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.