Kylie Gwen: Maxfield Mania

If you know the Maxfields you know nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Enter the annual Maxfield camping trip.

Here we go!

(*name has been changed for protection of the writer of this blog)

So never mind that his father-in-law had surgery 2 days ago Mr. Bea A. Mann* insisted he go so that his beloved family could sleep in a motorhome. Bea A. Mann said he'd drive the motorhome the whole way because "it can't be any different than a car"

Talk about a disaster waiting to happen + six kids. Basically my family decided to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to avoid driving on the road with Bea A. Mann.

partial view of our "camp"

Well believe it or not we made it there. Alive.

The White Wash Sand Dunes.

It's absolutely beautiful. There's something about the red rock and sand against a bright blue sky that gets me every time.

You'd think we'd learn from previous years that when you go on a "short ride" with the Maxfields you're basically in for at least a 6 hour ordeal but nope, we don't.

After we set up camp we decided to go for a "short" ride with the majority of everyone. We were trying to go down into one of the canyons from the wash. Well it was closed so we just kinda made it up as we went. We drove through the wash for quite some time until we came around a corner and were basically dumped into the Green River.

We turned around, but instead of going back the way we came (the safe decision) we decided we'd be fine going this other way. Well to make a long story shorter after many dusty long boring roads and 3 hours, we made it back to camp.

That night we did have a fire and played what I guess you could call the animal noise game. It was great and I dominated. Me and Jake made it more fun by targeting those specifically in-between us so we could sit by each other and come up with ridiculous ideas of how to win.

Jared brought his dog Benny. Jared is hilarious and one time picked up his "puppy" and walked around with him.

Shortly after this Jared was sitting in his chair with Benny on his leash. I look over and see Benny start to run away and hear Jared going "whoa, whoooaaaa" Jared was holding on the leash and with Benny running away he had no where to go but down. Poor Jared. I still laugh out loud every time I replay this in my head.

Hunter is spoiled and got a four-wheeler and was basically on it anytime he was allowed.

This is what it usually looked like, Hunter driving crazily and my dad chasing after him on foot.

You thought the first day of adventure and getting lost was all did you? Wrong. Not with the Maxfields. The real adventure is yet to come. Like I said, you think we'd learn. Nope. Here we go again.

"Hey everyone, let's go see Crystal Geyser. It's like 25 miles round trip, it won't take that long"

Well Jake and Jared (who are both in good shape) decide to ride their bikes there. Well Mr. Bea A. Mann and his son, Hawthorne N. Yercyde* decide to tag along. So 4 bikers, tons of four-wheelers and dirt bikes, and 2 cars set out on this adventure. I rode in a car with my mom, Cherie, Amanda, and her 3 kiddos. We decided to take the lead. We did pretty good until we missed a turn due to passing another group. This put us on a trail that I'm not sure any car should be on but we made it there. It was way gorgeous and the colors were amazing.

Well we hung out there for a while waiting for the other car, the rest of the four wheelers, and of course the bikers. Everyone showed up minus the bikers. We stayed around for quite a while to just see if they'd show up but they never did. We then had to form a "plan" to go and pick them up, but with multiple ways to get to the geyser we weren't sure where they'd be. So us, being the geniuses that we are, sent one group one way and another group another way.

Our group headed back the way we came and less than a mile away we found the 4 guys. They looked exhausted and had come 18 miles by Jake's measurements. We get out of the car and the first thing Jake and Jared say is "well we were waiting here for like 20 minutes, no offense" (looking at Bea A. Mann and Hawthorne N. Yercyde) Jake and Jared totally could have made it to the geyser.

After that we had to figure out how to put 4 bikes in the back of our truck with Benny. We sent Aaron flying to catch the other group so we could put the bikes in their car too but they were long gone. We had to shift people around on 4 wheelers too in order for everyone to have a ride back. After all that got situated we decide let's go back this other way instead of the way we came. Okay well after about 5 minutes we had already taken a wrong turn. At this point we had 3 different groups spread out going who knows where. Brent and Garrett had gone back the way we came, the other car had gone the opposite way of where we came into the geyser and then there was our group, basically just driving.

We get going on what appears to be the right road and just start driving. Pretty soon we see Andrew and Jesse come flying back on their dirt bikes telling us that that was not the way and the other car was lost. We all had to turn around and found a tiny bumpy road which was the right one. At this point the sun was going down and we just wanted to be back at camp. Mr. Bea A. Mann wanted the truck to go back the forever long way and just get on the highway so his precious bike would not be "destroyed" haha yeah right, should have thought about that before deciding to bike to the geyser. Needless to say we went on the little road. At some point that road connected with the one we came on and so we were sort of back on track. Also during the last leg of our journey the four-wheelers and dirt bikes split from the cars. The 2 cars stuck together. My mom was leading and we came to a point where we weren't sure which road to take. While looking around our car basically drove into a ditch. A HUGE ditch! Cherie was in the front seat and after we realized we were stuck she goes "it's okay, I'll get a rock" she the opens her door to get out and the door has to scrap the ground in order for her to get out. That's how deep the ditch was. I have never seen Cherie laugh so hard. It was great! Then Mrs. Lou Slips*, the driver of the other car, gets out and comes up to our stuck truck. She says "of course something like this would happen. Your car is full of girls, our car is full of girls and there's not a damn man around!"

My mom being the pro driver that she is did get the truck out so we were stuck about a grand total of 3 minutes but it was hilarious.

My mom trying to figure out which way to go after getting stuck.

We finally made it back to camp with about 10 minutes of light left in the day. Garrett and Brent had been there for about an hour. Lesson learned. If you're lost, go back the way you came. The four-wheelers and dirt bikes pulled into camp 3 minutes after the cars. Apparently the other way they tried didn't work out so well either.

Jake, Amanda, and me

Well a few years ago when we went camping, Ben Around* was in the middle of a divorce and he came camping with us. We found an old tire and we ended up putting it in his tent.

Well this year we found another old tire and some of us went and got it. We stashed it that afternoon, picked it up that night, decided to wait till tomorrow and stashed it again. Well the next day everyone left and somehow that tire made it on the roof of Ben Around and his wife, Lee Mealone's* trailor. Weird.