YW Camp 2008- Part 1

Here is our ward. The theme was "Within the Shady Woodland". Each ward was a tree. We were the Redwoods. We got nice brown hoodie sweatshirts (in the pic below there are two girls wearing them.) I don't know why I wasn't looking at the camera in the pic above. We had atleast 20 cameras and of course when it was my camera I wasn't smiling, oh well. This was my first full week back at camp since 2001 when I was a leader in Provo. I LOVE camp and my spirit was quite at home here. We were at Mutual Dell up American Fork canyon from Monday to Friday. I did miss Mike and the kids, especially at night when I said my prayers. I also thought a lot about how Maddie would be here in two years. Thanks Judy for helping Mike with the children back home. Mike, thanks for letting me go. I couldn't have done it without your support.

On Tuesday we hiked. I went with the second years. This was my second time hiking up to Upper Silver Lake (I went last year with all the Beehives when I came up for a day at Beehive camp. It was Trek for the rest of us the following week last year.) It is a long hike, but well worth it at the top. This lake is completely hidden from the trail below. It is a beautiful place. Here are the girls eating lunch.

This is a picture I took on the trail down from the lake. As you can see there is no sign of civilization. It is wonderful to escape from the city sometimes and view the beauties of nature. It did me good.

Here we are at Tibble Fork reservoir for canoeing. (I'm on your right in gray.) I loved waterfront at Camp Shalom growing up, but I don't remember ever falling in. Well, not so this time. During our lakeweed fight I made the mistake of thinking we were in more shallow water and I jumped out to get one of the girls. OOOPS, it wasn't so shallow right there. In fact I couldn't touch bottom. I was "saved" by hanging on to two canoes and having them paddle toward the shoreline until I could touch and get back into the canoe. During this camp we also held a family home evening, had a huge mud fight, performed in Book of Mormon re-enactments (which were incredible), participated in a humanitarian project in which we stitched baby blankets and made hair clips, covered paperback Book of Mormons with cute paper and ribbon as a craft, listened to Jill Stevens (former Miss Utah) and Sam Payne (folk recording artist), watched our Stake President do "mind-tripping" magic rope tricks and give an awesome talk, perform silly skits together and snipe hunt, of course. It was a good mix of fun and the Spirit.

YW Camp 2008-Part 2

I accomplished four different and new activities at camp. The first was rock wall climbing. I made it to the top---yeah! This picture shows me on my first attempt on an easier side of the wall. I was able to do it faster than I thought I could. It felt great. With my new found confidence, I tried a difficult climb in the center and only made it half way the second time.

I also tried my arm at archery. I never did this at camp growing up. I had four arrows and my first arrow was the best. I hit the blue in a yellow, blue, red target. I got two other arrows on the square we were shooting at. I also got a pretty good bruise on my inner left arm from the wire releasing. If I would have had an arm brace on to protect my arm, I would have loved to spend an hour or more practicing.

Okay, on the following day our ward went to the zip line. I also have never done this before. I put on the harness and helmet and I had a blast! To me it was less scary than the rock wall. All of the girls and leaders had a chance to go. I know it is hard to see me in the photo, but it really is me. I made the mistake of taking our old digital camera. It was slow and the display didn't always work. That made it harder for someone else to take photos of me, especially when I was zooming by on a zip line.

Have you read the Book of Mormon in an hour? Well now I can say I have---or at least read my portion of it along with others. Before testimony meeting we divided a paper back version of the Book of Mormon into 42 sections (28 girls, 6 yw leaders, 3 bishopric +1 wife, 1 priesthood leader, 2 stake leaders + 1 husband). Each section equaled around 12 pages. We then went into the woods or around camp and read our section by ourselves at the same time. When we completed the section we brought it to this wood sign shown above and taped it to the paper redwood tree underneath. My section started on Alma 57, which talks of the 2000 stripling warriors. It was a great experience and a wonderful way to begin our testimony meeting.

Alyssa's Baptism Day

What a special day for our dear Aly Kat. She is such a kind person who always thinks of others. As I sat next to her at the baptism I thought about how pure in heart she already is. As a mother it has been so special to be able to be the one that wraps my daughters in the white towel as they come into the dressing room. It is in those quiet moments after the baptism that I get to hear my daughters' thoughts about how it feels to be so clean. As they put on their white dresses my mind does a bit of a flash-forward to the day they will be donning a wedding dress instead. I'm not trying to make that day come sooner, I just know it will come. I love you, Alyssa! I cherish being your mother. Thanks to everyone who participated on the program. Kyle, I'm so glad you shared your deep love of the Gospel with us. Mike and Ryan thanks for singing. Our hometeacher, her primary teacher, primary president, and members of her primary class also came to the baptism. Thanks to everyone who came to the baptism and meal afterwards. It was so nice to have family there. We served pasta with brown butter and mizithra cheese (one of Alyssa's favorites.) We also made sure there were peanut butter bars and oatmeal cookies, two other favs of hers. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful young girl.

Horse Camp One More Time

Judy sent a few more pictures and I thought I would pass them on. The first shows Madelyn on Diana in the arena. The next shows most of the girls in the arena together. The last shows the girls leading a lamb.

Horse Camp 2008

This is the third year we have sent Madelyn to horse camp in Etna, Wyoming and the first year that we sent Alyssa, too. Both girls were so excited to go. Thank you so much Judy for allowing the girls to come stay with you and for driving them to and from camp!!!! Also, thanks for these pictures. I sure missed having both of them gone this year. The first pic shows Maddie grooming her horse, Diana. (This is the same horse she has had before and Maddie is quite fond of her.) The next picture shows Alyssa grooming Jack. Both horses look almost the same, but Diana has white stockings on her back legs. Each afternoon the girls would take the horses to pasture to graze on the longer grass. I found these matching "Horseback Riding Club" shirts at Walmart for $3.99---it is hard to beat that. Maddie got to canter, which was her goal.

More Horse Camp

The first three pictures were given to us by Olivia's mom (the other eight year old who was also a first-timer at the camp.) Alyssa and Olivia were in a different arena from where Madelyn was and often were instructed by Mrs. Pittman's daughter. Hence I only have pics of Aly riding.

Here is Alyssa guiding her horse over an obstacle. Next, Alyssa at a trot with Jack, her horse.

Then, Alyssa and Olivia together. (Have you noticed the beautiful pine trees along the mountain in the background?)

Judy took the last picture in the morning of the first day of camp when Mrs. Pittman was teaching them which brushes and combs to use to groom their horses. They groomed each morning. Overall, it was another great year at camp!

Bye, bye bottle!

Hallelujah! As I noted in the previous post, the bottle has become only a memory. It is now official, Josanna has gone a week without a bottle!!! She held onto the bottle much longer than the other three. Maddie was off when she turned one, for example. As seasoned parents know, each child is different---some never take the bottle in the first place and for others the battle is over a pacifier. As soon as Josie took milk in another container (believe me I've offered and she never would drink it) I packed the bottles up in a bag and put them in a storage closet. I told her the ba-ba's were bye-bye, and held to my guns. We've had a few harder nights of her going to sleep or waking up, but overall she is doing quite well. So I will revel in this mommy moment, since I know that the potty-training thing is next. Deep breath, inhale, exhale, and breathe.

Reading with Grandma-July 6th,08

Judy's sacrament meeting didn't begin until 1 pm, so we had some time to relax before going. Judy read a story to the kids. Alyssa has on some dress-up earrings. I loved dressing up in my grandma's jewelry when I was little. (Alyssa didn't wear them to church.) Also, take note of the bottle that Josie has. This is the LAST picture of her with a bottle---hip, hip hooray!

Fishing Trip-July 5th

We drove up the canyon to Cottonwood Lake with Judy and Ray. The Bassett family drove there with us and brought their boat. Joshua was so excited to go fishing. Prior to the trip I went to Wal-Mart to buy Josh his own fishing pole. I found a Transformers one---a bigtime score! He practiced for several days at home to cast and reel. The three oldest kids went out on the lake with Mel Bassett, Judy, and Mike. I stayed on the shore with Josanna and Ray. Josie and I wandered around in the woods by the river. It was so beautiful. I took this picture of Josie sitting on a log. Alyssa ended up being the only one who caught a fish. It is a little hard to see in the picture because it is hanging in front of wear her lifejacket ends and her arm begins. Anyway, the fish was a bit too small and they threw it back. Oh well, the trip was a lot of fun and it was good to be in the great outdoors. On a side note since the road up to the lake is not paved, we had dust an inch thick all over the van---thank goodness for car washes.

Skipping Rocks

I remember my Dad teaching me to skip rocks. This probably took place up Provo Canyon where we often went. I distinctly recall skipping rocks on a father-daughter camp-out near Deer Creek reservoir. I also remember having some good skips at the Green River campground on an Arches camping trip. Here is Mike giving Maddie some pointers at Cottonwood Lake. Mike can skip some truly large stones and get a six-jumper out of them. I had a good four-jumper this day, July 5th, and that made me feel good.

Ice Cream in the Shade

Oh, the joys of summertime! The kids took a moment Saturday afternoon to eat these ice cream treats in Grandma Judy's front yard.

The 4th in Afton

Happy Fourth of July! After the parade we came back home and finished packing. Then we traveled up to Afton, Wyoming to visit Judy and Ray. There is a Flying J truck stop in Cokeville that we like to buy gas at (or I should say we prefer to buy gas there, no one "likes" to buy gas these days.) We let the kids get out and told them to run laps around the grassy area. They ended up having a great time. These two pictures of the kids were taken there.We got some "shoot-into-the-sky" fireworks in Evanston and also a couple cool fountains when we drove through. That night we set them off. The sky ones were great. It may be hard to go back to the ground only stuff next year. Even though Josie is looking funny at Ray here, she warmed right up to him and was his buddy the rest of the weekend.

At the parade-July 4th, 08

The kids were so excited to go to the parade in Provo again. We always went when I was growing up. Thanks Mom for having your friend save seats. We hardly had to fight traffic either. Yeah! Here is Josie sitting in her cousins' chair. It was fun to be there with my parents and my brother Colby's family. Thanks Jamie for handing this cute patriotic dress down to Josanna.

Normally my kids don't eat beef jerky, powered donuts and chewy chocolate chip cookies so early in the morning, or all at once for that matter, but it was a holiday and we celebrated.

Go Mission Boys! Woohoo! Only in Utah do we have the missionaries as an entry in a parade. And on top of that they get standing ovations and loud cheering as they go by. In the foreground is my future mission boy. Love ya', Josh.