Cub Camp

This weekend was Jared's two day cub scout camp.  I drove up with the scouts the first day. Things have changed a lot for me since last year when I went camp and was totally clueless.  This time I was knowledgeable and prepared.  At camp the boys were able to shoot  BB guns, bows and arrow, sling shots, play games and do crafts.  Jared seemed to have a really good time and we were lucky that it was cloudy and cooler than the 100's we've had this week. Even though I just had the follow the boys around and supervise, I came home exhausted and both Jared and I were filthy.



First Date

Kaitlin went on her first date this week.  On Tuesday she was texting back and forth with a guy friend and then a moment later the home phone rang and he asked her out on her first date.  They double dated with another couple and went hiking and watched a movie. She was so excited all week and she had a great time.


Off to Camp

Last Sunday I was called into the bishop's office. I met with a member of the bishopric and this is how it went:

Bishopric Member: "We'd like you to be a young women's camp leader." Me: "For next year?" Bishopric Member: "Um...no...for in eight days." Me: !O-O!  

It took me a couple of minutes to wrap my mind around it, but when he asked me if I needed to check my schedule, I told him that it wasn't necessary; I'd make it work.

The girls are excited that I am going with them, especially Kaitlin. This is her last year of camp and she has always wanted me to go with her.  We leave on Tuesday early.

My family watching the parade

Fun Fourth

We had a great holiday. It started with us going up to my parent's town and enjoying some small town USA. I've posted before about their cute little parade that goes down the road one way throwing candy and then turns around and drives back the other way throwing candy again. Only this year the fire trucks were late and some of the parade started up again behind the trucks so we got to see some of it three times.  As long as they were throwing candy we were happy to cheer for them.

They dropped 100s of these parachutes of candy

And then they had the candy drop from the airplane.  This is the first year all of my children were able to obtain their own candy parachutes.    Afterwards we had a nice picnic at Snow Park and had a nice visit with my siblings and their families.  In the evening we had a fun BBQ with the neighbors (a family from Turkey, and some Canadians) and the kids played water games and we lit fireworks. All in all a fun Forth.


The Maiden Voyage

Our Days of 47 float made it's first appearance on Tuesday in the city parade.  It looked wonderful and while there were maybe 12 floats in the parade, ours was by far the largest and most colorful.  I'll be walking by the float in the Days of 47 parade as the safety person.  They tell me I get an official t-shirt and everything.

Here we are queuing up for the parade

We call the right side the "KSL side" because it is the side that will be shown on TV

Bows and Arrows

For Family Home Evening this week we made two bows out of PVC pipe.  It was a little more involved than I expected but in the end the bows worked really well and we were able to hit a target with them at 20 feet.  You can find the instructions for the bows here. 



Coming Up

We have a lot of things coming up.  This week, Jared and I will be going to Cub Scout day camp.  Then, next Monday and Tuesday is the Days of 47 Float Preview party, where our float will be displayed for the public and judged.  We know we won't have the best float there, but it won't be the worst either so we are hoping to win something.  Then, unexpectedly (I was just asked today), I'll be going church camp with Kaitlin and Ruth for 4 days next week.   So that's a lot going on for us. It's good we didn't plan our family vacation until  next month.

The view from our back yard.

Another Fire

Yes, we've survived our second fire in as many years.  This one was different in that it was not as close to our home. It wasn't like the fire two years ago that barreled down our mountain right towards us, and gave my children nightmares for months after.  That fire only burned a few homes, and no one we knew.  This fire was further to the west, but burned right through the yards of several of my friends from the Arts Council.  One friend was decorating for her daughter's wedding reception when the thirty foot flames blew towards their house. What a blessing, she said on facebook, that so many people were there because of the reception to dig fire lines and douse their home with water. 

My friend Julie's house

So while farther away, this fire was also close to home for us.   Today in church, a policeman told of the fire sweeping across a field towards the subdivision he was evacuating.  He saw the vinyl fence barrier melt as the flames licked closer and ran towards his truck for his life, then the wind suddenly shifted and the fire blew away, sparing all the homes.  He felt in his heart that it was the prayers of the people that saved the homes.

My friend Debra's house is the one in the middle front.

In the end, four homes were lost.  My friends were all safe but three of them lost their yards and outbuildings.  It gave special meaning to us today, in church, when we sang the Star Spangled Banner together - the feeling that, as a community, we are there for each other - that we are in this together.

No More Teachers

This week was Ruth and Jared's final week of school.  For Ruth this was her big graduation from elementary school.  She is looking forward to middle school and the first long summer break of her life.  Thanks to our year-round system, Jared will be going back to school at the end of the month.  He's excited to have a fresh start with a new teacher, as he has struggled with his teacher this year.

Finishing the Float

We had a big push this week to finish our Days of 47 float.  I hadn't worked on it for a few days, so when I went to work on Saturday I was so impressed and happy to see how wonderful it looked! Our float makes it's debut on Tuesday night in the city parade.  We are excited but also trepidatious that the transporting of it will damage it.  There are a couple of weeks between the parade and the preview where our float will be on public display and will be judged that we will have to repair and improve it.

Kaitlin panning for gold with her friend Susan.

Youth Conference

Kaitlin spent several days at a youth conference with her church group.  They went camping and spent a day at This is the Place Pioneer Village, doing service and learning about pioneer life. She got to pan for gold, rake weeds and go on a hike to a waterfall, among other things, and reports that she had a great time.

Sweet 16 Kaitlin

Yes, it's true. Kaitlin turned 16 this week.  She spent half the week at her Dad's house where she got a huge surprise party with dancing and everything. At our house on Saturday she had a co-party with her friend Rachael who just lives a few houses away.  Her family hosted half the party where they served dinner and played water games, and then they all came to our house for smores and cake. After last year's cake success,  Kaitlin and I had fun trying to make a tiered fondant cake.  It turned out cute and the party was a lot of fun. 

Almost There

We have one week to go on our Days of 47 Float. After several failed attempts on the sheep bodies they've decided on a style and are welding them.  Our pioneer lady's head is finished and the sheep heads only need painting. This week I got to  make huge glittered yarn balls.  Ready or not, our float is supposed to make its premier in a town parade this weekend. 

 
Last Week of School

This week Ruth and Jared were very busy in school with doing important things like: building a solar oven and making nachos, building a catapult, doing science experiments, building and launching a rocket, learning German.   And next week will be even busier with events such as: field day,  teacher student softball, and clean the tote trays day.

Happy Father's Day

Microwaved soap mountain.

Today, for Father's Day, Chuck was treated to a Jared sandwich special: three pieces of bread with ham, cheese, pepperoni and banana peppers.   We celebrated the rest of the day by playing computer games together, blowing up Ivory soap in the microwave, eating ice cream and watching the movie Courageous.  We're so blessed to have a great dad like Chuck. He always puts our family first and works hard for us.


Float Update

I spent quite a few hours this week putting the final touches on the screening of the rocking chair and spinning wheel.  They had someone else finish the wheel and the next day they emailed me and asked me to come and 'fix' it.  I did, and then Chuck and I went back over the weekend and cleaned them up and put on a few patches.  While we were there working the other group came in and started laying down the first of the floral sheeting.  All this time our float has just been an ugly frame. It was fun to watch the color start to go on.



Let the Summer Begin

Kaitlin finished off Driver's Ed and now just needs to do three drive-alongs and then she can take the driver's test and get her license.  We aren't sure how long it will take for her to get scheduled for her drive-alongs but we hope it will be soon.  So now that summer school is done, Kaitlin can enjoy a few days off before the next big events in her busy summer - her 16th birthday.  That's right, Kaitlin turns sweet 16 on Wednesday.  We are co-hosting a big party for her on Saturday.

Driver's Ed

Kaitlin started her vacation with summer driver's ed.  Luckily, she has several friends in the class; that has helped it be more fun for her.  However, she said driving in circles for 2 hours at 6am is not fun.



City Days

Every year our city sponsors Touch-a-Truck where they park city vehicles, police cars, fire trucks and military vehicles in a field and let us clime all over them.  This year there was a big helicopter there and we got to watch it take off.  It kicked up quite a wind! 

Saturday morning was our town parade. It was better and bigger than past years. It was fun to see several floats in the parade that I had seen in the construction phase (because of my float building training).  Jared and Ruth got tons of candy.  

That night we went to the "Enduro Challenge".  We had never heard of enduro cross, so we looked it up on the internet.  It consists of motorcycles driving around a track covered with logs, rocks and pipes.  It was the first race of its kind in our area, and it was open to anyone willing to pay the fee.  We went in the afternoon to watch the practice runs.  It was a scene of carnage. Each new group was just wrecks and getting stuck.  It was one of the most entertaining things we've ever seen. The UTV class was our favorite. I posted a video we made of the event on YouTube

Float Update

This weekend we saw two other stake floats in the city parade.  That means two other groups that were asked to make floats are done, and we aren't even close.   I was able to finish screening the rocking chair and I started work on the spinning wheel and got that half done.  I took the weekend off, so I'm interested to see the progress that has been made

.

Memorial Day

On Monday we drove up to the farm to celebrate Memorial Day with the family.  We visited the cemetery where many of my family is buried and left flowers. Afterwards we had a nice lunch and enjoyed visiting and hanging out together.  Exciting happenings included, Kaitlin being grateful that she didn't fly into the barbed wire, Uncle Mark's 4 wheeler getting driven into the canal, and a debate on whether veggi sticks are tasty or gross.   I took a bunch of pictures but now I can not find them and have to assume they were deleted from the camera.  Just imagine in your mind's eye a picture of the children reverently standing beside a grave, flowers in hand, listening attentively as grandma tells them of their great ancestors, an American flag waves gently in the breeze in the background. Yeah, that's what happened all right!


Take Me Out to the Ball game -or- My Best Friend Orrin

On Friday we drove into the city to see the Bees play, a minor league baseball team.  Our tickets were courtesy of our good friend Orrin Hatch, and included a seat in the outfield and food vouchers for hotdogs and drinks.  None of us really like baseball, but we decided to go for the experience since we've never been.  We ended up having a great time.  The Bees won and we even got to chat with Senator Hatch and get our family's picture taken with him (picture to come).   In addition to the occasional moments of excitement that the game provided, we also enjoyed rapping about cinnamon almonds, throwing paper airplanes and going to treats at Winco after the game.



Working on the Float

 On Saturday, Chuck took the kids to the ribbon cutting of our new section of highway that was just finished.  It was a big deal with a fun run and booths and free stuff.  The kids came home with tales of free snow cones and cotton candy, free frisbees, water bottles and backpacks.

Kaitlin glued her hand together.

 Meanwhile, I started the screening of the rocking chair on our Days of 47 float.  In the afternoon Chuck and Kaitlin came to join me.  It's an interesting process.  You wrap aluminum screen over a metal frame, and then glue and shape it to fit exactly.  Once sticky and gluey you mold and stretch the screen so it's tight like a skin.  The glue (95$ a gallon) is like rubber cement on steroids and sticks to your hands, and tools and everything. 

Chuck used his spacial skills to cut the pieces.

If you get it on your arms you can just kiss the hair goodbye.  And working with the aluminum is like working with a thousand little needles and then those little needles get glued to your skin... anyway, you get the picture.   It was certainly an adventure and we kept a good attitude and had a fun time doing it.  We got the chair about half done.  The next step is to paint it.

You can follow the progress of the float at my float blog HERE.