Mountain Man Rendezvous

For Labor Day weekend, Shaunasee and her family invited us to a campground near Bridger Lake in Evanston, Utah on the Wyoming border. Nate and his family have been going there for years and they were excited to share it with us. There was no RV hookups, but a nice wooden walkway all the way around the lake. We had a firepit at each campsite and we were all close enough to shout to each other, but still have our own space. We noticed when we first got there that the nearby town was set up to have their annual "Mountain Man Rendezvous" so we decided to check it out. No one else wanted to go with us except Fischer, so it was the just the 4 of us.
There was rows and rows of tents and teepees set up for the vendors of the festival to stay in. They had coal-heated metal forging, gun powder and ball rifle shooting, tomahawk throwing, homemade root beer and cream soda, furs and leathers to purchase and all kinds of things to buy that were of the same era.
First we went over to check out the shooting they were doing with the authentic long rifles with the gun powder and steel ball. After we watched for a while, there were actually a couple of "mountain men" that explained to the boys how to load and shoot the guns. They were pretty accurate with them too!
Then, we headed back to the main area and on the way, another older mountain man showed us his cannon for sale and let the boys touch and hold the ball that went inside. It was pretty heavy! We really wanted to buy the cannon, but decided we couldn't fit it in the back of the truck. Haha!
Next was the area with the tomahawks. I really liked this area, it even had a couple girls practicing throwing them, and they had a bunch of different targets, including some that moved! Again, another mountain man came over to us, and he let us borrow some of his own personal tomahawks! (We were supposed to bring our own) He was explaining the technique and how to proceed and Fischer wasn't even paying attention. When we got his attention, he just walked up, picked up a tomahawk and ignoring all the advice we just got, hucked it at the target. It went in! No problem! Then, he walked away like no big deal. It was so funny! Then, Trace, Kevin and I took our turns. We were significantly less adapt at it. We stayed until we all stuck one, but we just thought it was so funny how Fischer didn't even try very hard, just got it on his first try.

I thought it was so cute that they decided to read to each other on the ride there. 

Good practice of their reading too!

Well, you can't un-see that.....

The boys both got "rifles" to pretend like they were Mountain Men too!

This ice cream inside of a cinnamon  roll dough was so yummy!

The rest of the time we spent back at camp. We walked around the lake a few times, relaxed, played in the dirt, built a fort, raced around on electric and manual scooters, played with the dogs and finally, got around to actually fishing the day before we left. Trace caught three fish! He REALLY wanted to keep one and take it back to camp, but Uncle Nate said; "no way!" I asked if he wanted to take back a fish to eat it, and he said no, he wanted to just keep it as a pet and to "look at it". I think he was relating the fishing experience with his various sports and the fish is your trophy. I see your point son, but ewwww…..dead fish. 

Trace caught a flying bug in his hand!

Trace wanted to try and start the fire, so with minimal help from Dad, he did it! He was pretty proud of himself too. We also made "tin foil dinners" one night with each kid choosing and making their own creation. It was fun to watch each kid mush together their vegetables and meat and squeal with delight as they got their hands super messy. Shaunasee was so grossed out, she refused to participate. 

Aging Rocky

Raven and Scout, doing what they do