Life as Mom

Dear Cameron,

Today you turn 5!  I can hardly believe it; time truly does fly.  I know it doesn’t seem like it at your age, when Christmas always seems so far away.  But trust me on this one.  Savor every minute of your childhood.  You don’t have many responsibilities right now, no worries, no cares other than whose turn it is on Lego Indiana Jones.  I hope these days slow down so I can have more time to enjoy your carefree childhood days.

Since Andrew learned about his birth yesterday, would you like to hear about yours?  Yours was a lot less eventful than his, but so special nonetheless.  The day before you were born was, obviously, Andrew’s birthday.  Dad and I took Taylor and Andrew to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate.  After that, we all went to my doctor’s appointment to see how you were doing inside my tummy.  The doctor said everything looked great and I was a couple of centimeters dilated (your due date wasn’t until August 10).  We had been so worried that pregnancy as we had just had Andrew and gone through such a hard time with him.  I was very worried that you would be born too early, as well.  We had one scare a few weeks before you were born and so my doctor told me to stay off my feet.  I did pretty well with that until we went to Chuck E. Cheese!  But the doctor said everything was going so well that she thought we had at least another week with you cooking in my tummy.  We told her that we were predicting August 3 as that would follow the pattern of birthdates of our kids so far (1st child was born 5/1/01, 2nd was born 7/22/02).  Since you were the 3rd child and it was the year 2003 we thought you would be born on a day ending in 3.

The next day was pretty exhausting for me.  It was hard work keeping up with an energetic 2 year old and an even more energetic 1 year old.  When Dad got home from work I told him I was going take a bath.  I soaked in the tub for a while.  As I was getting out, I suddenly thought, “Maybe I should shave my legs just in case since today does end in a 3.”  So I got back in and shaved  my legs.  I got out of the tub, dried off, and went over to my dresser to get pajamas out.  As I bent over, guess what?  My water broke!  My water didn’t break on its own with Taylor or Andrew so I was in some doubt as to what had happened.  But I called my doctor and she said head to the hospital.  We called Grandma and Grandpa McGrath as they were going to be at your birth, just like they were at Taylor and Andrew’s.  They brought Colin to babysit the other boys and then Brianne came over to take care of them when she got off work.  When we got to the hospital I was already 7 centimeters dilated.  After a little while, your heartrate started skipping beats and getting erratic.  The doctor put a fetal monitor on your scalp and started talking about having to do a c-section.  They flipped me on my side and gave me some oxygen to help your heartrate.  I was going to have you without an epidural, but then had to get one in case they had to do a c-section if your heartrate didn’t stabilize. However, labor was going so fast that as soon as they got the epidural in, I needed to push.  So I had to push before the epidural had time to really take effect.  It’s a good thing, though, as you were born at 11:51pm.  9 more minutes and you wouldn’t have been born on the 23rd and the pattern would have been broken!  You were 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long– really good for being almost 3 weeks early!

You were a healthy baby!  I had been told after Andrew that all our other babies would be born very sick and need to be in the NICU, so imagine my surprise when you were healthy and we were able to room-in together in the hospital!  I was ecstatic.  You were jaundiced and had to go home from the hospital with a bili-blanket for a week.  The only other health problem you had was a condition called hypospadius.  We can discuss that together another time.  You had surgery to correct it at 6 months and even though it was a very painful surgery, you were an angel throughout.  You never cried as a baby, including through that recovery.  You were also born with very dark hair and an olive complexion.  You hair lightened up as a toddler but is getting darker again now.  You had blue eyes until you were 6 months old and then they started turning brown.  Now you have what Grandma calls “chocolate pudding eyes.”

You are so tall for your age and always have been.  You have always been the tallest kid in your preschool and Primary classes.  You have always been way off the charts for height and down towards the bottom of the charts for weight.  That’s why your pants refuse to stay up, huh?!  And it’s why we call you the Jolly Green Giant.  You are so tall and always so happy.  You are so easy-going.  You have always been such an easy child to parent.  I wonder sometimes if you feel lost in the shuffle of our family since you don’t demand our time and attention.  But then you come to me for a hug and kiss and I ask you if you know that I love you with all my heart and you say that you know.  I really hope you do know, Cameron.  I have always said that Heavenly Father knew exactly what kind of baby I needed after all the trials Andrew’s birth brought.  And he sent us the most cuddly, happy, cute baby.  It made life so much easier.  Even when you were 5 months old and we were in Colorado with Dad and me shuffling back and forth to the hospital to be with Andrew when he was sick, you were perfectly fine with the strange situation.  You just always adapt to whatever is thrown our way.  I really appreciate that.

Luckily, you’ve remained a pretty healthy child.  We’ve had some scary asthma moments with you where we’ve had to rush you to the ER when you couldn’t breath and your inhaler didn’t help.  And not too long ago you had to get stitches in your chin, but you were so brave with that.

You love school and are such a quick learner.  You especially love math and continually surprise us with the amazing things your mind can do.  I know that you will be so successful as an adult and that gives me great comfort.

I love you so much.  You are such an important part of your family.  I hope you will always be quick to give me hugs and kisses like you do now, even when you are grown.  No matter how tall you get (and I’m sure it will be very tall), you will always be my baby.

Love,

Mommy

Tags: Cameron

Dear Andrew,

6 years ago today was a very eventful day for our family. I haven’t really told you a whole lot about your birth before because it was so scary. You know that you lived in the hospital for a really long time. Do you want to know why?

2 days before you were born, I went shopping at Sam’s with Grandma. While we were there I started feeling icky and told Grandma we needed to head home so I could lay down. You weren’t due to be born for just over 7 more weeks, so I thought I was just overheated. It was July in Louisiana, after all. I went home, drank a lot of water, and went to bed. The next day, I still felt icky. Daddy was out mowing the lawn since it was Saturday and I went out and told him I didn’t feel good. He said to call the doctor. My regular doctor was not on call that weekend but his wife was. She told me to go to the hospital to get checked. At the hospital, the nurse hooked me up to some monitors to see if I was having contractions. I was but the doctor came in and said they were sporadic and I wasn’t dilated, so she told me to go home, put my feet up, and drink lots of water. I spent that night in the bath tub and drinking lots of water, trying to get the sporadic contractions to stop. I went to church the next morning but had to leave early because I was feeling so bad. Grandpa and Dad gave me a blessing after church. By dinnertime I was feeling a bit better so we went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s for dinner, like we did every Sunday when we lived in Louisiana. Taylor left with Aunt Aidan and Uncle Jeremy to go to Hattiesburg to see Jeremy’s grandparents. During dinner, I kept having to get up from the table every so often and walk around during a contraction. We decided I should go back to the hospital, even though the contractions weren’t regular. When we got to the hospital, the nurse said, “You’re in labor.” I said, “Then hurry and stop it and give me some steriods!” Steriods would help mature your lungs. The nurse told me, “It’s way too late. You’re 8 centimeters dilated!” The doctor hurried and got to the hospital. I was pretty mad at her for sending me home the day before. I decided not to have an epidural or any pain medicine because I didn’t want anything to get into your system when I already knew you were going to be so sick. The room was full of doctors and nurses since you were premature.

You were born at 2:29am on Monday, July 22, 2002. You weighed 5 pounds, 1 ounce and your length was 18 1/2 inches. That was really good for a 7 weeks early preemie! I only got to see you briefly before the doctors and nurses whisked you off to the NICU. After a few hours, a nurse brought me a wheelchair and let me come to see you. You were absolutely beautiful! You were very bruised since you didn’t have a lot of fat to protect you, but you had a ton of gorgeous light brown hair and beautiful deep blue eyes. I spent 3 days in the hospital and was at your side in the NICU as often as they would allow me to be.

After I was discharged from the hospital, I spent as much time at the NICU as I could. I tried to be there for all your feedings, which were every 3 hours, and then I would stay with you for a while. Then I would have to go home so Taylor would have some of my attention, as well. Grammie and Poppa Ottley came your 2nd week in the NICU to take care of Taylor for us. While they were there, we got special permission to take you into a small room of the NICU so that Daddy, Poppa Ottley, and Grandpa McGrath could give you a blessing.  It was a very special experience.  It was so hard for me to be away from you. I cried myself to sleep every night that you were in the NICU.

You didn’t have the ability to swallow at first so you were fed through a gavage tube inserted in your nose. You hated that tube and would pull it out as often as you could manage! The nurses taped it down so you couldn’t pull it out, but you were allergic to the tape and it gave you a rash. You also had a knack for pulling out your IV’s. The nurses had to keep moving them all over your body, even shaving your head into a mohawk to put them in your head. But those IV’s kept coming out. So the neonatalogist (a special doctor for NICU babies) put a PICC line in you so that you could receive your TPN (total parental nutrition- something to fatten you up!) and your antibiotics through it. Guess what? You pulled that out, too. She put in another one and yep, you pulled it out, too. You did NOT like all the tubes and wires!

Your neonatalogist told us that you were Coomb’s positive. That meant that your blood and my blood were incompatible. Your hematocrit (blood) levels were so low that you had to have 2 blood transfusions. My family and so many people in our ward and at the courthouse were Dad worked went to have their blood tested so that they could donate blood for you. They were all incompatible but they still donated blood in your name. Do you know whose blood was compatible? Daddy’s! Your first transfusion was with Daddy’s blood. Your second one had to come from some kind stranger as it was too early for Dad to be able to donate blood again. That’s why it is so important for people to donate blood. After a while, you got strong enough to drink from a bottle, but not strong enough to nurse. So I continued to pump milk for you and you would drink it from a bottle. You could only drink 1/3 of an ounce at a time and sometimes not even that much. One day when Dad and I were at church, we got a call on my cell phone that we needed to hurry to the NICU. When we got there, your stomach was the size of a small watermelon. The doctor had no idea what was wrong. They stopped your feedings and suctioned out your tummy. They ran all kinds of tests. After a few days, your belly went back to normal and they started feeding you again. They told us if all went well we could take you home in a few days. We got everything ready for you to come home. Then guess what? Your belly got huge again. This time, the doctor decided to send you to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans as she said you needed surgery. She thought you must have a blockage in your intestines and would need part of your intestines removed. We were so scared. An ambulance took you across the big lake to the new NICU. Luckily Daddy worked nearby and met us there at the hospital. Every day for a week, Aunt Brianne and Grandma took turns taking care of Taylor while I stayed up at the hospital with you. The surgeons at the hospital did all kinds of tests, ultrasounds, and x-rays on you and couldn’t find anything wrong! It was truly a miracle! They told us we could take you home on Friday. We were so excited! It had been 6 very long, hard weeks of NICU life. You had to come home with an oxygen monitor as you had apnea. Sometimes you would just stop breathing and the monitor would go off and we would have to thump your back to get you to breath again. You had that monitor until you were almost 5 months old.

You had a rough first few years of life. You had to spend 4 days in the hospital in Colorado when we went there for your 2nd Christmas because you had a nasty case of RSV. A month later your broke your arm your first Sunday in nursery. And then a week after that you had to have surgery. Or how about the time you jumped off Cameron’s bed and somehow managed to get a huge, gaping, round gash in between your eyes all the way down to the bone? You certainly scared me with that one! But you were such a trooper and continued to make us laugh and smile. You’ve had so many difficulties in your life. You have to deal every day with having Asperger’s and being somewhat different from other kids. But you have such a unique outlook on life and tell us all the time, “I’m ok. I can deal with it.”

Andrew, I love you with all my heart. I am so happy that you were sent here to our family. I am so thankful that I am your mommy. Thank you for being my Andrew.

Love,

Mommy

Tags: Andrew

Last night we had what is a quite rare occurrence for our area of Utah- a thunderstorm, complete with some amazing lightening. After a particularly loud boom, Olivia came running out of her room calling for me:

Mommy, that loud noise woke me up!

It was just thunder, sweetie.

Oh, thunder! That comes with rain.

Yes, it is raining outside right now.

Well, I hate that thunder. Can I sleep with you?

Our Louisiana boys, the oldest 3, didn’t wake up at all during the storm. Even though they were still very young when we moved to Utah, perhaps they subconsciously remember thunderstorms, which were a very frequent occurrence in Louisiana. Sawyer, also, didn’t wake up during the storm but that doesn’t surprise me. Sawyer is the world’s greatest sleeper, thank goodness.

Olivia is a Utah girl, all right. There’s the not being lulled to sleep by a wonderful thunderstorm thing, something I loved about Louisiana. Also, she says “fir” instead of “for.” When I was a little girl in California and we would either visit my Utah cousins or they would visit us, I thought that we talked basically the same way except for a few things. They said “fir” and they called soda “pop.” So to me, that is the Utah accent. Now that we live here, there are a few more words that I have noticed (for example, “moun-in” for mountain). But I love it. And I am apparently becoming a Utah girl myself as sometimes I catch myself saying “fir.”

My first taste of a southern accent came when my uncle Pat married a Texan. I loved the way my aunt Cathy talked. When her family came out for their wedding in California, her niece who was my age came over to play with me. I thought I’d make her feel right at home so when we were introduced I said, “Hey, ya’ll! Ya’ll want to play with ma Bar-beees?” I truly wasn’t mocking her. I loved her southern accent and wanted one of my own.

Be careful what you wish for. A few years later my dad was relocated to Mississippi with Lockheed. I, who had perfected the art of being a teacher’s pet, got in trouble on my very first day of school in my very first class. My English teacher asked me a question. What came out of her mouth sounded to me like a foreign language and I had not a clue what she said. So I responded, “What?” This was a perfectly acceptable thing to ask of a teacher in laid-back California. Not so in strict Mississippi, where paddling was still an acceptable form of punishment in school. My teacher said, “I don’t know how you are allowed to speak to your teachers in California but here you will say, ‘Excuse me, MA’AM?!’” I might not have understood every word of what she just told me, but I sure got the gist and “ma’am” and “sir” immediately became a part of my vocabulary. Other things took a while longer to get down, like calling soda “coke” instead. I got laughed at many a time for asking for a “soda.” Guess it was retribution for thinking my cousins were silly asking for a “pop.”

I appreciate the variety of accents we have in the U.S. I love being able to guess where a person is from by their accent or vernacular. My own son sounds like he is from Brooklyn! It’s funny, too, because every time we ask Cameron where he wants to go on vacation he says, “New Yawk City!” Guess he feels a certain affinity for the place which he has never been to but certainly sounds like it’s where he was raised.

So I suppose in our home, our accents are a nice mish-mash of California-Louisiana-Mississippi-Belgium-Utah-New York?

I had hoped that the way Taylor felt on Thursday when he came home from the hospital would be an indication of the rest of his recovery (he was feeling pretty good). Unfortunately, it wasn’t. His discharge papers stated that the worst days would be days 3 and 4. But for him the downturn started on day 2. Jared and I had tickets with his work to go see The Dark Knight. I asked Taylor if he was feeling well enough for a car ride over to Grandma’s house and he nodded his head yes. So we packed up the kids and I packed a bag for the kids including books, drinks, pudding, and oatmeal for Taylor and he also took his laptop with him. When we went back to my mom’s after the movie, Taylor was just laying lethargically on her bed, burning up with a fever. He had no interest in trying to eat or drink, was on the verge of tears, and was just so miserable. My mom said that all of a sudden he had just started feeling so bad and she felt him and he was so hot. I felt awful. We gave him another dose of his liquid Lortab and Jared carried him out to the car. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way home to get him a milkshake. Taylor took one sip before falling right to sleep. Jared then had to run into AT & T to pick up his iPhone that had just arrived. Taylor slept the whole time. When we got home I gave him some Children’s Tylenol for his fever and settled him on the couch, trying to get him to drink more milkshake or some water. He didn’t want anything. I checked his discharge papers and it said a fever was normal in the 24-48 hours after surgery and to call the doctor if it went over 102 degrees. It wasn’t quite at 102, thankfully. So Taylor just slept on and off and I forced him to drink when he was awake. He woke up on Saturday morning in a lot of pain again and indicated that he wanted his pain medicine. We know the pain is bad when he actually wants the Lortab as he hates the bitter taste of it and we usually have to force him to take it. The past 24 hours have been the same for him painwise, although his fever seems to have pretty much abated. He can’t speak at all so he writes us notes to let us know what he wants. He is getting hungry, though, and is getting tired of liquids and soft foods. Last night he ate some Rice Krispies made soggy with chocolate milk and a soft meatball (my neighbor brought us some of her fantastic homemade meatballs and a ton of other yummy stuff) cut up into tiny pieces.

I feel so awful that he is going through so much pain and discomfort. The doctor had said at the pre-op appointment that the younger kids are, the easier the recovery is. He said, however, that age 7 is about the cut-off for the easier recovery so it would be a toss-up as to if Taylor’s recovery would be easy or painful. But after the surgery he said Taylor’s tonsils were so huge and had to come out. His adenoids were also moderately large so it was good to get them out, as well. So I keep telling Taylor that he really needed this done and it will be so much better in the long run for him. But I still remember how horrible I felt 12 years ago when I got my tonsils out. My big fear with Taylor getting his out is that what happened to me would happen to him. On about the 4th night (I think) of my recovery I woke up in the middle of the night with my pillow and shirt soaked in blood, with more blood gushing from my mouth. I ran to my bathroom and watched the sink fill with blood. I couldn’t yell and so I banged on the wall until someone woke up and heard me (my bedroom was on the ground floor and everyone else was either on the 2nd or 3rd floor). My parents rushed me to the ER where my ENT came and suctioned and cauterized my throat. Apparently, I am quite prone to hemorrhaging. So because of my experience, I have had Taylor sleep in our bed and will have him do so at least until after his follow-up appointment on Tuesday.

So… if you wouldn’t mind, would you include this sad, sweet boy in your prayers for the next couple of days?

Tags: Taylor

We are going camping again in just a few weeks!  The kids are so excited as they really enjoyed camping a couple of weeks ago.  When we went to the Grand Canyon we relied on Jared’s parents for the things we didn’t yet have.  But now that we have decided to do a lot of camping we needed to fill in the gaps between what we already have and what we still needed.  Jared knows that for me to really be able to enjoy the experience I need to have every possible item available to make things easier, cleaner, more organized, and more comfortable.  So he bought at least one (or more) of everything the camping department had to offer.  We now have 2 tents, several sleeping bags, several air mattresses, a tent light/fan, a fan, 2 lanterns, several flashlights, an axe, a double burner stove, a griddle to go across the stove, frying pans and pots, a tea kettle, a shower, a clothesline, a Dutch oven, various cooking utensils and paraphernalia, a huge cooler, several camp chairs, dish pans and other things for keeping things clean, and I can’t think what else.  We also ordered the hitch-mounted carrier for the back of the Suburban so we have room for all this stuff.  When we went to the GC, we were already stuffed to the gills so with all the added stuff we definitely needed something to add cargo room.  All our camping stuff is packed into big Rubbermaid tubs now so we can just put those on the carrier and put a cargo net over them to secure them.

We are so excited to go!  Our original plan was to go over Labor Day weekend.  But then Jared got invited to speak at a conference that weekend so we had to change our plans and are now going earlier in August.

So, I’m hoping we have everything we need to make this a fun, safe, organized, comfortable experience so that I will continue to want to go camping.  Tell me what your favorite, must-have piece of camping gear is!

Taylor is out of surgery right now and is in his room sleeping. When he woke up from the anesthesia he was in a lot of pain, was nauseous, and so he was quite upset. My heart broke for my sweet baby boy. He was given some pain medicine in his i.v. at the end of the surgery and just received some liquid Lortab as well so hopefully we can get on top of and stay on top of his pain. I do not want my baby to hurt at all. We have lots of treats for him so I hope that will give him something to look forward to in the next few days. Grandma (my mom) drove us to the hospital and is keeping us company here. She bought him some presidential flashcards to give him something to do. He also has a huge stack of books to get him through the next few days.

…to wake up in the morning than to have an adorable baby pinching your cheeks while alternating between saying “mamamamamama” and blowing kisses. He’s growing up and while each new thing Parker does is so exciting and cute, it’s sad at the same time. Why does time have to be in such a rush?

On an unrelated note… I walked outside today to see how my neglected garden is doing. It is flourishing! We have got a ton of tomatoes (I planted several tomato plants despite the fact that Andrew and I are the only ones who like them), strawberries (although I think that some birds have been trying to get at them- time to get an owl for the garden), zucchini, butternut squash, and crookneck squash. The broccoli, carrots, corn, cucumbers, and pumpkins are coming along nicely, too. I love produce fresh from my garden! I planted a lot this year (I filled to the gills 144 square feet) but plan to freeze stuff so we can enjoy it all winter. I’d like to share with our neighbors, too, but it seems like everyone in our neighborhood has a garden, also. Guess it’s a Utah thing cause I don’t think many people in our neighborhood in Louisiana had vegetable gardens. I love being able to walk out into my yard to get fresh produce for dinner. Yum!

On another unrelated note… tomorrow is Taylor’s surgery (tonsils and adenoids). I am making a list with him of what we need to buy for him for the next few days (ice cream, pudding, yogurt, etc.). This is our fourth time having a child go into surgery (Taylor, Andrew, and Cameron have all had surgery with complete anesthesia before), and I’m still as nervous as the first. I know things will be fine but I still have all these fears and worries in my head. He, on the other hand, is being very calm and rational about it all. The ENT gave him a little booklet about what to expect with the surgery and recovery and he read it several times and even explained what would be happening to the other kids. He’s such an amazing kid. He is hoping for a speedy recovery since next week is Cameron and Andrew’s birthday. This year in lieu of parties we have been letting the kids pick a fun place to go for their birthdays. We went to the zoo for the Sawyer’s birthday and the Treehouse Museum for Taylor’s birthday. Cameron and Andrew originally picked Seven Peaks for their birthday but then decided since we just went there a few weeks ago to go to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden instead. So Taylor and I need to get better quickly so we don’t have to delay the fun.

Jared picked up Livi and Sawyer from my sister-in-law’s house today and said that Sawyer heard a clip of this song on an ad and got excited and started singing it:

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Not one to be left out, Livi said, “Mom, I can sing Pork and Beans!”

Forget Itsy Bitsy Spider; our kids are cool. Or their father has corrupted them. Either way… they are too cute!

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Last weekend we spent 3 nights camping at the Grand Canyon. Jared and I were in charge of his family’s reunion and as we had already planned on going to the Grand Canyon this summer, this became the plan for the reunion. The Grand Canyon is absolutely breathtaking. We will definitely be returning to it again. In fact, one of my sisters said we ought to do a McGrath family reunion there and I agree. The kids loved earning their 3rd Junior Ranger badge this year and can’t wait to earn more.

Taylor is busy at work designing a computer game called National War about National Parks competing to be the best. We bought a National Parks pass and he wants to visit all the parks as research for his game. We have a ton of National Parks within a day’s drive from us. We will go to Yellowstone at least once in the next year. We are planning and deciding which other ones we want to visit. Jared, of course, would prefer to camp at the parks as it is the best way to truly experience the National Parks. I, however, am not much of a camper. Camping and a fear of dirt don’t really mesh well. But I think I got over the whole trying to avoid getting dirty thing at the Grand Canyon pretty quickly. The first night we were there I did try to wash the kids in the cold water faucet that was available to us, but by the second day I was fine with a cursory wipe down with baby wipes. I did wash my hair every day but was completely fine with the lack of hot water. So for the sake of experiencing this beautiful world with my family, I am willing to become a bona fide camper.

On the way home from the Grand Canyon, while the experience of camping was still fresh in our minds, we made of list of what we need to buy to round out our camping supplies. As a family, we have only camped one other time together. Jared had taken the 2 older boys camping in Louisiana with the scouts, but we had only camped together for a couple of nights in Idaho for a family reunion. So we don’t have a ton of camping supplies. We have a great tent that we bought 2 summers ago for the Idaho camping trip. We had our dog Molly at the time so we bought this tent with a pet den. Now that we don’t have Molly the pet den was perfect for stashing our stuff. We had plenty of room for our 2 queen air mattresses and were still able to walk around. But the problem was that the kids had a hard time going to sleep when they were all in the same room together. They just kept each other up until Jared and I gave up and went and laid down with them. So we have been researching tents since we got home. At first we looked for a bigger tent with multiple rooms. But the biggest tent we’ve seen is 17 X 10. Our tent is 15 X 10 so we wouldn’t be gaining much more room and since the dividers to make rooms are just fabric pieces, this doesn’t seem to be a better solution for us. So we’ve decided to get a second tent for the older boys to sleep in. They are already used to sleeping in a room together; it’s Sawyer and Olivia who had a hard time falling asleep with the older boys in the tent with them. Now we just need to find the perfect tent for them. This will work out well as it will give us additional space to store all our stuff. I told Jared the best way for me to be a happy camper is for me to be able to have everything organized and orderly.

In addition to another tent, we also need more space to transport all our gear. We saw this attached to a Suburban at the Grand Canyon and decided it is just what we need. Then we just need some things like a camp stove, pots, dutch oven, and some odds and ends and we are all set. I don’t know that we will do much camping this summer since we have so many other things going on, but at least we will be all ready by the time next summer rolls around.

UPDATE: We are going camping in Zion National Park for Labor Day! The kids are so excited to earn another Jr. Ranger badge and camp again!