Our Camping Trip
We made it home from camping, and had a wonderful time. For pictures, you can go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86866&id=579103778&l=e48e0e0ab6
In our church ward there is a man who is in charge of the Boy Scout Camps. He was able to arrange it so that the ward went up to Many Point Scout Camp Family Camp and utilize their cabins and tent sites for free while we did service projects. We cleaned the cabins, trimmed trees and brush, scrubbed the shower houses and lodge, mowed grass, and put in a new playground. It was hard work, but well worth the money we saved and the service we rendered. About 22 families came, and it was fun getting to know them better and letting our children run around, and feel safe letting them go off and explore. The weather behaved for the most part, with the exception of a rain shower about 2 hours before our scheduled potluck and testimony meeting, and some sprinkles the day we left, but that is a good thing as it made it easier to leave.
The man who arranged it isn’t a member of the though church, though his wife is. After the potluck (we brought walking tacos and cut up veggies) we went down to the group area for a testimony meeting and he (Jim) started a fire in a log tower (made of 3 sections of hollow logs) filled with tinder. It was really cool! Then we waited around patiently and after everyone showed up, Jim and the bishop showed up in their white jumpers and went into Many Point lake and Jim was baptized. We’ve only been in the ward a little over a year and a half, but apparently a few years back Jim came sporadically, and then made friends and 2 years ago came every week. Even his wife didn’t know about the baptism and some called out “Hey Jen, why is Jim in all white?” She whipped her head around and didn’t get it at first, but when she understood what was happening, the tears started flowing from everyone’s eyes. OK, dunce that I am, I admit my first thought was “Huh, Jim and bishop are putting on a skit about baptism!” and then it hit me too. So it was very spirtual and memorable and I am grateful I was able to be there for that.
The rest of the time went well. Everyone fished as often as they could, mostly getting rock bass and bluegill sunfish. Dylan’s Lighning McQueen rod caught the most fish, LOL! The kids went swimming, and Dylan didn’t have his trunks on. He asked to go get them and I said “Dylan, they are all the way back at the cabin!” And a friend said “Just don’t go naked Dylan, we don’t care!” and she and I both chuckled about it. A few minutes later one of the teenage girls said “Dylan, what are you doing?” and I turned around and there was Dylan with his shorts and underwear around his ankles. I said “Dylan, she was just KIDDING!” and he pulled he clothes on and we went to get his trunks. Mark got up one morning at 5:30 AM and went around taking pictures. There is a lot of Yellow Lady Slippers up there. There are also a lot of dragonflies that ate the mosquitos, so we had very little of them. And lots of ticks, both deer and wood. We found a few wood ticks, but no deer ticks that we know of. One night we watched an outdoor movie on a sheet and that was lovely too. It was a good time, but I am looking forard to getting Reese’s birthday party on Saturday out of the way, getting past next week’s Scout Camp for Zach, eye appointment for Alisa, and well-child appointment for Reese out of the way and being able to relax for a month before Gabby is off the Girl’s Camp through the church.
I’m still not seeing a link to the Eagle Scout story in our local paper. My friend Steph says newspaper article do go it, it may just take a while. One day we’ll just scan it ourselves perhaps? Zach and Gabby are all signed up for band/choir next year. We looked at electives for Zach to take, but the ones he wanted (drawing, art, woodworking) were full. We looked at getting him into chemistry or a foreign language but they have an odd trimester schedule and chemistry would have been “Intro to Chemistry” and he needs a more advanced course than that. French would have been at an odd time of the day, having me run into town twice, so we’ll just carry on at home with that too.