2 Camp Trips, 1 Hike, 1 Museum

These pictures are from a hike that Peter and I went on two days before camp.  We had a 4-5 mile hike planned for the girls but I wanted to see if I could make it so I was insistent that we do a trial run.  About 30 minutes into the hike we were told that right before the lake we were hiking to there was a dead horse.  Apparently some people had taken horses up earlier in the day and one had slid on the rocks and broke its leg.  They had to shoot the horse and leave it there.  They had tried to cover it up the best they could but when we were about 20 feet from it we could see and SMELL the blood running down the trail.  Peter put his hand over my eyes and lead me around it.  I thought I was going to puke.  It was terrible.  But, when we got to the lake at the top, our hike was all worth it.  It was beautiful and surrounded by such beautiful granite mountains.  Totally worth it.  That said, since we got down Saturday at 10pm, we decided we better not take the young women as they weren't likely to have it cleaned out by Monday morning when we were scheduled to hike.

This picture is just to document the beauty that I get to wake up to each morning.  I am the luckiest!

This was our trip to Marble Slab creamery when they had Christmas in July.  They gave away free ice cream if you wore Christmas stuff but I didn't have time to find Christmas stuff so yes, my kids are all wearing tree skirts.  Anything to get something free!  It was totally worth it.  I had the best dark chocolate ice cream with raspberries you can imagine.  Peter loved his pralines and cream with brownies, Julia got cotton candy with gum balls, Brigham had Strawberry with something and Porter had mint.  Disgusting the things I remember over a month later. 

I mentioned we did a pre-Young Women camp hike, well, we also did a pre-Young Women camp camping trip.  We went with our neighbors, the Gordon's, Elizabeth, Ellie, and Aubrey.  It was just overnight one night but it was fun.  Elizabeth brought a hammock that everyone loved and Martie was in a great mood after she woke up at about 10am.  We let her sleep in since she had been screaming bloody murder from about 2:00 to 5:00 that morning.  The picture on the left is of Peter's fire trick that he loves to do each trip.  He puts a hose in a copper pipe that has holes drilled in it and when you put it in the fire, it changes to all sorts of blues, purples, and greens.  Very entertaining and probably very toxic as well. 

Finally girls camp.  Sustained as Young Women President on June 27th, we went to girls camp on August 9th.  It was crazy getting caught up on on everything but it was completely worth it.  The girls in our ward are unlike any I have ever heard of.  We had absolutely no fighting and no bickering!  They were completely nice to everyone the entire time.  It made camp nothing but fun. 

Captions: Top Left: Janelle, Gabriella, and Silvia posing for a cute late night picture.  Top Right: Because of the number of bears and other creatures in the mountains, we had to collect all the girls treat bags each night.  We would stick them in a wheel barrow and wheel them to the trunk of someones car.  It was amazing how much candy can exist amongst 35 young ladies.  Bottom Left:  Don't they all look so pretty?  I'm pretty sure this is day one but they looked beautiful on day 4 as well. :)  Bottom Right:  Erica was quite the little whittler.  After carving several interesting weapon/decoration things, she spent a good amount of time using a safety pin to poke a hole through them and thread them on a necklace.  Someday I can see her doing chainsaw carvings out of trees. 

Of course Uno was a favorite to bring out when we didn't have other activities to be doing but I think if we all voted, it would be unanimous that the zip line was everybody's favorite.

Left to right, top to bottom: Kaylee, Bailey, Amanda, Janelle, Silvia, Lexi, Alyssa, Heidi, Rebbecca, Laura and Maura, Maria, Gabriella, Mia, Carrie and Paige, Brother Gordon, and Taylor.

I was in charge of hooking the girls up with Sister Merisch and it was so fun.  They got to go twice each day that we did it and the first time they were nervous and unsure if they really wanted to do it.  Every time after that, they couldn't get up there fast enough.  Girls were flying upside down and twisting around, it was super entertaining.  Fortunately I had ridden on an earlier trip when we toured the camp as I figured I would be a bit too big at 17 weeks when I went up with the girls. 

Speaking of pregnancy, that did cause me a bit of trouble one night.  Apparently my body is used to me waking up 5 seconds from the potty.  Well, when I would wake up here I would have to put my shoes on and run 25 yards to the potty.  One night I was trying to get my head lamp out of my pocket while turning it on and when it came out it was pointing at my eyes and almost blinded me sending me way too close to falling in the stream that ran by our camp. Anyway, the last night I was in a tent by myself and I woke up sure I wouldn't make it to the toilet in time.  Praying the whole way that I would make it and holding myself like a 3 year old learning to use the big potty I was near tears but made it.  On the way back I was thinking how much better I felt when my flashlight lit the tree between my tent and myself.  There was a HUGE raccoon(I don't know how big raccoons usually are but I'm sure this one was in the 98th percentile) sitting right at eye level staring at me from a tree.  I waved my light back and forth at him hoping once he realized I was there, he would run.  He didn't.  Then I tried whisper roaring at him in hopes that I could scare him without waking all the other campers up.  He looked at me like I was an idiot.  Then, I debated waking the camp director up for help but couldn't figure out how to phrase "There is a raccoon and I'm scared to pass it to get to my tent." without sounding like an idiot.  Finally I decided to make a run for it.  As I looked at my tent, I realized I had left the door unzipped in my rush and I was certain there was another one in their eating the treats I had hidden in case of a midnight craving.  I ran in,shined the flashlight all around, zipped the tent door tight, and jumped onto my cot.  I have never been so grateful to be sleeping off the ground in my life.  I still scared he would come after me so I left my flashlight on and pointed at the door.  This way he would know someone was in there and I could peek my eyes open as I tried to go to sleep to make sure he wasn't there. 

Now, for anyone who might be laughing I have it on good authority, Treasure, that raccoons are viscous animals.  I don't know how many of you saw the squirrel in the tree scene from "Christmas Vacation," but a raccoon is 20 times that big and I'm sure 20 times as viscous.  I'm lucky to still be alive. 

So, other than a wonderful testimony meeting, which I wrote about in my journal, that is pretty much my summary of camp. We went, we had fun, we got dirty, we stunk, we ate, we played, and we came home. 

Speaking of home, it was so great to get here.  My kids, with the Gordon's kids, were out on the fence waiting and waving and Peter and Martie were sitting out on the front swing.  It was so fun to see them and Martie didn't seem to mind m smell at all.  So, Friday we took the kids to the Children's Museum downtown at the Gateway.  They loved it.  We had never been before so everything was new and exciting.  They had a whole town where you can be all sorts of different jobs, a ball maze that you send plastic balls through, a wall to build mazes for ping pong balls on, all sorts of stuff.  The kids had a great time and we probably spent 5 hours there.  It was great to be home and have Peter with a day off so we could just spend time together as a family.

I think that is it for the time being.  I will have blog about the kids' first day of school next but that should be soon as I am a little less overwhelmed not that I am not so far behind.