First Day of School

School has started here at our home. The girls are excited to be back with all their friends, however, Chris is not too excited about tackling Algebra II and Physics this year.

Christopher - High School -10th grade

Elizabeth - Jr. High - 8th grade

Hannah - Elementary - 5th grade

Washington Lake Campout

Washington Lake camp was the best camp out of the year, unfortunately it does signify that summer is now winding down and it is time to put away the camp gear and start preparing for school. Highlights of this trip for me were:

1. The Sunday buffet -- this included roasted turkey, spiral ham, grilled pork loins, 2 kinds of soup, green been casserole, yummy yummy dutch oven potatoes, a vegetable medley that was to die for, several green salads, corn on the cob, fresh baked dutch oven rolls and the list goes on. Oh I didn't mention the dessert, there was plenty of that too, fried donuts, homemade cherry pie, chocolate goo brownies and a variety of dutch oven cobblers.

2. The copper pipe fire -- while others have seen this display before from Justin Allred's handmade copper pipes and rubber hose, I had not. The display was blast of brilliant colorful fire spiking from the fire pit. Amazing!

3. The trip to Provo falls -- can't describe how fun it is to see the kids and youth enjoying themselves in the water. It reminded me of my childhood camping trips playing in the water with cousins and sisters. I remember one camping trip on a river where my mother decided to ride the camping mattress down the small rapids, it popped halfway down. She got scraped on the rocks but it was rather funny.

4. Sunday school -- we don't usually camp on Sundays but it worked out that way this time because all the Fridays and Saturdays for the group sites had already been reserved before we made our reservations in January. Sunday turned out to be a special time for me as I read scriptures with Chris and Lizzy in the tent (Hannah ventured down to church in Kamas with the Hurst family). Nothing new, we read all the time, but this time Lizzy really participated and even though she was only required to read 3 verses each time the book was passed she read pages at a time. I was touched to hear her read and in my heart was praying that it was blessing her testimony. Lori prepared pioneer bingo for all of us in camp to play complete with prizes and buffalo chips for treats. We also shared a couple pioneer stories.

Here are several pictures of the friends I dearly love. It is wonderful to be surrounded by so many truly amazing people. I know I would never venture out on these camp outs by myself, in fact I wouldn't survive with out their matches, tongs, dishwater, grills and all the other things that didn't make it into my camp supplies.

Chris hang out with Kevin, the teens and the younger boys too. My favorite time with him was watching him, Kevin, Jeffery, McKay and Lizzy try to balance on these styrofoam filled pipes at the other end of the lake. They tried over and over again to cross the pipes only to be flip into the water when they lost their balance. We had some good laughs. It was much harder than it looks so they said.

Lizzy didn't have any one her age at camp and found it hard to hang out with the girls that were older than her, but she made do and did a lot of fun things for the younger children and was often found holding the babies. I admire her kindness for the little children.

Hannah loves to camp and really really enjoyed the non-stop interaction with her best friend. She didn't even sleep in the tent with us but opted to sleep in the back of a suburban with Janna.

Froggy Goes Home

His name is "Squishy no-name", a western tree frog that has been living in our home for a year now. Hannah captured Squishy no-name last year during the Washington lake campout and learned just how hard it was to tend to a frog.

Today, August 2, 2009, he is being released back into the wild a little bigger and quite healthly.
Frog catching is a highlight of our annual Washington lake trip. And Hannah succefully caught five more frogs but not once did she ask if she could keep them. She was very happy to let them go after she enjoyed the capture.

Hannah's hair cut

Hannah and Janna (Hannah's best friend) started the summer with long hair and wore it in french braids during our first camp out in June. Hannah had wanted to cut her hair about the time school was winding up in May but I was against it feeling that summer would be much easier in braids and pony tails. After some debate I consented to let her cut her hair before school started in the fall.

However, before June even ended, Janna cut her beautiful long red hair and donated it to "Locks of Love". Hannah begged me all day to take her to get her hair cut. She wanted it just like Janna's. It just couldn't be done. By evening, determined that her hair should be cut this very day, she asked Janna to come over and be a model for me so that I could attempt cutting her hair. I couldn't believe that she wanted it so bad that she would trust me to take the scissors to her gorgeous satin hair. I have trimmed the girls hair before and I am fairly good at cutting the boys hair but I have never attempted a cute little bob with a wedge in the back.

We got started about 9:30 p.m. I kept running my fingers through Janna's hair trying to determine what angles I should be cutting in Hannah's hair and then finally put the scissors to work. When we were all done at 11 p.m. Hannah was very happy and even commented that it turned out better than she thought I could do!