The first two camps were completed and first used during the summer of 2003. Additional camps have been added each year and construction is expected to continue for several more years. When completed, the Heber Valley Camp is expected to have the capacity to host over 5,000 campers at a time. While its primary purpose is to serve the Church's Young Women Camp program, it is also available to be used by other Church and family groups when not in use by the Young Women. (Taken from www.hebervalleycamp.org/)
Dave's parents get the privilege to serve an LDS mission at this beautiful camp. We have been able to visit with them 3 times so far and each time has been fabulous. The most recent was on July 4 to celebrate our Countries independence with them and the rest of Dave's family (well almost everybody that is).
(The following pictures are not in order because blogger never cooperates!)
The camp has several challenge courses.... We were able to go on one of the courses. They call it "The Big Swing". Elder Gifford (grandpa) chose this one because it was one that the younger children could do. Good choice Grandpa! You sit on a swing and then they have a line of men pull you up and you then have to let go of the cord to come flying down.... (The bigger the kid the more men it took to pull you up... ha!)
Erin Kate getting ready.... She was very nervous but did a great job!
Austin....
Oakland opted to play in the sand instead of go on the swing... I don't blame him. I think the sand looked less intimidating then the swing!
One of the things I love most about being up there is all the animals you get to see. We saw several deer....
There are also a lot of "Pot Guts", squirrels, humming birds, even badgers and bears have been seen. The last two mentioned, when seen, are caught and relocated for the safety of the people that come to the camp. Elder Gifford has some pretty fierce pictures of a badger that he caught and had to relocate!
As you can see it is beautiful up there! We were also able to take a hike around the lake. That was probably my favorite part of the whole day! It was nice to be able to see the beauty of this place up close. Most of the following pictures are of Oakland because the others ran ahead....
Oakland was pouting here because he didn't want to go any further. He plunked himself down and started throwing bark and pouting.... stinker!
We actually started our day there out on the lake in the canoes. I am pretty sure that this was Oakland's favorite part of the day and Ivy's least favorite part. Ivy was sure that Oakland was going to tip us over. She also got upset when she thought we weren't rowing straight!
It was a fabulous way to spend the holiday. I can't wait until we get to go up and visit again in a month :)
