Flaming Gorge

Flaming Gorge 2025

Wednesday, July 23 we all caravanned, with walkie talkies, up to Flaming Gorge to stay at Firefighters Memorial Campground. Kohen left the house without his water sandals, but with his cowboy boots. So Lyndsey grabbed him some sandals when she went to Walmart and all I can see is Pain from Hercules when he wears them! Haha

Thursday everyone went to swim down by the rocks and Kasen got a chance to kneeboard.

Friday was another day of paddle boarding and kayaking down by the rocks.

Kolt found some little squirt guns and loved shooting everyone with them, even himself!

Kyley and Jordan started a challenge of standing up with your partner on a paddle board, but they were the only ones not able to do it out of the 3 couples that tried.

Kasen got to ride the tube with Bentley and Kennedy and Grandpa's new water weenie.

Later in the evening, Lyndsey took some of the girls to go swim at Sunny Cove.

Tai wanted one bead braid a day in her hair again this year, but she only got 5. We were too busy having all the fun to do it all!

Saturday was matching swimsuit day for all the girls!

We went back to Sunny Cove with everyone to play and swim.

Kolt loves splashing in the water, but doesn't like to go out and swim with Dad.

Dakota was filling up that bucket one scoop of water at a time and Kolt was so patient to hold it for her.

Splash wars!

Kohen asked for rides as often as people would take him on them.

Tai was not happy when she got dunked. She had her nose plugged, but unplugged it right as Kyle put her under. Oops.

Later we went down to swim at the rocks again and Kasen did some cliff jumping. Ms. roller coaster lover didn't want to do anything this trip. So funny what they are each willing to do. She jumped off the high dive when Kasen wouldn't, but Kasen jumped off a cliff here higher than that, when Tai wouldn't do any cliff jumping this year.

Sunday morning we all went to church in Dutch John.

After church, our family took Charly and Collins with us and we went to Vernal for the day. We visited Dinosaur National Monument. Which costs $25 to ride a shuttle 3 minutes to the quarry to see the big wall of dinosaur bones.

Doris the Apatosaurus

I visited in 1994 and Kyle visited in 1997 and both of our Moms scrapbooked it! Quite the throwback.

Then we stopped to hike to Moonshine Arch. I have been wanting to for years and it was totally worth it! And bigger than I thought too.

There's a couple fun little caves to explore behind it too.

That night the cousins all made s'mores around the fire.

We put our hammock up for the first time this trip! It's one Jake brought me back from Brasil. Jordan made sure it was safe by swinging Kyle in it. Which he said was terrifying!

Monday morning we all rafted down the Green River! The last time we did that was in 2014 so it's been a while. Tai was the only one that didn't want to go. While we were getting the rafts, Tai thought Kyle's truck window was open and knocked her head right into trying to poke her head out the window. She was laughing about it with us, but then got embarrassed and started crying instead. Bless her heart.

The Days had a raft, Hayden had a raft that Kasen, Kelly and Krista all went in and the Banks came in our raft. For part of the float we had our rafts all hooked together, but when the small rapids came we had to let go.

Kolt liked the bumps. "bump bump bump"

We stopped at a sandbar for everyone to eat lunch and the water was COLD! Shortly after that we came to some rapids with a huge rock in the middle. Roy and Kristi were squabbling about which way to go around it and we ended up going right up onto it. The back of the raft slowly started to get sucked around the side of the rock and water was coming in. I thought for sure we were flipping over into the river. Kyle was yelling, "You got Kolt! You got Kolt!" and I was worried that when we flipped the raft would trap Kohen underneath. Kyle said he was ready to grab Kohen and Tai before going over, but at the last second we popped off the rock and backwards down the river. I was so relieved that we didn't flip into that water. Not much farther down we went right over the top of a drift boat at the bottom of river. We were picking up shoes and water bottles the rest of the way.

Of course Kolt fell asleep right at the end of the ride.

Later that night Collins and Kohen got to go eat dinner with Krista at a restaurant. He was so excited that they had chocolate milk when he asked for it. Krista took him to the bathroom and he told her that sometimes tears come out of his eyes when he pushes so hard. We were losing it! Haha

By Tuesday morning Kolt had scabs on every leg or arm from crashing on this scooter. We found one on Kohen's shoulder he didn't even know he had either!

Kasen got to knee board again! He tried doing a 360 turn like Bentley did, but didn't make it.

Kolt fell asleep on the boat. Best naps ever!

Then we made Tai knee board. We told her she had to do something and she cried the entire time. Kolt seemed like he might want to get on, so we set him on the kneeboard and he started crying so hard that I don't think he took a breath for almost a minute!

Kohen got out there and loved it though!

He was waving and doing no hands! We could hear him from the boat yelling, "I want to do this tomorrow!" And he did.

When we slowed down and he lost his board he held onto the rope though and got drug under the water. When we told him to let go next time he said, "I don't have to let go!" haha

On our way back in, Kelly stopped to let the kids swim by some rocks, per Kohen's request. As we pulled up there was lightning, but Kelly had the kids hop off to go swim anyway. As soon as they got to the rock the wind picked up so we told them to hurry back to the boat. Collins and Kasen made it in, but the waves were pushing the boat into the rocks so we had to keep going out then coming back in to get one kid at a time. We got Kohen, then Tai and Jordan jumped in to be with Kennedy till we got to her. All 3 of the kids were sobbing, I was holding the Bimini down cause the strap tore off and Kasen was yelling, "Why did we come here?!" It was a stressful few minutes.

Kyle got to do lots of fishing this trip. He went with Roy down the river in a drift boat, fished a couple evenings then again in the morning. One of the days the kids asked if Kyle fished all night cause he was gone when they went to bed and he was gone when they woke up.

The trick was trying to keep Kolt inside the trailer when he'd wake up in the mornings. He wandered out a couple times and found himself at Grandpa's trailer, coming back with licorice.

Wednesday we went out on the boat. It was just us and the Days the rest of the trip.

More boat naps

Tai spotted some mountain goats up on the hillside. 8 of them with a couple babies.

Kasen got to double knee board with Bentley and was so happy that he made it outside of the wake! Go Kasen!

Kyley and Jordan double kneeboarded and then told us that it was our turn. Kyle didn't think I would do it, but I got in the water for the first and only time the whole 10 days we were there! I would love to swim more if it weren't so dang cold!

Kyle's rope was longer than mine, but I saw him slowly getting closer as he worked his way up the rope so that we could hold hands! XOXO

That night Kyley's family taught us what woof'ems are. I had never heard of them before, but they look better than banana boats!

Thursday morning Kelly made Mountain Man breakfast for everyone and then apple cobbler for dessert that night.

This is how Kolt says, "Peeee" (please)

We stopped at the floating dock to swim and Jordan made a new friend out of Wayne after feeding him cheese. "Man with cheese!!" Kyley also got Kohen to jump off the dock by promising him 4 packs of Gushers.

Tai was holding on tight to Kolt, but I told her she could go play, if he falls we'd grab him, but luckily he never fell in. They all take such good care of him.

Kasen tried skiing for a third time and got all the way up! I love how willing he was to try new things and keep trying. 

Kyle tried to slalom for the first time since 2019, but wasn't quite able to get up. He was so close, but we had too many people in the boat.

We tried a new chopped Italian sub sandwich while we were there this year. I was bummed that all my muffins and pizza bread went moldy before we ever got to eat them though!

Tai's shoes got thrown away before we came home- she wore them right out.

We had game night every night. We played Taboo and when it was Hayden's turn Karissa was touching his neck to distract him and when his eyes rolled back in his head, that was something we all can never unsee! He will never hear the end of that. We played lots of 13 Down, then 7 Down for good measure, once with Kyle's stinky feet. He first thought it was Hayden and called him out, but when he realized they were his, he had his leg up on the side of Kelly's sink trying to wash his feet. We also played Telestrations and 5 Crowns. We were all laughing at Roy writing the word and then also drawing the word his just wrote before passing it on.

I was nominated to pull the boat home. Mark brought it up, but their family left before us. Kyle made me pull our 5th wheel from Duchesne to Vernal so I could practice for pulling the boat home. I wasn't a fan of Kyle telling me to punch it and try passing people whenever a lane opened up. My shoulders were much tighter when we arrived... But I did it!

I had it on my bucket list once upon a time to learn to pull a trailer. Growing up, I wanted to do all the things that the boys were allowed to do. Take a 4-wheeler for a ride, get on a horse, drive the boat, wakeboard. I did take hunter's safety and was the best shot in my class! I also learned to drive a stick when I was 15 and loved mowing the lawn. My dad did let me drive the boat a handful of times and I've put it onto the trailer before, but growing up there usually seemed to be a difference between what the girl cousins could do vs. the boys. Never seemed fair to me.

So I was pretty proud of myself for pulling the boat all the way home!

We made it home Friday, August 1st.

Thank you everyone for another super fun family trip!