Last Saturday we decided to go on a drive up Ogden Canyon. This drive had a dual purpose, though. I was in charge of the Activity Day girls' trip to Camp Kiesel Monday and the regular way to get to Camp Kiesel was under construction which meant we had to go an alternate way up Ogden Canyon. I wanted to make sure I knew where I was going before I took everyone else with me so I took my family on a drive to Camp Kiesel via Ogden Canyon. We did make it there just fine which I was glad for. On the way back we decided to stop and do a hike on the Birdsong Trail just at the mouth of Ogden Canyon. It was a pretty hike with a cool view of the Ogden Valley in the middle. It was a hot day so we were glad to go through the shady part of the trail, though. Here we are enjoying the view:
Enjoying the shady part of the hike:
There were many thistle plants along the trail with bees around them. Luckily, the bees were more interested in the flowers than with us:
I love living so close to such pretty places!
Sometimes I wonder about my kids....they must think there is a cleaning fairy that comes to clean our house. They have been known to eat candy and just drop the wrapper wherever they are which frustrates me. I don't think Noah cared, but he had laid on a sucker stick someone had left out and it was stuck to his shirt. I think it was like this for about an hour before he even noticed. I need to fire that cleaning fairy because she doesn't do a very good job if my kids can lay down and get sucker sticks stuck to their shirts....Ugh!!
Monday morning the Activity Day girls got a day at Camp Kiesel day camp. It was so much fun. Here's our group of 16 girls and 7 leaders:
We had a full day of fun things planned which started out with panning for gold in the stream:
It was only fools gold, but the girls had a fun time finding it while panning. Here's the treasure Sarah found:
Then they moved on to the craft table where they made a stamped leather keychain whatchamacallit thing:
Next was the BB gun range:
Sarah was lucky enough to have both me and Aaron come along on this day camp. There was another dad in our group who went along with his daughter so Aaron paired up with him so he wouldn't be the only dad. We were glad to have both dads because our scout leaders (camp employees) were more interested in talking with their friends instead of helping the girls with their guns. The dads went around and helped the girls get their guns set up:
Here's my cute left handed Annie Oakley:
Next we went on to the archery range:
Then we went to the campfire station where Sarah got picked to be in the skit:
We then had lunch and moved on to canoeing which was awesome! It was a hot day so we decided to make our boat a wet boat which meant we got to start a few water fights with the other boats.
Our girls took up three boats. Two of them were 'wet boats' and the third was a dry boat (no water fights with them). We asked the girls beforehand which boat they wanted to be in so no one had to get wet that didn't want to get wet. Here's the after picture where you can see who was in a wet boat versus who was in a dry boat. Sarah got drenched and wasn't too happy about it so she decided to try and hide in the back of the picture. Don't worry it was a hot day so she dried off pretty quickly. We did do pretty well working together as we paddled around the pond.
Our next station was the trading post and fishing. I don't necessarily agree with the Trading Post since it already costs quite a bit to even get to the camp, but there are just some necessary evils in the world. Most of the stuff they have at the Trading Post you could get at the dollar store for a heckuva lot cheaper, but what can you do?! The girls did have fun practicing how to cast and reel in their fake fish, though.
Last of all was the obstacle course which was pretty fun. Here's Sarah starting out:
I was taking pictures of all the girls so I didn't get any more of Sarah through the course, but she said she had fun.
By the end of the day the girls were pretty tired and worn out as well as the leaders. We were ready for the air conditioned drive back home. I did have some excitement in my car on the way home, though. One of the girls got a bloody nose that was quite the gusher. Unfortunately, I had no tissues in my van--DOH! She ended using Sarah's jacket to soak the flow and put pressure on her nose until another leader stopped, pulled over and grabbed the tissues out of his car help me out. I was so thankful for the tissues!! Luckily, I dealt with bloody noses quite a bit as a little kid and as a pregnant lady so this wasn't a big deal for me. The other girls in my van were traumatized a bit, but they got over it by the time we got home. Also as a side note hydrogen peroxide gets blood out of fabric, car seats and carpet really well if you were wondering--haha!
About a month ago Sarah got to go to a birthday party of a friend. Her friend had her party at a ceramic place where everyone gets to pick out a ceramic figure to paint and then the ceramic place fires it in the kiln to finish off the piece. Since it takes overnight to fire the pieces in the kiln, Sarah didn't get her piece until a few weeks later. She was pretty excited to see how her Fox piggybank turned out. Hopefully she will be able to save her money now instead of spend it--haha!
One of our favorite summer days is Customer Appreciation Day at Chik-Fil-A. If you dress like a cow you get a free sandwich. I am all for free food especially free food from Chik-Fil-A!! YUM!! I printed out some cow masks from online and let the kids color and cut them out. We did have one mishap where Josh cut his thumb with the scissors while cutting out his mask, but no one else got hurt--haha!
We went to Chik-Fil-A for breakfast then we went and got Josh's allergy shots done. After that it was time for lunch and the kids wanted to go again which we did. That afternoon when Aaron got home from work and Mathew got home from the summer program they felt left out so they asked if we could go again for dinner which we did. I was a bit Chik-Fil-A'd out by dinnertime so Josh and Matthew were more than happy to split my sandwich. We certainly got our moneys worth--embarrassingly enough. I wasn't complaining, though. Going for breakfast, lunch and dinner meant I didn't have to cook at all that day--Wahoo!
Tuesday night Daniel and Sarah got to spend the night over at their cousins' house. They were so excited to go! Daniel and Miles were going to sleep outside on the trampoline, but unfortunately it rained so their plans were thwarted. They still had fun together anyway. They got to have pizza and watch a movie. The next morning Aunt Michonne took them to a park where they played and even got to wade into a river next to the park. Here's a few pictures she sent me:
Wednesday morning bright and early Josh got to leave to go on Trek with our church stake. He has been looking forward to going since he first heard about it. We had to outfit him with pioneer clothes (thank you Deseret Industries!!) and supplies. They were instructed to wear a wide brim hat and sunglasses, too. It was stressful getting everything together for him (he is a bit of a procrastinator), but we got it done and he was only about 15 minutes late because he still was packing his bucket when he was supposed to be at the Stake Center. DOH!! I snapped a quick picture at home before I dropped him off.
After dropping Josh off and getting Matthew off to his summer program it was just Noah and me. Sarah and Daniel were still with their cousins so I decided to make a fun day with Noah. We started out by going bowling. Here are our sweet bowling shoes:
After bowling we went and enjoyed free Slurpees at 7-Eleven since they give out free Slurpees every July 11th since that means the date is 7-11. Again we love us some free food!!
Next we met up with Aaron and went to lunch. After lunch Noah and I went mini golfing.
We had a pretty fun day just us two. With five kids you don't get to have one on one time with every kid very often so it was awesome I could have a whole day with just me and Bubba.
That afternoon Aaron and I got to meet with the behaviorist for Matthew. Matthew's behavior has become quite challenging lately. Between the regular moody hormonal teenager, his aggression and the autism it makes for some very difficult behaviors/tantrums. I sought out the behaviorist for some help. We met with him three months ago so he could interview us, interview Matthew, see what a regular day looked like to help him get a good idea of how Matthew ticks. He then was supposed to draw up a behavior plan for us to follow. I didn't hear from him for a while so I was wondering if it was even going to happen. Thankfully, he called us up to set up a meeting to show us the new plan. We met with him over two hours discussing things and having him show us how to better set up boundaries and consequences for Matthew. I am sure hoping this new plan will help us out because we are really struggling with him right now. SIGH!! Keeping my fingers crossed! It also doesn't help that our health insurance does not cover his psychiatrist that he has seen for 13 years anymore. UGH!! We are trying to get a workaround for that, but if that doesn't work we will either have to pay out of pocket for his visits or find someone else. Neither option sounds appealing and makes me want to cry....Hopefully, we can figure something out soon!
Anyway, to drown my sorrows the next day I found a recipe I had been wanting to try. It was for Chocolate Peanut butter no Churn ice cream. Chocolate makes anyone feel better, right?! I took everyone and picked up the supplies from the grocery store. We then came home and I put everyone to work. Daniel got to measure out out the cream and chocolate syrup:
Sarah and Noah cut up the peanutbutter cups:
Everyone helped watch the cream get whipped:
After you put everything together you stick it in the freezer for 5-6 hours without needing to churn it which was great since I don't have an ice cream maker. Here's the end result:
I must say I was pleasantly surprised! I am not much of a chocolate peanut butter fan, but this was pretty tasty! The kids want to try it again with a different flavor so I am on the hunt for another no churn ice cream recipe. It was a fun experiment.
Saturday was the Clinton City parade. We met up with the Einzinger family and watched the parade together. The kids had fun gathering the candy each float threw:
Sarah was in the parade again with her dance company. It was fun to see her walk/dance by:
After the parade we came home and waited for Josh to come home from Trek. We didn't have to wait very long. After he got home, showered and picked up his gear we decided to head over to Lagoon for the afternoon. Here's Sarah and Noah getting ready to go through Dracula's Castle:
Josh said he had an awesome experience on Trek. Beforehand they were supposed to research an ancestor to walk for. Josh picked one who had made the original pioneer trek. He was my great-great-great-great grandpa which was pretty cool. It was neat to read in his journal about his trials as he originally trekked across the plains. Hopefully, Josh was able to relate to some of that as he did his own trek. The kids attending Trek were not allowed to bring their phones. Thankfully, the leaders took a few pictures so we could get a few glimpses of what happened during Trek. Each group was assigned a different color. Josh was put into the pink company. The organizers mixed up everyone so no one in each family was with anyone in the same ward. I thought that was pretty cool because it helped the families mesh together better. Here's a few pictures that we saw Josh in (just look for the super tall person that is cheesing it for the camera and you'll find Josh):
One night they brought in an official square dance instructor to teach the people how to square dance. Here's Josh learning to square dance (he's the one with the sunglasses on):
Here's another cheeser Josh picture as he is pulling the hand cart:
HEre's the kids and leaders from our ward:
This was quite the undertaking. This was a HUGE group of kids to organize such an experience for. I got some facts from one of the organizers:
Here's some fun facts about our Trek.
349 people from our stake attended Trek
220 youth. 85 young women & 135 young men
129 adults. 64 women, 65 men
There were 6 companies each with 5 families except one that only had 4 families
Each family consisted of 7 to 8 children and a ma & pa
Most had 3-4 young women and 4-5 young men
On average each ward sent about 25 to 30 youth to Trek
That seems overwhelming to me, but it worked great!
Here's just a small picture of all the people who went on trek spread out as they pulled their handcarts across the terrain:
Josh was pretty exhausted and dirty by the time he got home, but was happy. All in all the whole company trekked about 30 miles over 4 days which was pretty impressive. We were glad to have him back, though. Hearing about his experience it makes Sarah and Daniel excited to go on Trek in four years when it is their turn.
Sunday in primary they kids learned about the importance of being thankful and grateful. After the lesson the teachers had the kids write a note to someone they were thankful for. After church Noah showed us the note he wrote to Grandpa T while in class:
It was pretty sweet!
The summer hasn't seemed to slow down. This morning Aaron and Daniel left for scout camp. This is Daniel's first scout camp so he was excited and nervous at the same time. I am sure he will have a blast, but he was also glad Aaron was going with him. Aaron is only going for the first couple of days. However, I think he picked the wrong couple days to attend since he picked the days the boys get to go on the 10 mile hike which means he gets to go with them--haha!! Poor guy! Here's my two cute scouters before they left for camp:
They did have a rough time getting to camp, though. The scout trailer's brake lights were completely broken which had to be fixed before they could leave. Then on the way up to scout camp 5 hours away one of the scout trailer tires blew out. Thankfully no one was hurt! The boys got to see how to change a flat tire on a trailer if you want to put a positive spin on such a thing. Hopefully the rest of scout camp goes a bit better than the beginning did!
We decided to party while they are gone. By saying party I mean by taking Josh to get his allergy shots done. Wahoo! We also did go bowling and then stop by Krispie Kreme. If you bring in your report card you get rewarded with free donuts for each 'A' you get. Yum!!
Keeping things busy, but still enjoying our summer!
