Spring Break - Wednesday, Thursday

Spring Break.  That most looked forward to weekend of the school year, after Christmas break, of course.  This year it happened to fall over Easter Break, which helped all the stars align for a camping trip down South.  My brother's kids had already had Spring Break the month before, but luckily they got 2 days for Easter so they were going camping.  We tagged along with Mark, Elaine, and fam, my parents, Stacy, Kraig and fam, Betsey and girls, Kurt Jay Bailey, Elaine's sister and her fam, Mark and Elaine's friends the Bringhursts, and finally some more of Mark and Elaine's friends, the Duttons, with a whole slew of people.  Can't keep that straight?  Don't worry about it.  It's just so WE can remember!
On Wednesday I sent Jane off early with Grandma, Grandpa and Kurt.  They were supposed to get there early to head to the campsite.  They got as far as Spanish Fork before realizing the back breaks were bad.  In a very helpful coincidence, the parts were found and they were on there way.  We ended up pulling into Mark's just a few minutes ahead of them, and had left several hours after they did.

Thursday John and the boys helped Grandpa and Mark get some of the machines ready to go.  We had lunch and were on our way!  We traveled back through Hurricane, heading out towards Colorado City/Hilldale.  We took a turn somewhere and ended up just a few minutes before Coral Pink Sanddunes in Southern Utah.  Our camp area was indeed Sandy!  Red, red, sand!

We set up our tents and looked longingly at the luckies in the trailers.  Of course we spent plenty of time in my parents trailer (hello flush toilet, couches, tv...).  The wind blew pretty heavily that day.  Our tent had a rainfly that covered the whole thing, then on the inside there were two tiny mesh slits.  The wind whipped the sand up underneath the rainfly, sent it through the mesh and dumped it all over our beds.  I finally covered our sleeping bags with a tarp and just shook that out. 

Dinner that night: soft tacos.  Did I mention the wind?  And how nice it was to eat inside the trailer? 
Sleeping that night: boys in their mummy bags in their tent.  Warm.  Girls in our tent, extra layers, extra blankets, warm until morning.  John: cold, but some sleep.  Me: cold, miserable, frustrated, crying.

But there was still more to come...it would have to get better right?