Snapshot~Ashlyn Stackhouse

Summer. Hot, fun and full of events. I had just come to Salt Lake for 2 weeks to spend with my Dad, and I couldn’t wait to see my family. It was a perfect day to go camping, warm but not too hot. My cousins had just come over from Virginia and I hadn’t seen them in a year, but it felt like a billion years! Driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon filled my stomach with butterflies as my favorite song filled my ears. The scenery was splashed with green, Gray, and White; the snow had not melted all the way. I stepped out of the car and felt the hot sun and smelt the burning wood from the camp fires. Seeing my cousins, I ran over to them and attacked them with a hug. We laughed and started talking and walking over to my Dad and Grandpa who had started to grill the hamburgers. Stealing some of the food and ran over into the woods, deciding to go down to where the river was. Walking slowly down the trails, taking in every bit of the fresh air we could. Once we got down to the river that was full of rushing water, we decided to make plant boats and race them down the river. Looking for the right leaf for my boat made me want to wonder off for a second. Walking though all the green with some sunlight sneaking through the trees. Finding the perfect leaf I went back to where my cousins were hanging out. They had already started to make their boats but I had to find a stick still. Picking up a random stick I jammed it into the leaf and went to the side of the river. “1, 2, 3…..GO!” my cousin yelled, we let go of the boats and watched them head down the river. Some getting destroyed by the strong currents, including mine. We all laughed and joked around, cupping our hands and having a water fight with the cold river water.

When we walked back up from the river and found one of my other cousins, who just gotten there, was dancing on the picnic table to a disco song. I just shook my head and thought how was I related to these people. Dinner was ready and smelt like heaven. Hamburgers, salad, chips, hotdogs, coke and anything else that you can think of was sitting at the table. We all started to dig in, makings big hamburgers with everything on them. I started to make fun of my cousin for putting chips on his hamburger, I told him that chips are a side and not suppose to be on his hamburger, he just shook me off and continued with his weird idea.

Once we were done eating it started to get dark, but we still wanted to play around. There was all these rocks and boulders in a huge pile so Cydney, Emily, Maddie and Me wanted to go lay on the rocks or just hang out on them. We were talking about how much we love camping, the smell, the colors of the trees and the look of the mountains. Our Grandma came over with a camera and wanted a picture of us. When she told us to smile we all did a silly face but our grandma wanted s nice picture so she told us to be serious, but right when she took the picture we all made silly faces again. After that she was mad at us, but we had fun.