Shumway Family: Camping Fun!

We just love camping with the boys. It has been about 6 months since our trip last fall. We would have love to go again but it has only just started to thaw out. We have had a few really nice spring days so we decided we were going to do it. Unfortunately, the forecast changed a bit mid week and we thought we were going to have rain on Friday. We hung out all day waiting for Rick to get home and when we saw clear skies we hit the road. Rick had a spot picked out up in Little Cottonwood Canyon but he thought the altitude might be a problem with snow still on the ground. We set our sights on his childhood camp spot across from Provo on Utah lake. We drove and drove out past the homes and suddenly took a left turn off of a remote road ad headed down into the open desert. We could see the lake about 1/2 mile down the road but turned off onto a few side roads. We have 4 wheel drive so I wasn't worried but we bounced all over the place as we made our way down to the lake shore. We finally found a great clearing that already had a fire pit (make shift) set up. We got out and started to set up camp since it was about 7pm and we wanted to get it all done before the sun went down. We let the kids watch a movie in the car (still strapped in) as we cleared the site and got to it putting up the tent. (Utah lake is a popular remote site that people love to shoot at so the site was littered with shot gun shells.) After the tent was up Rick got to making a fire. He impressed me with his skills as he lit a fire with a single match with the wind howling at his back. He had a smile of triumph as he pulled out the dinners we had packed earlier in the day. We did tin foil dinners with chicken kielbasa, onions, peppers, & garlic that roasted over the fire for a full 30 minutes. The kids opted for wieners and we ate as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. We had just finished the kids dinner and were just about to start our meals when we got a shock that changed the night. Jacob found a little gun shell on the ground at some point during our stay there and while we sat around the camp fire he pulled it out. Completely unaware of the danger, Jacob called our attention to it. Rick saw that it was a 22 (and thought it was an empty shell) and told him to throw it away. Rick meant on the ground, over near the lake, in the trash can... Anywhere but where he did! In a split second that felt like slow motion rick and I jumped up and screamed as Jacob tossed the "shell" into the fire. We looked at each other stunned and then I screamed for everyone to get away from the fire. In a matter of a few seconds I had grabbed Ricky (still in his chair) and Rick grabbed Jacob and we took cover behind our vehicle parked right behind us. Our adrenaline was pumping and crouching behind the car I started to feel kinda dumb for my reaction. It was just a shell, but I thought what if?? Well, we are lucky we did because about 15 seconds after it went into the fire we heard a loud pop as the bullet went live and ricocheted off a rock around the fire pit. I wish I had a camera to catch our faces when that happened. Rick looked ghost white and somewhat sick as we stood there contemplating what could have happened in that split second. We both looked at Jacob and in a freaked out voice we both began lecturing Jacob on camp fire and bullet safety. Shocked and concerned about other possible live ammo we decided to put out the fire and turn in for the night. The fire was out in about 1 minute and it was pajama time for the kids. Rick and I finished our dinner sitting by the tent door until it was too cold to leave the door open. Of course, we pick a super windy night to camp. The wind howled and whipped across the water that we were camping on and shook our tent violently. We laughed as we listened and thought about how funny it was that we chose a night that got down to 35 degrees to camp. Luckily, we had plenty of warm blankets & sleeping bags. The movie we had on ended and we all turned in for a semi comfortable sleep. We were glad when the dawn broke and the wind had died down. I think next time we are going to go camping on a night that is closer to 60 and the wind is calm. We had a good time anyway, Next time though I think we will do a sweep of the site looking for any live ammo before we set up the fire.