Deacon's Mini-Backpacking Trip

Ben took his Deacon's quorum on a mini-backpacking trip. I think it was a first "backpacking" trip for all the boys - except for our boys of course (who, of course, are not deacons but were permitted to go, of course - how many times can I say "of course" in a sentence?!).

It was a tiny-hike to their campsite - about 1 1/2 miles. The area they went is just about 25 minutes from our house so it's pretty close. The boys hiked, set-up camp (they were to build their own shelters), ate dinner, cooked marshmallows, and went to bed. Ben gave out some pretty stern threats about being loud . . . and they were much better than times past. :)

In the morning they got up, ate, packed up, and then started hiking out (it was a loop and so that was cool). They set up a little shooting range (pretty much all the boys had brought a BB gun) and Ben held a "Biathlon" of sorts! Ben said that was really fun. The boys had to run down a hill. Grab their gun and take 5 shots at paper-plate targets, run around the pond, and then shoot 5 more times. You got points for your aim (how close to the middle on the target) and for your time. Jonas was dead-last in time, but claimed 1st overall because of his shooting accuracy! Miles' gun didn't shoot and so that was a slight bummer, but he still had fun. They shot the guns for fun afterwards and then hiked the rest of the way out.

Ben said it was a great trip!

 Eight boys ready to go - flag and all, especially as it was Flag Day! Boys: Illanuci, Jonas, Garen, Miles, Asher, Jakai, Kyle, and Andreas.

 Hiking to their campsite . . .

 Illanuci and Jonas.

Still hiking - some struggling more than others! :)

 At the campsite getting their sleeping shelters built - some struggling more than others. :)

 Jonas and Illanuci shared their shelter.

 Miles (mainly) and Jakai made a teepee for their sleeping arrangements - super cool.

 The boys carrying over their campfire sitting log.

 The boys had an old flag to "retire" (i.e., burn) and that was pretty cool.

 Good morning to Jakai and Miles - their teepee worked out pretty great.

 Haha, Kyle and his dad Curtis had quite the shelter. :) Ben was giving Curtis a little bit of a hard time and Curtis shot back, "We're not all shelter-builders like you!" In a joking, but not joking, manner. :)

 Miles had an accident with a gigantic marshmallow . . . so he had to cover up the mess with dirt so it wouldn't be so sticky. It washed out just fine!

 Getting the shooting range set up.

 Ready, set, fire!

 The biathlon.

 Awards "ceremony" for the biathlon!

 Jonas, 1st and Illanuci, 2nd.

The three cool leaders/dads: Logan, Ben, and Curtis.

Ben's Early Father's Day Present

So Ben had a busy week this past week - he was working on a talk that he'll give tomorrow (Father's Day), plus he had a Deacon's Camp-Out Friday that he was organizing and planning for.

Ben takes the boys mowing and they had a full-load to do this week. So Tuesday I came up with a pre-Father's Day surprise: I would take the boys Wednesday morning and we would get them done. So we did and we even met up with Ben for some shaved-ice when he was done with work and totally played along with all the lawns they'd have to mow afterwards. When Ben got home he saw the "Happy Early Fathers' Day" note from the boys and was so happy! He was able to spend the evening writing his talk, thus freeing up some of his anxiety for the week.

On Thursday the boys got two "extra" mow jobs to do that day - and, as it just so happened, it had to be me that took them. One job was for a family in another ward who is moving to Utah and they were having a showing at noon and . . . nevermind, long and boring story. But the husband needed our boys STAT and so I ran them over and boy-oh-boy was that a HUGE backyard! (It was an acre, but seemed like so much more!) Luckily (and oh-so-fun for the boys - Miles especially) he had a ride-on mower. So Jonas trimmed, I helped with our push-mower, and Miles drove the ride-on. We got it done and I think it looked nice. Then it was a rush home, get the kids ready for their swim practice plus me ready to do laps, swim, back home, and back out with the boys to mow Lucy's music teacher's lawn. She was surprising her husband and so I thought that was pretty great and funny. :)

Here are a few mowing pictures:

 Go, Miles, Go. He wasn't too bummed about doing this lawn . . .

 Jonas got to do a few laps . . . but he's the runner-up to trimming when Ben's not available (although Miles did do a bit and I think he's a fine trimmer, too).

 Jonas working hard.

 The HUGE yard. :)

What a cool and lucky kid.

Bella Can Swim

I guess there is some debate if pugs can swim or not, so we thought we'd test it out with the free pool we found at a garage sale:

Our Trip to Utah - short, but sweet!

We made our kids all watch PBS's show of Les Miserables (Everyone except Jonas wanted to watch it - in fact, now I remember that Jonas opted out of most of the shows). It was a 3-part series, each 2-hours long. There was no music and it followed the book very well (as opposed to the musical version). While I love, love, love the musical, I ended up loving this as well. Les Mis is just one of the best stories ever written.

Anyways, I wanted my kids to watch the musical and did a google search of Les Mis in the Denver or Salt Lake areas. Official performances are way too much money for us to take our family of six to attend. But I found the next best thing: Les Miserables School Edition. It's basically a legit (i.e., author approved) condensed version of the real deal. Put on all by kids 18 and younger.

So we left Saturday morning (the boys had a stake dance on Friday they wanted to go to) and drove straight in to Salt Lake City. We parked our car in a parking garage and the kids wanted us to park on the very top. So we did! It was tall and we went around and around - Lucy said, "It seems like we're just going in circles!" Ha, we were - just circles that were rising. We all got a little sick feeling looking over . . .

We met my parents at the theater and had a wonderful time watching the show. It was so very good! Utah's got talent, that's for sure. Afterwards, we went to the Last Course to get our first course of dinner - dessert, ha! The kids had fun ice creams:  three of them had "breakfast cereal" and it was delicious. Miles had "rosemary and honey" ice cream and it was good, too. Ben and I shared a lemon crepe-like cake. My parents shared something, too. Fun!

We spent the evening lighting fires in my mom's oven - really, my mom started a fire. Ha! Ben and I drove back with the boys and so we missed the actual flames (but were engulfed in a VERY smokey house!). Emmy kept telling me that the fire was just like a "camp-fire" and was "huge" and that Grandma screamed, "FIRE!" My mom did all that to make a fun memory for my girls, haha.

My dad displayed some of his "things" from the old-days. :) Pictures of his helicopter crash and burnt body, military ribbons, pictures of girlfriends, etc. The kids really enjoyed seeing it all!

Sunday was a special treat, too. I went back to my ward I grew up in - the Granite 5th ward, now called the Willow Hills ward. Some good friends of my parents were called as mission presidents in Seattle and were giving talks so my parents wanted to attend. Since I was there, I thought it would be fun, too. It was crazy. So many people that I recognized! It's been almost 20 years since I've been there . . . it was weird and awesome. Emmy went to the same YW room where I began YWs 28 years ago . . .

Then we had a yummy and filling lunner (lunch/dinner) and drove back home.

It was a quick trip, but totally worth it!

Pics:

Looking down from our parking spot . . . Ben was especially scared. :)

 Love these people!

 It was a ways down . . .

My dad, Miles, and Jonas waiting for the play to start.

The girls really loved the show! Ben said it was his favorite-ever performance of Les Mis that he has seen!

 The kids eating their first course at The Last Course.

 Emmy wearing my dad's old helicopter helmet.

 Lucy loved it! She wanted me to send a picture to her teacher! And today she had to show the picture to all her gym friends. :)

 My kids (on a cold morning - like 35 degrees!) standing in front of my old ward building. Fun stuff.

Like I said, short but sweet! Thanks mom and dad for hosting us!

Some Random Summer Pics

Well the first 2 1/2 weeks of summer have been cRaZY! Sick kids, St. George, Yard Sale Fundraiser, and then Slime Camp. Then a quick 24-hour trip to Utah coming up! I'll be excited to go to work and get a little "break." Haha.

One of Miles' friends told him they should drive to Sonic in Dalilah one night . . .So on Monday night (the only night this friend and his sister could make it - they are moving) Miles had a group of teenagers over. It was awkward. But only for Ben and myself as we watched them. :) The kids played some Secret Hitler (such a fun game!) and another card game. Then Ben and another kid drove them all to Sonic. It was a fun night for them, I think!

In the middle of our busy week, we celebrated Brigham's 4th birthday! He ate his carrot cake piece so fast we couldn't even catch a picture! :) We sure love Brigham and he's the perfect addition to our family.

 

The girls have been waiting for this! Business was slow at first, but picked up. They ended up earning $50. Lemonade buyers are so nice. I want to be more like them. :)

Slime Camp

Well Csilla did it again . . .she convinced me to help her run a Slime Camp during her first session of summer camps she's organizing. :) She had five camps going on - Skateboard camp, Wrestling camp, Paddleboard camp, Spa Camp (Csilla ran that one, as well as over-saw and organized, etc. all the others), and Slime camp. Slime camp was super popular and filled up right away. Talk about pressure!

Luckily, it wasn't a whole week and we weren't just making slime the whole day. Camp lasted three days, Tuesday - Thursday, from 8am - 4:30pm. But Csilla schedules the camp pretty wonderfully. From 8-10 is drop-off at the fieldhouse where bouncy houses are set-up. So all the kids from all the camps come sometime in that time-frame and have fun bouncing, playing soccer, tag, etc. 10-10:30 is a break and snack-time. At 10:30 the camps all go their own ways and begin their activities, including a lunch break. Then from 2-4 (later for the skateboards because they are hard-core. :) ) kids either go to the Rec. Center for some indoor, big-pool swimming - or come back to the fieldhouse for outdoor swimming or more bouncy houses. Kids get to do a lot and do a lot of awesome activities. Jonas got to go to skateboard camp and he LOVED it. In fact, he just bought a board today (just a board - the other parts, "axels" called "trucks" for skateboards, wheels, etc. are sold separately). He was quite good. Csilla's son, Levi, was the best of the group; Jonas was second. Lucy went to the Spa camp and had a super-fun time making edible face masks, doing foot scrubs, painting nails, making cute flip-flops and headbands, etc. Miles and Emmy were my helpers and they were very much appreciated!

For my camp we made two different slimes each day. Your basic slime and edible slime on Tuesday (oh what a mess edible slime was - I hate dealing with cornstarch!), metallic and glow-in-the-dark slime on Wednesday, and chalkboard and a big finale HUGE Fluffy Slime with the other campers on Thursday. I had 15 kids total in my slime camp (about 50 total with all five camps). A couple, one in particular, were pains. :) One was a HUGE pain (he was in my group, of course!). The others were little pains (again, in my group!).

Overall, it was great. My kids all had fun and it was pretty cool to be part of such a cool summer camp. Csilla's ideas for organizing camps are spectacular. She wants them to be rowdy, fun, adventurous, messy, etc. Some people, unfortunately, don't agree with her philosophy . . . but that's a whole other post that I will probably not do. :)

Okay, on to pictures! I have a ton!

 Stretchy slime - how far will it go!? So fun.

 She was a master slimer. :)

 My awesome slimey helpers.

 Lucy and a new friend playing at the fieldhouse one morning.

 Lucy's edible face mask she did with Csilla's camp: powdered sugar and water mixed. Then you dip your face in sprinkles. Adorable.

 A boy and his metallic slime beard.

 I saw this the night before and actually had straws at my house - win! Blowing slime-bubbles was a huge hit.

 He was a master slime-bubble blower.

 He wasn't too shabby himself! (Oh, guess what?! I had more boys in my group than girls - weird, huh? 9 boys and 6 girls!)

 We took a break one day and played a fun game of Red-Rover. The kids LOVED it - except for the ones who didn't at various times in the game . . . Emmy and Miles were popular kids in this game. It was fun.

 Chalkboard slime . . . my favorite.

 A cool creation.

 The googly eyes I brought were a great addition to our chalkboard slime.

 Awww, a girl after my own "heart."

 A crazy monster!

 A poop emoji.

 So cool.

 The finale slime! I didn't figure out what it was going to be until the night before - 2 giant tubs of fluffy slime for everyone! Spa campers and wrestlers were there to join in the fun.

 Squirting in some shaving cream.

 Oh it was getting messy = fun!

 Yep, that's my Emmy girl.

 Yay, it worked!

Miles, Emmy, and Csilla's spa helper, Destiny (who was fabulous). And two big batches of wonderfully fluffy slime. We broke off chunks for everyone. :)

My days were long - getting up around 5:30 and home around 5:30 (after swimming, changing, checking-out kids, and then finally getting to go back to my room and clean-up, it was late . . .). Then I would come home, make dinner, and then get ready for the next rounds of slime the next day. :)

Oh, here is a fun video of the "finale" slime: