The Sly Fox Seven: My Sister's Birthday

My sister Monica turned 25 on July 10th, but since she was working up at Camp Cloudrim for the Girl Scouts as an assistant director she decided to have her birthday party that weekend up at her camp. So, along with her friends and other family members we were invited to celebrate with her. Cloudrim is really beautiful and is located above Park City. The picture below was taken by Chase and put together as a panaramic and it turned out great. It shows the lake where we went on paddle boats and canoeing. The kids had a blast and absolutely loved riding around on the water. Even, Emery loved the ride and didn't try to jump into the water like I thought she would. She insisted on steering the paddle boat which started to make us sick because we ended up going in circles. Bailey decided we should try to reach the other side of the lake to see if we could find a bear, but with Emery's steering, that never happened. We did manage to make out the beaver dam though.

After our water adventures we went up to the main lodge where the kitchen was and had birthday cake and milk. Monica's camp friends decorated the cake with "The Simpsons" profiles on it. Emery couldn't wait to eat the cake and was very excited about the whole thing. While dining on cake and milk the kids were fascinated by all the chipmunks that kept running up and down the wall outside the window and along the ledge of the building. Along with chipmunks and potguts there were a ton of mosquitos which were not very forgiving. We all ended up with several bites all over us. Poor Cam got it the worst, I don't understand why bugs love him so much. For those of you who remember, last summer Cam ended up in the E.R. for a reaction to what we think were spider bites. Fortunately, Cam's mosquito bites didn't require a visit to the E.R. We didn't get to see any moose which I was hoping for, since Monica has seen them a lot up at camp.

After cutting the cake a few of us were led on a hike to Monica's favorite spot where we went bouldering. The hike was pretty fun and not too hard for the most part, except for the kids. Chase soon abandoned the idea of letting Emery walk by herself and wore his shoulders out carrying her the whole way there and back again. We reached a stream which we had to pass the kids across and then basically climb underneath some brush and up to a hill filled with boulders. When my sister said we were going to go bouldering, I pictured maybe a clearing with some type of rock wall or something. I was very wrong. It was literally a hillside just filled with huge boulders that you had to climb and crawl over. This was impossible for the kids to manage and it was apparent that Emery would kill herself and of course she was whining to get down, so we took a few pictures and headed back up the trail by ourselves. While at the boulders Cam of course decided he had to go to the bathroom, so I had him hide behind a boulder and "water" a plant. We carefully tried to make our way back down the little hill with brush and while doing so Cam stepped on a pile of leaves which happened to be covering a crevice which he fell in to. Luckily, I was right behind him and grabbed him before he got wedged in any further.

On our way back we came to a wall of rocks which I found out later was a dam for the lake. I was trailing behind Addie when she calmly, but excitedly announced, "Oh, look! There's a snake!". I looked up and right there at face level not more than a foot in front of me was the biggest water snake I'd ever seen. I screamed a scream which I was told later was probably heard around the lake. I panicked not knowing what to do because I had to go that way, there was no way around unless I went back around the rest of the lake. I decided I just needed to run past, so I yelled at Addie, "Go, Go, Go!" and helped her along as fast as her legs would go, so I could get out of there. Chase and the kids laughed at me the rest of the way home and kept immitating my scream. Monica told me later about the dam and knew that water snakes frequented the area, but didn't tell me about it. As many of you know, I hate snakes, I've had a fear of them since I was very little. I used to have night terrors as a kid which I still can remember vividly. Anyway, besides the mosquitos, the kids having a hard time on the hike, and my snake encounter, we really did have a fun time. Happy Birthday Monica! Thanks for having us come up, we hope you had a great day!