The Maiden Voyage

We took the trailer out for its maiden voyage last weekend.  (Although technically John took it to father and son's but I don't count that because I wasn't there.)  The week was filled with ups and downs and very few pictures because we couldn't find our camera. We found it when we got home.  But I did take my phone on one of our hikes so we have exactly 5 pictures to commemorate the event.  That's right, 5.

I got some real beauties didn't I? And now I will proceed to tell you of the ups and downs of our trip.  And there were many.

Down:  We had to put air bags on the back tires of our van to pull the trailer properly.  We were loaded and ready to go and realized that the airbags weren't holding air.  So the first stop on our trip was to commercial tire. Where John spent the next 3 hours with Clark and the boys and I headed up to get a campsite with Alison and the girls. 

Up:  Once fixed the van pulled the trailer just fin. It didn't even struggle on the big hills.

Down:  Due to disagreements over where the different trailers should be parked, we ended up parking our trailer on a bumpy grassy area.  The trailer rolled off the block twice and one of the stabilizer legs broke.  We were off to a great start.

Up:  Clark is super handy and fixed the stabilizer.  Crisis averted.

Down: Rain. Off and on for our first two days.  I do not enjoy camping in the rain.  It involved a serious lack of socks for my children. Constant wet feet, never enough sun to dry everything out.

Up:  We were less than a quarter mile from a huge hot springs, so although it was raining, we hung out in the nice warm water and enjoyed being wet.

Down: Complete and utter Hurricane-like down pour. I was honestly surprised we stayed dry because it was raining so hard.  I could touch water when I touched the canvas and pillows that touched the sides got wet.

Up:  The trailer survived the downpour without any leaking.  No drips.  And we weren't in a tent.  We would have been soaked! 

Down:  The heater broke.  Upon much inspection and attempts to fix it, by the second night the igniter on the heater was declared officially dead.  We froze.  I hadn't packed many extra blankets due to the excitement of finally having a heater.  Lesson learned.

Up: The rain stopped by Saturday morning and by lunch time we were completely dried out.

Up:  We hiked up to an old lookout from the 1930's that is still manned.  It was interesting talking to the deputy on duty.  Sounds like a horribly boring job sitting alone at the top of a mountain looking for fire and what not but still cool at the same time.

Up:  Smore's, woof 'ems, dutch oven, foil dinners, and all sorts of other yummy camp food. 

Up:  Kids playing constantly with minimal fighting.  Rare these days.  And honestly, that's most of the reason I camp.  Just to have my kids outdoors and away from electronic overload.

Up:  Syd had her baby while we were camping.  3 weeks early!  I found out when we got service on our way back into town.  Doesn't really fit with this post but I'll stick it in anyways.  And she's blessing her baby over the weekend of our next scheduled camping trip.....not sure if that's good or bad :)

I'd say in the end that the ups out weighed the downs. 
And now we know to fix the heater before we head out again. 
Which sadly won't be until September. 
How did our summer get so packed that we don't have time to camp more!

Princess Camp

Ainsley and Bria put on a princess camp in order to make some money this summer.  They spent weeks planning, making crafts, making and delivering flyers, and gathering supplies. Which, in case you were wondering, means that their mothers were also spending weeks doing the exact same things.  They had their first week of princess camp the beginning of June at our house for the little girls in our neighborhood and they will hold a second session next week at Bria's house for little girls in her neighborhood.

We felt well prepared the first day.  And we all quickly learned that we had our work cut out for us.  The girls did the majority of the work but I was still worn out from it all.  Their camp lasted for 5 days, and for 2 hours a day. Each day featured a different princess with snacks and activities to go along with the themes.  They made glass slippers, painted Olaf, sang songs, read stories, played in the water, ate snow cones, decorated crowns, had a photo booth, made and decorated sugar cookies, made fruit kabob wands, and did a million other things. 

We had 7 girls at our house and I was impressed with how well it all went.  Some days went better than others, but overall it was a success.  The girls all seemed happy.  Their parents all seemed happy.  Ains and Bria each made $58 after paying for their supplies.  My house was sufficiently dirty and we were all sufficiently tired by the end of the week.  Now on to round two!!!

Summer. The first of many installments.

School ended and summer had us hitting the ground running.  Our end of school pool party ended late and Owen was up at the crack of dawn the next morning for day camp. We are only a week and a half into summer and we've already had a yard sale, with accompanying snow cone stand, scout camp for Owen, friends galore, days spent swimming, parties with friends, sleepovers alone in the living room (that's how Emmie prefers to do it anyways) a trip to the river, kids trip to Eagle Island (without me...hallelujah!) father and son's campout, and a whole lot of crazy!  The kids have yet to be in bed before 10:00.  And just to clarify I mean 10:00 pm.   I think it's going to be an awesome summer.

 



School's Out for Summer!

Actually it was out 2 weeks ago....I'm just getting around to writing about it now.  The last few weeks of school flew by like a whirl wind. they were jam packed.  So much so that when Ains came home 5 days before the last day of school telling us that they had a new project assigned where she had to make a model of a person from Idaho history John and I both asked her what would happen if she just didn't do it.  Our daughter isn't as lazy as we are and she did the project on her own. Both of my kids once again tried out for the talent show this year.  What is it with my kids and talent shows!?  I mean, I love talent shows and all, but every year?

Owen did a great job.  He played Mission Impossible on the piano.  He was originally going to play that while his friend did kung Fu moves, but his friend bailed so he was on his own.  He was a huge hit!  And it was a much welcomed break from the 8 Frozen musical numbers we also enjoyed during the first and second grade talent show.

Ains and her friends danced again this year.  They danced to "Happy".  Although you wouldn't have guessed that by the look on Ainsley's face :). She actually did a great job too. The girls came up with all of their moves all by themselves and did a great job.  

You never would have guess that these three lovelies were in the fight of their lives during this picture.  We had a bit of drama the last 2 days of school and Ains came home in tears when she and her friend were followed and yelled at by a mob.  She stood up for a girl being attacked and boy did she pay for it.  I was proud of her for standing up for what she thought was right.  She was still in tears though.  So in an attempt to have a good last day of school we did what anyone would do to quickly end a fight.  We gave all the kids involved a little treat on the last day of school.  I explained to Ains that while we wouldn't be solving any problems, everyone would magically get along on the last day of school.  And they did.

Preschool Graduation

Emmie had her preschool graduation yesterday.  She really has learned so much this year.  Her teacher, Mrs. B,  is wonderful. She is so low-key and patient.  She has taught Emmie so much.  Emmie has loved going to preschool.  And at this point I'm happy I have another year of preschool to look forward to because I'm not sure I'm ready for her to grow up.

Dance Recital

Emmie also finished up her dance class this month.  She actually had 2 performances at retirement homes and then her big recital.  Her performances at her recital were two of my favorite things ever.  She was so animated and dedicated to her dance it was awesome!  I laughed so hard I cried.  If I recall I cried at Ainsley's first dance recital too but for different reasons.  I was just sad she was growing up.  Emmie brought me to tears through sheer entertainment.   I love that girl!

 

 

(Her dance files are too big to upload here so if you want to watch them you'll have to go to facebook :)

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's day.  John's meetings were shortened in the morning (he's the ward clerk now) and even though he had to take care of tithing after church the kids were (for the most part) helpful and we all had a nice day.  The kids gave me awesome cards and gifts.  But I think the thing I will always most remember about this mothers day was how Emmie stole my gift. 

She came home from preschool one day with a wrapped package and a card for me.  She told me she was going to save it for me for  mother's day.  You can imagine the anticipation I felt.  And then one day Emmie started wearing this new necklace.  She loved it.  The blue beads on it were her favorite.  I had to retie the necklace many times that week and search for last beads.  Then on Mother's day I realized that Emmie had given me her card, but not her gift.  Upon investigation we learned she had unwrapped my gift and kept it for herself because she loved it so much.  Too cute.