Christmas Meadows

Welcome to Christmas Meadows in the fall. We decided we wanted to get away one more time before it got too cold to go camping. So G- packed us up and off we went to our family's favorite fishing hole.




It was beautiful. The fall leaves were beginning to turn brilliant colors of orange and yellow. The crispness in the air was only evident in the brisk evening and cool morning. The daytime temperature was shirtsleeve pleasant.



We saw some interesting things while we were out for our adventure. We came upon this elk while we were trying to catch up to G- as he was fishing along the river. It startled us because we were walking along in the tall grass and shrubs. Then suddenly there it was. It is a disturbing example that we were in nature and it is not always pretty.














Here is an example of people disregarding nature and just sculpting tree trunks with their chain saws. And the only thing pretty in this picture is K-.
While G- was fishing, K-and I decided to build a fairy house. This was really a fun especially as we thought of more and more things we could add to the house to make it more comfortable for the fairies to visit it.


We left grapes and chips for the fairies to eat. We also made a firepit with benches around it. We gathered fire wood and even laid a fire. We think the fairies will enjoy their house don't you?

I loved this trip and the best part about it is that MDH planned the meals, bought the food, and packed us up. All I had to do was pack myself! Don't you think more women would enjoy camping if they were treated this well. I know I was treated this time and I totally enjoyed it. Thanks honey!

I'm Sorry

You would not believe how crazy things have been lately. So I'm sorry it's been so long since I have posted anything. I do want to go back and post a lot of the cool things we have been doing but I am not going to go through the mental effort of trying to figure out how to keep them in order. So I hope you enjoy the walk back through our summer of adventure.

Excepting The Inevitable

So MdH finally decided he wanted to imbrace his baldness. He's been thinking about doing this for years, but this day he asked if I wanted to shave it off and I told him I would.

I decided to have a little fun during the process. It's a good look for him don't ya think.


I think he looks really good with the clean shaven look and now that the skin is getting tan, it looks even better. I can't say what was going on in K's mind at the time. But I'm sure she must have been thinking about Christmas for sure.
So now it's been a while since he had this look. At first it was shocking everytime I saw him. But now I am very used to it. I think he looks pretty cool. I do miss his hair too. So whatever he decides he wants to keep I will still love him. He's my man!

The Banana Skit

Here is our rendition of the banana skit so well done originally by my brother inlaw.

We did this up at girls camp. It was a big hit.

Everything was all well and good with practicing this skit until, we actually had to start eating the banana, which I am truely not a fan. It all got really gross to me. We had to cut some of the bananas out and even then I had a hard time swallowing them as you can see in one place, I just spit some of it out. Well it was really fun anyways. And the girls loved it, so that's what counts!

Family Pictures

So the kids decided we needed a new family picture. They chose the date, place, and what we were to where. They decided to use J-'s camara with a timer. G- and I just had to show up! I loved it! Here are some of the best shots.



It's funny that our best family picture was the second picture we took. There is something to be said about keeping it simple.

Home Improvements

We had this unsitely part of our backyard which was a sand box for a while until the cats overtook it. Then we had plywood overit for years to keep the cats out of it. But the ants liked it a lot and it looked trashy. We decided we wanted to put some cement there. We haven't done much cement work, but I thought we could learn and make it much nicer. Here's how it looked once we took off the plywood and dug out much of the sand.

Here is the finished product. We are very happy with how much better everything looks!

Not Fair! Not Fair! Not Fair!

So last September my camp director and I chose a camp site we would like to take our girls for girls camp. The site is awesome. It has bunk beds in cabins, showers and sinks and bathrooms as well as a lodge.

Last Saturday we get this call from the caretaker saying that another camp made a mistake and planned to come up to camp on the very same week we have planned and scheduled to. This stake has about 250 some people and we will have about 25. The mistake they made didn't seem to be their fault, but somewhere along the line communication failed and their schedule soon became our problem even though we have the paper trail and we had done nothing wrong!

They offered to share with us by giving us a part of the camp that is less than desireable compared to what we had planned on. I'm wondering why they are offering to share with us when the camp is supposed to be ours. Anyway, we took our YCL's and through a great deal of prayer and discussion we still felt that we were in the right and we should get to keep the camp we planned on.

Our YCL's told the lady and we thought all was settled. Then I find out later that the camp caretaker called them back and told them there was some kind of directors or authority that said we had to share. The camp caretaker did not call me back and give me the same information.

Last night my friend Suzy was going up to another ward's camp as the Stake Young Women's second counselor. Just to be nice I asked her to check to see if it was a nice camp and if it was available and suitable for the other stake to go to. Suzy came back and said that it was.

So last night I called the camp director of the other stake to tell her about it and she wasn't even willing to look at it on the internet or consider going to it. She said that her priesthood leaders told them to just continue with their same plan of going up to our camp.

Oh, I was sooo mad! Their plan was to arrive there on Monday and our plan was to arrive there on Tuesday. As far as I knew, they would have just gotten up there set up camp the way they wanted, we would have showed up on Tuesday and not even been prepared for the other part of camp that they were "offering" us as we would need tents and cooking equipment.

Now it seems that we have no choice, because their idea of sharing is to come in and take what they want just because of their size! How do we fight that! Its like a big bully at school!

There doesn't seem much I can do. I am going to call the caretaker this morning and give her a piece of my mind though. I also should get the number of this "authority" and make sure they realize that there is another camp available to this stake and that they should not be allowed to steal our camp as long as they have other options.

There are other parts of the story that involve our Bishop and Stake President who support us whole heartedly.

If they still insist that they are stealing our camp, or that we "share the two year old way" (they get everything they want while we get nothing we want). Then I'm going to tell them we need a cabin, a field and the lodge. They can have all the other parts of the camp especially the parts they were so willing to "offer" us.