where the wild things are

"camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business" -dave barry

at the beginning of the summer, we made a summer to-do list (i like making lists. so sue me- don't sue me. that's beside the point). atop of that list was camping. i admit it, i am a virginal camper. of course i was forced to go to girl's camp but honestly, i hid in my tent the whole time munching on lamarr donuts (my parent's way of bribing me to stay. i know, i'm an oinkster) and my underwear was hung in a tree (thanks big sisters) so ya, didn't really get much from that experience. (JELLY PENS!)  so i was determined to get my camp on. luckily, our friends the irelanders are professional outdoorsmen.

friday night we left the blinding lights of vegas for the comfort of southern utah- popping a squat at stone/hails/ica/savannah's house. they were all too kind to let us bum on their floor- oh how i miss my utard friends. the next morning we left at the buttcrack of dawn per tzar steven's orders. thankfully meghan & i slept the whole way to pine lake. this pocket of sunshine was nestled somewhere in the backwoods of panguitch/tropic area.

saturday we spent most of our time at the lake; the boys fishing, meghan reading, and i listened to music, wrote in my new journal, or explored. (GORILLA WARFARE!) we discovered justin's hidden talent for luring the fish (but i guess he refuses to use his fish magic on our first born in the wilderness, fluffy)- he got the first one on his first cast, waited maybe 30 seconds. meghan had the same luck but not for me or steven. after a couple hours, meghan & i retreated to the truck and slept a couple hours away. our manly men made friends with cliff the fishing man (with his crazy toothless wife and weirdo son) who is nothing less of a genius at pine lake. by the time us sleeping beauties emerged, they caught their limit. too bad none of us eat fish (except for justin) so steven took the bullet for us- he cleaned and gutted the fish to give to his stunner shade gma & gpa.

that night we enjoyed delectable tin foil dinners & smores but the night was not quite so magical. in our small, 4 person tent, the floor was completely covered with 2 air mattresses and i slept on the inside (big mistake). i woke up many a-times to pee and i quickly learned the art of peeing in the woods. (JABBA THE HUT!) but not before getting my sock wet (grossgrossgross). needless to say, i am now an expert woods pee-er. sunday was a fun & lazy day- we discoverd the hidden gem of tropic, utah, complete with the crazy utards who confess their sins on the pulpit. (PRIVATE JESSICA LYNCH!) the rest of the day was lazed away with vicious rounds of pirate dice, phase 10, gold fish, war, and of course, catch phrase. they were intense battles, some marriages were put in jeopardy, but luckily we all emerged still in love.

highlights of the weekend: bringing a curling iron on a camping trip, getting zip-tied into the uruguayan hammock, meeting our friendly forest friend nutsy, washing my hair with death cold water, gagging on the irelanders overwhelmingly cute newlywedness, seeing an 'alligator' in the lake.

in all, a wonderful weekend was had by all. my curling iron did, in fact, get used. just another great weekend with some great friends.