This was our first full week of summer. It kind of felt like the on ramp to the summer. We took care of a lot of boring things like laundry during the first half of the week. But by the end of the week we were on our first camping trip of the summer.
So let's recap.
Monday was Memorial Day. Brandon was off work and I didn't go into my office. We'd already gone on an adventure for the weekend on Saturday so Monday was really just about getting caught up around the house.
We cleaned the house in the morning and then did a lot of outside work in the afternoon. I worked on weeding. Brandon and the twins worked on creating a roof for the chicken run. Our original plan was to leave it open, but then we started to see hawks flying low over our yard. So we figured out a quick way to install a roof.
The twins helped Brandon mount PVC pipe on top of the T-Stakes. Then they spread bird netting over the top.
(I'm adding this after publishing because I COMPLETELY forgot to write about something.
At 12:30 Brandon and I went to see Back to the Future at the movie theater. They do throw back movie matinees every week. Back to the Future is Brandon's favorite movie, but it came out when he was two. So he's never seen it on a big screen.
It was really fun to watch it like that. Also there was an older couple behind us who seemed to have never seen the movie before. Normally I hate when people talk during movies, but their little comments were so funny. Brandon said I was almost like we were back in 1985 watching it with other people for the first time.)
That evening Brandon cooked Hambergers on the grill. So that was kind of holiday-ish.
I'd also done a lot of laundry on Monday. As the kids put it away I had them give me anything that they were done with. There were things we could save for fall, but there were also a lot of things that would be too small by fall. We put those things in a bag.
On Tuesday we took those clothes to DI and donated them. Then we went inside to find shorts for everyone. There was a lot of really good selection. All the girls were able to find shorts - including me. Derrick was really good at looking at toys while we were looking at and trying on clothes. And the girls were really good at trying things on. Everything went well that I even took a minute to try clothes on. I haven't taken all 4 kids to DI (or really any stores) by myself for a long time so I was really happy with how well everything went.
After we were done at DI we drove over to the college and I let the kids play while I was on an important phone call for Derrick's insurance. I'd actually spaced that this call was happening and the lady had called me while we were at DI. I was like, "Um can I call you back in 15 minutes?" She was very understanding.
Here's what the kids looked like while I was talking on the phone in the car. They had a great time playing near the creek.
Charlotte reminded me that we needed more milk so we stopped at Smiths on the way home. She also told me we needed Creamies. So we bought those too. All the kids went out to the hammocks and at Creamies when we got home. This was a very good summer picture.
I went into work in the afternoon and got a lot of things done - after I realized I'd locked my keys in the car. That's the second time I've done that in a week! My boss used his keys to let me into my office and later Brandon came and unlocked the car and gave me my keys. Later he found a big lanyard and put it on the keys.
I have been going grocery shopping on Tuesday evenings, but I realized that it will be so much easier to do it Wednesday mornings this summer. So Veronica and I went grocery shopping on Wednesday before anyone else was up.
At 10:00 I had my scripture study group. It was on Mosiah 14 which is basically just Isaiah 53.
Normally I wouldn't work on Wednesday afternoons, but since I took Monday off I needed to go in on Wednesday. So I went to work. I stopped off at Castle Therapy to touch base with Ivan. He'd been on vacation for a few days so we had some stuff to catch up on.
Then I went to Aspen Grove and did a lot there. I actually ended up on a roll with some things that I've been stuck on for a while. It was good to get on top of all those little things.
Brandon was in charge of the food for a breakfast at our Ward Campout that weekend. He was putting together a list of things to buy and where to buy them. He wanted to get some things at Costco and some others at the Chef's store. He had an online cart full of things at the Chefs store and asked me to check it out for him while he went to costco. I was going to be the one to pick it up anyway so he wanted me to make sure it was in my name.
I was fine with that, but before I checked out I took a look at the cart and got a little concerned. Brandon had a TON of food in the card. And the total was quite high. So then I started texting him with pesky questions like, "What's the headcount for this event?" and "Is there any sort of budget limit on this?"
He said the headcount was 60. So then I was like, "Do you really need 180 eggs?"
He responded with something like, "I'd rather error on the side of caution."
And I just laughed at how different our personalities can be sometimes.
To him, "error on the side of caution" meant make sure there is enough food for everyone. To me it meant maybe not blowing the whole ward budget on one meal.
I ended up not buying the things in the cart and Brandon ended up deciding to buy a few fewer eggs and other things. (But as you'll see we still had PLEANTY of food.)
That night our friend Payton came over while her parents were at rehearsal with Brandon. She really likes our tree house and spent some time engineering things for it.
Charlotte and Lydia had the camp kick off for Young Womens, and Derrick had Young Mens. The activites started at different time and I didn't want to spend half the night driving back and from the church - especially when I was supposed to be watching Payton. So I had a leader give Charlotte and Lydia a ride to and from the activity. I dropped Derrick off at the church, but I asked one of the leaders to bring him home. That all worked really well.
Veronica also worked on Lego things. She made a lego house. This is the first floor.
the second floor.
And the outside.
Thursday was a CRAZY day. I had so much I needed to do, but I wasn't sure how to fit it all in.
I needed to take the kids to DI for a few more clothing things. I needed to take Lydia to look at a cello. I needed to take Charlotte and Lydia to drop off artwork for a contest, I needed to take Veronica to vision therapy. I needed to pick up food for the ward campout. I needed to work.
But I realized I wouldn't have time for it all. Walmart could wait because Derrick had enough shorts to start the summer, and even though Veronica and Charlotte didn't have sandals they did have ones from our "extra" pile that would work.
Lydia had been hounding me about the cello for weeks so that couldn't wait. I decided to take her and Charlotte to the music store and then to drop off their art. Lydia wanted to go from the beginning, but Charlotte didn't want to go at first. She rolled out of bed at the last minute and told me, "My art is too fragile. I don't trust you with it." So she came along basically wearing the clothes she slept in."
We need to give some back story on the cello. And that starts with Charlotte's violin. Last summer we bought Charlotte's violin with some grant money. The grant was some sort of Covid funding to help students catch up on learning that they would have lost during the pandemic. But somehow musical instruments are in that category.
We'd gone through our local music store, Welch music, because they were an approved vendor with the grant program. I planned to do the same thing to buy Lydia's cello this year.
Then I figured out that the grant program could also pay for Veronica's vision therapy. So I used the grant money for vision therapy and decided to use the money that had been ear marked for vision therapy to pay for the cello.
That meant we could go anywhere to buy the cello. But I figured I might as well start with Welch music because they had been so awesome to work with when we bought the violin. I emailed the lady I'd worked with before and asked her what cellos were available.
She emailed me back with 3 options. And I nearly fainted at the prices. The cheapest was $1200. Remember, I paid $1000 for our current van. I was not very comfortable with paying $1200 for an instrument for a 13 year old.
So then I was thinking that maybe it would be cheaper to buy an instrument in Utah. Maybe since there was more selection/competition the prices would be lower. But when I looked at the websites for Summerhays and Riverton Music I saw cellos that were even more expensive. So Utah was out.
I emailed the lady back and was honest with her. I understood why the prices were what they were, but I just wasn't comfortable paying that much for a cello for an 8th grader. I asked her if she knew where I could get maybe a more beginner model for a little less.
I thought she'd reply back with a quick no, but instead she took the time to call around to some of her contacts to see if they had less expensive cellos. None of them had anything. She also asked the store owner if he could lower the price. He agreed to sell us the $1200 cello for $1000.
I was so impressed by her effort and I realized that this was the best deal we were going to get. So that's why I was taking Lydia to play this cello.
We got to the store a little after 10:00 the sales clerk pulled the cello out and we all saw that it was so new that it still needed the brings put on and the strings tuned. That would take a few minutes so I told the store people that we'd be back in about 30 minutes after we ran another errand.
So we left and went to the Magic Valley Arts Council. Charlotte and Lydia each had an entry for the youth division of the Art and Soul Art Contest. Most people were dropping their art off on Saturday. But since we'd be camping I'd asked if we could drop ours off on another day. They'd said we could drop them off anytime during the week.
We got there as a man was finishing up at the gift shop counter. He had a big bag with him. When he was done he asked Charlotte and Lydia, "You look like Youth Artists? I'm a reporter with Channel 6 News. Can I interview you for a story I'm doing about Art and Soul?"
Charlotte agreed right away. Lydia took a minute and then agreed too.
The man got everything set up and started interviewing Charlotte. She had the dragon wings that she'd made for a school art project. They opened and closed with some strings. She showed them off while he recorded. Then he asked some questions about why she likes art. She did a great job.
Then it was Lydia's turn. She had a picture she drew of a castle. She also did a good job answering the reporters questions.
The reporter told us the story would air on either Friday night or Monday night and then be available on the news website. I haven't seen it go up yet, so I'm guessing it will air on Monday.
The girls turned in their pictures. We left and were giddy with how much of a coincidence it had been that we showed up right when that reporter was there.
I'd been thinking that maybe there would be time to buy things at the chefs store before going back to the music store, but the news interviews had eaten up all that time. So I texted Brandon and told him he'd have to do it that afternoon. (That worked out well because he was able to compare prices at Winco and get a better deal on some things.)
I took the girls back to the music store and the cello was ready for us. Lydia tried it out and I couldn't see any reason to wait so I told them we'd buy it. I transferred the money from savings to checking and soon we walked out the door with a cello. It came with a really nice case and a good bow so really the cello itself was like $800.
Here's Lydia playing it.
I basically had time to eat a quick lunch and then I had to run to work. I'd already done about an hour of work from home that morning before anyone got up. But there I needed to do some more at work. So I went to work for about 2 hours.
At 1:30 I left work, picked up Veronica, and basically drove right back to where I'd come from so she could have vision therapy at 2:00. My goal was to have no therapy this summer, but we'd skipped some sessions for our vacation and the day the power went out. So Veronica has three weeks of vision therapy in the summer. It makes my Thursday schedule super weird so I'm hoping Brandon can take her to the last two appointments.
He couldn't take her this time because he had to prep for teaching at CSI that night. And that prep time actually got taken up by shopping.
As if being interviewed for the news and buying a cello weren't enough, Charlotte and Lydia also had a lego set show up. They'd ordered the Millennium Falcon with money they'd been saving.
Brandon came home a little after I got home with Veronica. Everyone helped him carry food into the garage. Then he drove out to CSI.
I went and took a nap. My plan was to take a quick nap and then get the car packed for camping with the help of the kids.
But I woke up from the nap with like zero desire to do ANYTHING. I didn't even make dinner. We just had cereal.
I did eventually get around to washing the dishes and going over the calendar for June. I also straightened out the bank account. There was money going every which way in there. I'd been paid, I'd bought the cello, I needed to pay our mortgage, I needed to move money to cover the food purchases until we were reimbursed. It was crazy!
But we never did pack the car. I was like, "We have plenty of time to do it on Friday." Which was true, but also stupid.
Anyway, on Friday I went to work - again. I was very ready for the weekend.
Then I came home and the kids started helping me pack the car. I'd asked them to pack their bags while I was at work so they already had their clothes packed. That was good.
I went out to the garage and started trying to find things. But this was easier said than done. We'd just kind of thrown everything into a pile after our Texas trip. Brandon had haphazardly put the stuff from that pile onto the camping shelves a few weeks ago. There was no rhyme or reason to where anything was.
The tents were easy because I'd bought new ones. But it was harder to find the 6 sleeping bags, 6 camp chairs, and the 3 air mattresses. Hardest of all were all the little accessories like the air pump and the lanterns. They were just scattered everywhere.
I was planning to meet with Ivan real quick that afternoon, but I had to cancel because packing was taking forever.
Eventually, we had everything located and packed into the back of the van. I'd folded down the back seat because we were going to take two cars.
When Brandon came home we helped him load the food into the Pilot.
We drove south to the South Hills and up Rock Creek Canyon to the Porcupine Spring Campground. I was super happy to be going on this campout. Our ward has done "Father's and Son's" for several years, but last year they decided to do a ward campout. However, by the time they planned it too many people had other plans and it had to be cancelled. This year it's been scheduled since early April so people were able to get it onto their calendars. Some of my very favorite people from the ward would be there.
So I was very excited to be there. But when we arrived I was not looking forward to unpacking anything. I was like, "I just spent two hours getting all this stuff loaded up. I really don't want to unload it."
Brandon could tell I was not very enthusiastic so he sent me off to hang out with people while he and the kids set up the tents. I did not complain.
So I went and hung out with Jori, and Megan, and Lindsay and had a great time talking with them.
I went back to our campsite to help with the air mattresses, but that's all I did.
Here's our new tent. We thought about duct taping the broken pole of our old tent. But that tent had served us well for 4 years and was showing a lot of wear. It was just easier to buy a new one.
This is Derrick and Veronica's side.
And here's me and Brandon's side.
And here's Brandon showing off that there is a lot of head space in the middle.
You are probably wondering where Charlotte and Lydia were going to sleep. Well, our new tent will hold all 6 of us if necessary. But we decided that everyone is getting a little too big to squish into one tent every night. So we bought Charlotte and Lydia their own little tent.
They were so happy with it. And it really was comfortable to have the extra space.
Our ward was in Loop B of the campground. There were individual spots for tents and trailers, but there was also a big central area with a huge fire ring. That's where everyone was congregating. The Elder's quarum president, Jeff, led everyone in gathering firewood and making a big pile by the fire ring. Brandon and Lydia worked on lighting it. Lydia was basically sitting in the fire ring.
There were lots of picnic tables ringing the fire. Each family kind of claimed their own table and prepped dinner there. But there was a lot of mingling and talking.
I'd made pasta salad on Thursday. (I guess that's another things I did besides pack.) We had that and hot dogs for dinner.
Derrick had been really helpful and packed up Ladder Toss for me at home. He went and got it from the car and set it up all by himself. Then he invited other kids to play with him.
Here are some pictures of the group. We had about 10 families up there.
It was fun to see everyone interacting in ways that just aren't possible at church. And because of that there were some cool connections made. A guy from the elders quarum presidency brough his guitar and a little song book of sorts. He passed around the songs and we all sang along. My favorite was when we all sang Take Me Home Country Roads. My friend Jori's 9 year old daughter went and stood right by the 60+ year old guitar player. They sang together on song after song. She was singing perfectly on songs that none of us knew - she'd never heard them either. She'd just read the words and follow along and belt out everything with confidence. It was incredible to watch.
Here's Brandon. He was having a blast talking with everyone.
And here I am. I spent most of the afternoon sewing more of Lydia's patches to her backpack.
I'd already sewn on the Yellowstone, the Bruneau Dunes, and the Bryce Canyon patches when we were camping in Texas. This time I added the Canyon Lands, the Arches, and the Sawtooth patches.
Here's the fire that got more built up as the night went on. Brandon's friend Mike had found a huge log. He and Jeff drug it back with Jeff's truck and then rolled it to the fire ring. It burned for hours and actually was still huge when we put the fire out for the last time on Saturday morning.
Veronica made friends with Chandler's dog.
This dog was all over here. Veronica took the dog on lots of walks.
Jeff had a rope game that he had everyone try.
It was kind of fun to see how everyone brought something to contribute - without even being assigned. Megan's family brough bubble gum and we had an informal contest to see who could blow the biggest bubble. Olyvia's family brought glow sticks for the kids.
When the night got darker we had a little spiritual moment where Jeff shared some things and then the bishop shared some things. After that it morphed into a comedy hour where Jeff, Veronica, and a few other people took turns sharing jokes. Jeff is always swapping jokes with Veronica so it was funny to hear them do it for a crowd.
Derrick kept wanted to tell scary stories, but I told him no because his stories are so long. But finally I said he could tell a short one. He likes to involve his audience so he singled out the bishop and his wife, Bryant and Jenny, and told them that they were in the story. Then he started saying something about them being alone in a forest. He was really laying it on thick with lots of dramatic pauses.
All of a sudden Jenny screamed. Unbeknownst to any of us, Veronica had snuck up behind her and spooked her while he attention was on Derrick. It was so funny. It was even more funny because Derrick and Veronica hadn't planned that. Veronica just saw her chance and took it.
I wondered how many people were hearing Derrick talk for the first time on this trip.
After about an hour of hanging out Derrick announced, "Okay, I'm ready for bed." He just got up and left. That seemed to break the dam for several other families to get up and put their kids to bed. Within minutes the only people at the campsite were Brandon, Charlotte, Lydia, me, and Jori.
We stayed up talking for a long time. At one point I said, "I'm going to bed at 11:30." And then at 12:30 we really did all go to bed.
In hindsight it might have been smarter to just get my sleeping bag and try to sleep in a camp chair by the fire. I probably would have slept just as well.
But instead I went to bed in the tent. I knew there was a problem when I was snuggled in my sleeping bag and my back was cold. I was like, "this is my super warm sleeping bag. Why am I cold?" I figured it just needed a minute to warm up. But it never did. I shivered through most of the night. Eventually I used the blanket that I was using as a pillow as a blanket and that helped, but I was never very warm that night.
It's been a long time since I'd had a camping experience in the cold. I've become complacent. If I'd thought ahead I would have brough wool socks and maybe a winter hat. But I didn't even think about those things.
In the morning I found out I wasn't the only one with a cold night. Pretty much every family in a tent had been cold. The people in campers were warm. My kids had done okay. The girls were all sleeping in their sleepers so they were warm - except their feet. Derrick was probably the only tent camper to complain about being hot. He has a mummy bag and sleeps pretty hot anyway.
Anyway, cold aside we all made it through the night. Brandon and I got up at 7:00 so we could start prepping breakfast. Three other Elders Quorum guys helped too. The guys cooked the eggs and sausage. Brandon cut pineapple and quartered muffins. And I washed and cut the tops off the strawberries. Jori came over and cut melons.
At 8:00 we said a prayer and let everyone that was around start eating. Throughout the morning more people wandered in and had food when they were ready.
Here's the table loaded with food. And this didn't even include the sausage and eggs which were over by the grills. Everyone LOVED how much food there was. (Though note to self: Next year buy the same amount of muffins, but half the fruit.)
The morning was really unrushed. At first we'd been told that we'd need to leave around 10:00 for another group to come in. But there was no one scheduled after us. So no one was in any hurry to leave. The kids ran around playing together for a long time.
Here's Veronica with her adopted dog again.
Derrick went on a hike with some people and then came back and took me to see a deer limb they'd found.
I sat and talked with people for a long time. Towards the end I started "auctioning" of the left over food. I was like, "Here's an unopen box of poppy seed muffins. Do I have any takers?" I also joked that no one should leave without their party favor. People were able to take the uncut fruits and the cut fruits. Someone took a lot of extra sausage. We ended up with all the extra uncracked eggs.
Around 11:00 we started packing up their campsites. Normally Charlotte and Lydia help Brandon take down the tent. But they had graduated to their own tent. So Derrick and Veronica helped Brandon. I got the car somewhat organized again with all the stuff.
And then it was time to leave. It was kind of sad to go. We'd had such a good time. I really hope this becomes a new tradition in our ward.
When we got home I told the kids that we needed to unpack the food, but that everything else could wait. I wanted to organize the shelves before we put anything back on them.
So the kids started taking showers and I went and took a nap on the patio. When I woke up I took a shower and then I went to work on the garage.
I took everything off the camping shelves. I took a good long look at some of it. Like we still have the tent that broke in February of 2020. Why do we still have that? I guess we thought we'd fix it? But we've never even opened it up again.
Same with the kids old sleeping bags that have all lost their zippers. I think I've been hanging on to them "just in case" we needed them on a cold camping trip or something. But we just went on a cold camping trip and I didn't even think about them.
So I tossed a lot of that old stuff into a pile. I found homes for some of it. Two of the old sleeping bags are now emergency blankets in Brandon's car. One will find new life as a picnic/emergency blanket in my car. The fourth will be our patio blanket. So much better than being forgotten on the garage shelves.
The old tents will get scavenged for parts for Brandon's bag of straps and things. The old air mattresses will get tested to see if they leak and either get thrown away or put back on the shelves.
After I had the shelves cleared off it was time to put the camping stuff away. But I made sure to put the stuff we use often on the most accessible shelves. I also labeled the shelves with where things should go. Here's the final result.
I also did some organization on the other set of shelves. I designated areas for "recreation" and "emergency" stuff. It's all so much better.
After I was done with that I watered the garden. There were lots of pretty things happening.
Roses were blooming on the big bush.
It's not quite at is full glory, but it's getting there.
Here are the chicks walking around.
These irises are in the side yard.
So are these.
Here's the path in the front yard.
More irises.
And look! Front yard strawberries! These are so fun to find.
Here's a rose in the front yard.
And that gets us to today.
I woke up around 5:30 and I was like, "Oh I guess I got all the sleep I need." And then I rolled over and slept until 9:00!
Everyone else woke up a little after me. We were on time to church. It was fun to see all our friends from the ward campout.
We are having a lazy afternoon today. This is the last "normal" day for a while. Brandon starts tech week next week. His rehearsals will start at 5:30. And then they start performances on Friday. So that will all be very busy.
The pool also opens next week. I think that will make it feel like we've started summer vacation for real.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
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