First, we met up in Preston at a park to play and eat some lunch. Wendy's for the win! It was so great to see everyone again (minus Amy & Kolby who arrived later) especially baby Gordon. I love how the kids always pick up like they've never been apart and play like best friends. Then, we went on a tour of many of the locations used in the movie "Napoleon Dynamite". The kids are all Napoleon geeks and it is the 15th anniversary of the movie this year, so we had a good time. We even got to tour the Rex Kwando gym, which is now a youth activity area for a church, and the school, where we enjoyed finding Napoleon's locker and doing happy hand club movements down the hall. "Gosh" we all enjoyed this, it was classic. Then we made it to Napoleon's house. "Heck yes!"
We ventured up to the camp ground next, which was a beautiful setting. It was nestled right in the mountains next to Cub River. They had a cabin that slept about 10 inside and had a few conveniences - i.e. indoor plumbing and some kitchen appliances. Outside, we set up the tents and got all ready for camping. We played some lawn games, and enjoyed the basketball courts, horseshoes, swings, tree house and tether ball. Oh yes, tether ball. We played a lot of that! Sydnie got a little chip in her tooth on the horseshoe stake. Grandma Di gave everyone their survival and outdoor skill passports. Each page had themes on it and tasks the kids needed to complete and get stamped off. They started out with some distress signals on their whistles. They loved that, but the adults didn't love it so much. We did a couple other survival and wilderness things like learning about poisonous and edible plans. We had some BBQ sandwiches, corn on the cob and pasta salad for dinner and Amy, Kolby and Boji made it there so we were happy to see them. We sat around and talked and hung out and then we sang some camp songs. My mom brought her guitar and the kids tried the washboard and some other rhythm instruments she brought. It was fun! Cov and Marko were also hamming it up as usual. "Diggy Diggy Hole" was a new song introduced by Uncle Marko and now our kids can't get enough of singing that one. Cal also helped do a lot of things to earn his camping badge for Cub Scouts. Emma and Amber slept in a tent together, and the rest of us slept in our tent. It was a coooold night but we made it through. The kids slept well at least!
The next morning, we made some omelets in a bag for breakfast. Then we set off on a hike. It was a pretty hike, a little muddy but we found some fresh animal tracks, field of beautiful wild flowers (which inspired Dave to sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music...", and the bones of some animal, and learned some more hiking and plant tips and survival tips from Kolby. When we got back, we played some more, ate some lunch, played animal track Twister, which was a hit. Then we practiced making our own shelters, writing distress signals in the ground, and went Geocaching, which was what our family was in charge of. Dave talked about it and then we went to find the geocache in that area. The kids were excited to find the treasure, which was a note and a few other trinkets like a boondoggle key chain. We signed the log and put it back in the hiding spot it was in. We went back to hang out again for a while. Emma and Amber could be found in the tent talking together, Cal and Steven were usually playing tether ball or basketball, Lucy and Ruby were doing art in a tent or cabin together, Cov and Boji were running around together playing and laughing, and Sydnie was found looking at the baby, or playing with Grandma or Grandpa. Next, we did some knots and made some para chord bracelets. We made tin foil dinners and muffins and brownies in oranges. We lit the fire and used a color changing fire thing Cal got from Scouts last year, which was pretty cool! We ate and then enjoyed talking and laughing and then all of the kids helped do a campfire program. Emma and Amber made up one about camping safety. Steven and Cal came up with one about fire. Ruby and Lucy talked about something. Cov and Boji were dancing so funny around the campfire, we were all crying! We sang some songs and then we did a Covenant Path activity. My mom talked about how President Nelson has really been stressing staying on the covenant path. So, she talked about the different covenants we make - baptism, endowment, marriage, enduring to the end. Then, we walked to where we were on the path and on rocks, we wrote what we'd do to stay on that covenant path. Some of our family wrote "scripture study, prayer, being more kind, going to the temple". The Spirit was strong and I am grateful that our family is all trying their best to stay on that path!
Wednesday, we woke up and ate breakfast, and then packed up and cleaned up and packed out. We went into town and played some games at a park. Then we went to Pizza Stop for lunch, which was really delicious. Finally, we ended the afternoon at Riverdale Resort hot springs. We had the place almost to ourselves. The water slides were kinda scary, but the kids enjoyed them and the water felt nice. We then went to Angie's in Logan with some of us to try the kitchen sink challenge. That's a big "sink" filled with a gallon of ice cream, and lots of toppings, bananas, whipped cream. It was tasty and we ate ourselves silly and though we didn't quite scrape the bowl clean, they gave us some bumper stickers saying we cleaned the sink there. We talked and laughed a lot and it was great to see some of the fam a little bit more. We are blessed to have the family we do and to have the Gospel! It is everything!
No comments:
Post a Comment