Cabin
May 26th-28th
After we finished the Hall Family Reunion, we headed back to Utah via Bear Lake. What's a trip to the Halls without a visit to the cabin! It was cold, muddy, but very relaxing. I very much enjoyed our visit there.
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| picked up some crazies and took them home with us...jus kiddin! we love our nieces and nephew :) |
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| driving happy and safe (promise!) |
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| the drive up was pretty slick |
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| had some snow up there |
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| it's snowing! |
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| family nap time at the cabin. it was nice! |
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| got mud? |
Sadly, our time at the cabin came to an end. James and I had to wake up early and head out to catch our flight home. On our drive I said to James, I could live in Utah just to have a house with a yard and basement. Anybody know of some engineering job out there? No, James isn't going for that. Raytheon continues to take care of my husband because he's AWESOME! I didn't mention this before but I should have, James was RAM Employee of the Month! He got his very own parking place right next to the building entrance for a whole month! Good for you my hubby! I sure love you and am so grateful that you do such a great job taking care of your little family!
That was only a slight tangent...onto Memorial Day:
May 28, 2012
We spent it in Mesa with my family. It was SO weird to go from mid 40-50s, rain, snow, windy and cold temperatures to sweltering triple digits, sunny and HOT weather. Thank goodness for my parent's pool!
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| The Gilbert Temple is coming along nicely. I'm so excited for another temple so close! |
Trek
June 1, 2012
James and I were asked back in March or April to help out at our stake's Trek. It was the first one for our Stake. We were asked to help with the Taffy Pulling at the Pioneer Village that the youth would stop at on their second day. We accepted and then procrastinated learning how to make the taffy. Well, I did. It was 3 days before we were to be at Trek when I finally went and bought a candy thermometer and Karo corn syrup to make this stuff. That was a bad idea to wait so long. My first few attempts went really bad.
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| burned |
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| burned |
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| epic fail - i made hard candy instead of taffy.... |
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| getting closer. this batch ended up being too hard as well |
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| finally a batch that pulled. my hubby to the rescue!! |
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| done with taffy. never. again. |
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| instead of pulling taffy at the pioneer village, we just brought the taffy that we pulled and worked on the ice cream station instead. I was juuuuuust fine with that :) |
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| Haley Egbert - our little assistant. She came with Kara, her mom, who was in charge of the Pioneer Village. |
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| The hair washing/braiding station. This by far was the most popular station. And for good reason. These youth were pulling their carts in record heat! It was low 100s for the temps the days that the kids pulled. |
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| Brita Addington, Kim Hardy and Sara Castillo - The butter churners! |
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| Deliciousness! |
After the Pioneer Village was done, the kids got ready to pull again. They were renewed after 3 hours of rest, relaxation, hair washing, feet washing, food, naps and ice cream. However, the time came when the men were called to the Mormon Battalion. The women's pull had begun.
That was such a hard moment! The ladies from the pioneer village volunteered to help the young women pull the carts but we could only take them so far. Watching the men leave while singing, God Be With You Till We Meet Again brought tears to everyone's eyes. I thought about what the Pioneer women went through and imagined James walking away from me. That was hard. I can't even imagine what that felt like. For some of those women it was the last time they saw their husbands! I looked at those handcarts, whose wheels were as tall as me, and then I looked at the young women, who seemed to grow taller too as they took on the challenge of pulling the hand carts.I helped pull a cart from the front and it. was. hard. Those things are HEAVY. And they didn't have much in them! But the girls pulled through. Upward and onward. The pioneer village ladies pulled with the young women for about 100 yards and then we had to stop and let them do it on their own. It was right before this ridiculous hill. I hadn't been paying attention to where we were and I ended up helping to push a cart up this hill. I don't think I'd done something that taxing before. They did it though! The young women were amazing!
The above picture was the hill that was so steep. I helped push up this hill. The girls were so strong and after getting their cart up the hill, a few of them ran back down to help other carts come up. It was hard to watch them struggle and not be able to help them. But they carried on and did amazing! I couldn't believe how strong they were - I about lost it at the top of the hill! I had to sit down with my head between my knees and I hobbled back down seeing two of everything. I think I experienced some level of heat exhaustion. When I got to the bottom of the hill I found I wasn't the only sister that had. James came and got us and walked us back to the pioneer village where Bishop Elam promptly poured almost 2 liters of warm water down my head and back to cool me off. :)
We'd ridden up with the Nielsens and they had brought chickens and a goat to make the village look more legitimate. This is James and Melanie Nielsen trying to catch the last few chickens. They were stubborn little buggers and didn't want to be caught. :)
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| Bushed! |
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| Haley was such a little trooper! Her mom had to stay and help with the rest of Trek so she rode home in the same car as us. We weren't even 2 seconds into the ride home and her head was drooping. I asked her if she wanted to lay down on my lap. She nodded her head and promptly fell asleep for the entire hour and a half ride home. |
Gates Pass
6/2/12 & 6/9/12
Our friend, and the doctor that I work with, Nathan Bartschi, showed us a gem that I had no idea existed in Tucson until a few weeks ago. He took us to Gates Pass to see the sunset. The first time he took us it was a spur of the moment thing and I was unprepared for the hike (wrong shoes!) So we planned to do it a week later and we made a double date out of it. It was so much fun! We fixed hamburgers at his house, hiked Gates Pass, then came home and played games.
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| This was the best spot. It was a little bit of a hike to get here and some of it was pretty precarious (which James bravely overcame!) but it was so worth it. Such a great view! |
Girls Camp
June 11-16th 2012
While I was in Albany, New York back in February, I got a calling, via Face Time, to be the Ward Camp Director. My stress level was never the same for the last 4 months. Time passed by so slowly until June and then it FLEW. All of a sudden, girls camp was here!
The theme followed the general youth them for this year, "Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations." (Doctrine & Covenants 115:5) We were blessed to be able to have the camp up on Mount. Lemmon. We were worried because fire danger has been extremely high with the weather conditions we've been having. But it was okay! And it was BEAUTIFUL up there! We had weather that topped out at 84 degrees. It was wonderful!!
The first day, the 11th, I just took girls to the church. The 4th years and YCLs were the only ones that went up on Monday. I thought they'd need me as a driver but they didn't. So I got one day more to relax and rest before camp :)
Tuesday we made it up to camp in one piece (yay!) and it felt so good. I can't even tell you how good it felt to be in that kind of weather after all the 109 degree days we've had since the month of May. After everyone arrived safely, checked in, and had lunch, the hardest activity (physically) was done first. The HIKES. The First years had a 3 mile hike and the 2nd years had a 2nd mile hike. We all walked together the 1.5 miles to Mount Lemmon Highway and then the first years turned around. I stayed with the second years and continued onward. It was such a FUN hike! So beautiful! And the view at the end was amazing. It reminded me of the repelling trip I did with the Bear Canyon ward 2 Augusts ago. However, going on this hike came with a price: a HUGE HUGE blister on my foot. My shoes were "new;" I'd bought them at Savers so they were somewhat used too. But I should've been smarter and broken them in better. It was painful :( I was just so glad that I got that out of the way on day one.
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| I love how you can see the outline, in dirt, from my shoes. :) |
For Wednesday night's special evening program we had the Arizona Tucson Mission President visit us, along with his wife and two of the Sister Missionaries from our stake. They did some role playing with the girls to help them learn that missionary work is easier than they think. It was great. I really enjoyed it. It was fun to see Sisters again :)
During the day at camp for Wednesday-Friday there were different rotations. There was crafts, archery, certification, free time and service. What was my favorite? Well, free time is a given but ARCHERY was sooo much fun! I'd never shot a bow and arrow before. I tried shooting it right handed but it 1) felt awkard and 2) was too hard. I had no stability strength in my left arm. So I tried it left handed. It. was. fun!
Throughout the week my blister got worse. The nurse had thought putting mole skin on it would help but the stick side of it actually pulled my skin off when I took it off. So, now I had an open wound. She then wrapped it in gauze and an ace bandage and I had to walk around in one shoe and one sandal until I could put my shoe back on. My foot got so dirty! :)
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| Lovely no? |
Free time was spent sleeping or playing :) (what else?)
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| my shadow's pretty cool....jus sayin... |
And then there were the views:
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| Inspiration Point - a favorite spot at Camp Zion. We did our morning personal study here Friday. |
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| Amber Hancock (Co-Ward Camp Director) and Christa Jensen (4th Ward YW President) |
All in all girls camp was pretty good. It took some time for our girls to warm up to each other and work things out. But by the end of camp they were friends. I think they had a great time. It was difficult at some points for me because it felt like high school all over again :) I forgot what it was like to be a teenager. And I would like to forget again! :-P Too much drama! But really, it was more fun than not. I had a good time. And I would be willing to do it again.
