The best camping trip ever!

Ah, what fun we had this past week/weekend! Bill took a week off and went 4-wheeling a couple of times, the girls finished up their 4-H stuff, we went school shopping and then camping.

Thursday, we went up to Windy Ridge by Hell’s Hole and found a perfect spot! Bill’s parents were nice enough to lend us their trailer and that made camping a whole lot more fun. We had a nice little creek for the kids to play in and they LOVED it! They made mud traps, piled mud on rocks, and just splashed around. Thursday was nice and warm and Bill and I just relaxed with books in hand and rotated around to stay in the shade as the sun moved all afternoon. We taught them lifelong skills of how to roast the perfect hot dog and make delicious smores – skills all kids need! After we’d only been there a couple of hours Billy announced that “this was the best camping trip EVER!” Bill and I giggled as this is the first camping trip he’s been on. However, at 3:30 a.m. when Billy fell out of the bunkbed we were afraid the “best camping trip” might be ruined. Luckily he wasn’t very hurt and the “best camping trip” continued.

Friday was a little cooler and there was a breeze all day, so we didn’t play in the creek. The kids found the next best thing to water was dirt. And boy, did they have fun! They also found a “secret lair” and fought bad guys a lot. Billy even made a bow and arrow and hunted 7 buffalo and 5 chickens. ;) Cheyenne led Chloe and Maddie in a rock’n version of “Forest Rockband” complete with tree drums, stick guitars, and Maddie playing the flute. Bill took the kids on a couple of hikes to find wood and then all of them went huckleberrying. I was told that Maddie was the best berry picking partner; Jon was the best berry eater; and Billy and Chloe entertained them with a musical made up of one song, which they sang over and over again. By the time we came home we were all tired of the one line song.

Saturday was a little cooler still with it only getting up to around 60*. We still had a blast, though, playing and reading and playing some more. We also had cows around the whole time. On Friday they came and rounded them up, but they forgot some that showed up later. The funny thing was every time Bill would start reading Fablehaven (our family book right now) to us, the cows would show up to listen, too. Around 4 that afternoon, Bill decided we should have some pizza for dinner so he and Cheyenne ran down to Heise and brought back pizza and pop for us for dinner – that was great camping food! We got chased inside a little early that night as it started to sprinkle a little, so we played some rousing games of Uno Attack. That night got pretty cold, but it was so nice to turn on the heater about 6 a.m. We got up, ate cereal in the little boxes (Cheyenne and Natalie said we couldn’t go camping without them, Grandpa), finished loading up and headed home. It was a fantastic, relaxing, wonderful weekend, and I think we all decided we need to do it again, maybe a couple times next summer!

Our Trip to the Zoo

The kids were so excited, especially the little ones who couldn't remember our last trip. They kept asking if we'd see elephants? No. Giraffs? No. Hippo? No. Monkeys? I could finally answer yes! That was good enough and Natalie was really hoping to see the alligator that wasn't out last time. It's not the biggest zoo, or the best, but it's still fun. So off we went and met Bill there, too. It was a whole lot more expensive this time with the three old enough that we had to pay for them and Cheyenne now qualifies as adult prices. Ouch! We saw monkeys, flamingos, the camel with the saggy humps, but many animals were a no show. And the alligator we been waiting to see was about 2 1/2 feet long and hiding under a log, but we could see his foot. The kids really liked the penguins and the lion was big and majestic. My favorite was the huge turtle. But the best thing about the zoo was the park afterwards. We had a picinic and then let the kids all play on the awesome playground outside the zoo. The had more fun there than anything else. I think next summer we'll save the money on the zoo and just go to the playground. :)This was "how big are you compared to the lion".All my monkeys!

Okay, no one bothered to tell me this video never worked, and I finally just figured it out myself today. So here's a great little clip of t-ball. Billy is in the green hat on first base to begin with. :)

Fantastic duet!

A couple of weeks ago our high council speakers were fantastic! I know, something you don't hear about high council weeks often. :) Anyway, they spoke on marriage and one in particular, Bro. Williams, I think his name is, is a marriage councilor, too. He gave such good advice, and as part of his talk he talked about this You Tube clip. He gave the analogy of us each being instruments and how we need to learn to "jam" together to create beautiful, rich, fulfilling music/marriages. Plus the two songs that are played are Love Story and Viva La Vida, which he laughed about, are kind of like marriage - full of love and romance at the beginning and then it's just living life. However, if you can live life together like these two play music together, then it's going to be a pretty good life.

The 4th of July Weekend

Okay, so I'm only a few weeks late, but I thought I'd share our awesome weekend anyway. On Thursday night, my sister Leslie and her 3 boys came up from UT to stay with us for the weekend. Unfortunately Luke wasn't able to come with her this time, but Bill said Luke's the admission in the door for them to come next time. ;) We had such a fun weekend together. Bill had Friday off (since the 4^th was Saturday), so he got to share in all the fun, too. We took 4-wheeler rides down to the river to throw rocks and sticks in the water. We all went to the carousel and played at the park for a bit. We tons of fun playing and chatting and it was a little hard to get the boys to settle down each night as they all slept on the floor in Billy and Jon’s room. We met my brother Shaun and Alana at the parade, on Saturday, but it was a little sad to see our numbers so low there. No Mom and Dad, no Hathaways (as they'd just moved to CO that same week), and the big kids were in the parade or working. The parade was a little boring, as usual, very hot, and we didn't get any chocolate milk! But Cheyenne and Natalie had a fun time passing out flyers and bottles of water for Bill’s brother Tom. After the parade we went home and the kids immediately headed out to the pool. So a couple hours later we grilled hamburgers and just played all afternoon. Then of course fireworks that night, and finally we put 6 tired kids into bed and ended our day, too. It wasn't anything spectacular, but we all had such a great time! You really need to come again, soon, Les! Billy told me just yesterday, that the worst part of having Camden come was when he had to go home. :( Ahh, it's fun to have cousins to play with!

T-ball Time

This is what we've been doing every Tues. and Thurs. at 9 a.m. for the past month. This is no rules, everyone bats and runs around all the bases, no outs, nothing t-ball. Some games were very entertaining, some were very boring, some were even cold thanks to our nice cool June. I think the highlight of the games, at least for the little kids, was going to the playground at the park afterwards. But overall it was fun and I think Billy learned a lot. I learned something very important, too, that the triplets can play next summer. That should be interesting. The video was his last game and for some crazy reason he wore sandles so he couldn't run as well; and I think he spent more time playing in the dirt than doing anything else this time. You could tell it had been a long season for most of the team. :) That's Hyrum Flamm's little boy with the red hair.

Girls Camp

Well, girls camp was a bit of an adventure this year. We were up at West Piney campground (I never got to go on the slide, but Cheyenne did.) When I walked into camp Wednesday afternoon, just about the first words I hear are, "You're daughter is lost." Cheyenne's group left at 10 a.m. on what was supposed to be a nice little 5 mile hike. 7 1/2 hours later and an extra 4 miles, they stumbled back into camp. Who ever was in charge had found this motorbike trail on a map and it was supposed to loop back into our camp. It didn't. Finally they got turned around and came back down the mountain and were rescued later. She hiked through/over snow, hacked her way through the forest, and survived! Secretly, I'm VERY glad I didn't go up earlier, like I did last year, because I'm sure I would have gone on that hike, too. The day had been very pleasant and slightly cool, just right for hiking. However, another part of their group broke off and just after they got back to camp, the skies broke and it poured for the next couple of hours. Our leaders tent didn't fair to well, and my end of the tent had damp sleeping bags that night. We found another tarp to cover the really leaking end and then it started raining again just as we went to bed. We laughed as the leaders at the other end slept with garbage bags over them and we heard the plink, plinking of water dripping on them all night. The next day it rained/poured off and on all day, but we had the lodge to do all our activities in all day. About 3 in the afternoon, the sun peaked out and we opened all the tents, pulled out all the wet blankets and sleeping bags and tried to dry out for a minute. Then it clouded up and rained again as we ate dinner. It cleared up in time for testimony meeting outside and stayed clear all night. It was amazing how many stars there are up there! Us leaders, and a couple other girls screamed (some thought for sure a bear was coming for them), giggled, and laughed until after 2 a.m. and finally went to bed when it was freezing cold. Literally, freezing! One of the leaders scraped ice off her window the next morning. After a cold night, it was so nice to see sunshine the next morning, just in time to dry out the tents and tarps and pack up to come home. All in all, we had a great time with some great memories we'll never forget.