evening.  Brinley was just having a bad night. She sat down on the ground and threw a fit every few feet, would not keep up with everyone and when she did ride she kept crashing!  Quincy was hot and tired and slipped in the rocks and crashed a couple times as well.  The bugs were absolutely horrible.  In some places you felt like you were being attacked!! We were not making good time on our 5 miles!!  Chris and I just kept looking at each other wondering where we went so wrong with our great idea!!  Finally about 1.5 miles into it and almost 2 HOURS later we turned around and headed back to our car.  There was no way we were going to make it 5 miles.  We decided next time we would make it our date and come alone!!

 Luckily we did find a place to stop and skip rocks and have races up the side of the mountain.  This brought a few sparce smiles.  Thank goodness!!   It was a tough crowd to please this night.

 But....luckily our night was not all a waste.  We had a great time once we got to the campground and built a fire to roast our hot dogs and marshmallows.  Everyone was sooo much happier and it was much nicer.  We had a whole big group site to ourselves.  We decided next time (except the time Chris and I come alone on our date) we will skip the walk around the lake and just get to the camping experience.  I must say it kind of put a damper on our hopes to do some hiking with our family this summer.  We just might not be ready for that quite yet!!

One thing for sure...it was a memory!  I'm not sure which kind, good or bad, but it is always good to spend time together.