Gooseberry

The next day after my brother and his family left, I left with my mom and dad camping. We went to a place called Gooseberry which is another one of my favorite places. I truely believe this was the first time I was with just my mom and dad since I was 7 and they took me to get stitches.

Well we couldn't remember any other time. So needless to say it was NICE to be with them and just them. We left early so I could show them where it was and get a camp spot saved since it was the holiday weekend. We found the perfect spot and set up camp.

Then we went driving around for a little and ended at Salina Reservoir to do a little fishng. We were knocking them dead, catching fish right and left. This was the first time I caught fish like this in years, and about 6 years for my dad. So both my dad and I were thrilled and my mom started having visions of fish dinner cooked over the fire! I think she even started drooling.

After a magical night at the lake with a small rain storm and a double rainbow we headed back to camp. Had dinner (not fish to my moms dismay) we played a little hearts (which we beat my dad, yes we had to gain up on him to do it but we did, that is the important thing to remember here.)
We tucked ourselves in for a nice night of sleep... Well it was great until about 3:30am I wake up to something with great force pushing the trailor and the BIG 5th wheel rocking from side to side. Eyes as big as baseballs and heart beating as fast as could be I am sitting silently listening to the noise just outside my window. All I could hear was a very loud hungry sniffing. After about 2 min. I just couldn't take it anymore. I run up to my mom and dads bed and nearly jumped in the middle and cover my head under the covers, that is what I wanted to do. But instead I ramble and ramble how there is a bear outside that wants to eat me and he is jumping on the trailer and rocking it and I need a gun to save us. My dad patiently got up and said "No Kris we don't have any weapons".

Then he slowly put his pants on and went to the bathroom. Then he went down to the kitchen and got out the pots and pans. He gave me 2 pans and said the best thing you can do is bang these together if you hear anything. We both sat there and listened for a sec. Then he said night and headed back to bed. He got to the stairs when his fatherly instinct took over he turned around and slept on the couch next to me the rest of the long night. So I know you are wondering did you see the bear? That is what everyone asks me throught their laughs when I am telling the story. The answer is "Well not exactly but... there was a scratch on the trailor and something that looked like a bear den behind our campsite." And I don't think the scratch was there earlier and the ground was to hard to make any bear prints. Okay so this isn't really my photo of what I saw, but as I was looking on the internet it was the only photo that reminded me of what I was imagining was outside our trailer.

Anyway we headed down to the big city of Salina to get some more spinners (because apparently Dad and I can't tie very good fishing knots) and to call Terry. I told him to leave the tent home we were all getting cozy in the trailor the rest of the trip and to bring the bear spray and the GUN! You see he got off work a little early to bring the kids and food down. So we got our spinners and headed back to camp. My parents feel in love with Gooseberry and had a hard time coming home. In fact they stayed 4 days after we left.

Saturday we went down to Salina for some fun small town 4th of July Celebrations. I tell ya it brought back so many small town memories that I am craving to have that again for my childrens sake. Anyway they had he small carnival with games for the kids to play that benifited different groups in the city.

Then they had the potatoe bag races with all sorts of catagories like father/daughter, mother/son you get my drift and it made it even more special with my mom and dad there. Then they had a greese pole. I had never heard of this one before but some kids asked Bowdee to do it with them and he said yes. So what a greese pole is, is a pole stuck in the ground that goes really high covered in crisco with money stuck to the crisco.

There are 4 kids in a group and each group has 1 min. to try to reach the top of the pole to receive the grand prize, getting as much cash as they can on the way up. Bowdee's team got to distracted to keep their eyes on the grand prize. So they ended up with 8 dollars so 2 for each and a greasy body. It was interesting, scarey, and comical to watch all the different groups try to climb this greasy pole.

After the pole climb we headed to the swimming pole for the swimming races. All our kids did great they had fun racing in a different fashion then they are used to. Then after the races which they each got a quarter at the end, they pulled all the kids out of the pool and threw in tons of coins.

Then they rang a bell and away they all went. Treg got 31 coins, Tia got 32 and Bowdee got 33 coins. They LOVED that part of the day. So ya we love and miss the small towns. We headed up the canyon again 30 min to our heaven and enjoyed a nice fish fry dinner.

I have to tell you my mother LOVES fish and she just couldn't stop she licked every bone off of her fish, my fish, Tias fish and then cleaned Tregs fish. I should have taken a photo of her fish skeleton it was amazing.

Then we ate smores and chatted around a pixie fire which was our fireworks for the year. It was beautiful too. Then as it was time to head inside me and my kids were sure to look both ways and run so the bear wouldn't get us on our way back.

We ended the trip with a drive to Fish Lake. I knew my mom would love this because there were wildflowers all around us and she had such great memories of Fish Lake from her childhood. Her dad would take them there every year and they would stay in these little old cabins. It was a great trip one we will remember for a very long time. I enjoyed every minute we share with my parents and hope they enjoy it as well.