Ward Camp 2009

To prepare for ward camp, I went and purchased a new bottle of OFF. With the mosquitos being worse this year, and our camp being near a river, I certainly wasn't going without the bug spray. I also purchased a new tube of sunscreen and one of those bottles of spray sunscreen. I'm totally sold on those now. They are way easier than trying to find every nook and cranny in your skin. Not one of us had any sunburns at all... not even a pink spot.

Camp was nice as usual. You get to visit with people who aren't trying to get to class, get home, or whatever like on Sunday. One cute little boy got scared of all the aliens flying around. I think someone spoiled it and told him they were just big moths. I'm glad dad captured a picture of Dalton with his 'alien'.

The Primary President is married to the Activities Committee Chair... a position she held with him (as co-chair) until her calling to Primary (then as a counselor). She's really fun and has a lot of crazy activities and games up her sleeve. She got all the youth involved in this game where you mound up a bunch of flour and then put a quarter on top. The object of the game is to slice away some of the flour without letting the quarter drop down into the flour. If the quarter does fall, you have to fish it out with your teeth, thus making the player get a face and mouth full of flour. I couldn't believe the youth went for this but they were all pretty good sports and it ended in a flour fight. Everyone but James was covered in flour. James kicked butt in this game and never had the quarter fall on his turn. He was delighted with his skill and watching everyone else have to do the face plant!

After breakfast the next morning, all the youth played frisbee and tossed a football around... both at the same time. James and I are of the same mind and we get up, get packed and ready to go before breakfast. We left camp fairly early to we could stop by my quilt class so I could show off my block and get my next one. I haven't been in 4 months now. Maybe next time I'll be able to stay for the class.

We coulda died!

Just look at this tire! How does such a thing even happen?

(And no I don't care for the scientific answer.)

This blowout happened just a couple miles east of Strawberry reservoir. If that's not bad enough, can you even see the microscopic jack they gave us for this vee-hicle? We (James) could barely get the tire off and the new one on. It was accomplished after about an hour and 15 minutes. The spare was somewhat flat (but not too bad) so we tippy-toed all the way to Heber where we filled it up. We also bought a fairly decent looking used tire, had that put on and the spare put back in it's spot because we weren't going home... we were headed to the ward camp!

Thar be cement in them thar hills!

Flowing water to follow, probably by the end of the summer. However, that doesn't mean a bathroom. This last Friday we met (and paid) three groups of men up at 'the property'. The first group were dirt diggers and movers. The second group were cement layers and finishers. The third was in a group by himself... he was the cement truck driver.

During the week, the cement guys had laid out the forms in the places we wanted. The dirt guys came early on friday to build up the dirt so that the leveled forms wouldn't have cement running out from the bottom. We got their while this was happening so James pitched right in with our rake and helped get the job done. Just in time too. The cement guys came about 10am and laid out the rebar to strenghten the cement then the cement truck arrived about 10:30am.

All the men were really nice, hard-working fellows. The older gentleman on the cement crew sure looked familiar to me (like maybe he was someone I met through my dads connections). His cousin captured our funny bones. This fellow was so fun and looked like he should be on one of those cowboy greeting cards. He told us funny stories like this one: "Dang it's hot in Missouri. Why it was so hot the corn started popping right off the cobs. So much corn popped all the cows thought it was snowing and do you know them cows laid down and froze to death!"

I took the opportunity to take some pictures of things I wanted. When I was out to the property after our family camp, I was looking for the birdhouse and birdfeeder that Natasha and Emma painted. James had hung them up just before we left that day and I didn't get a chance to take pictures. I hadn't been able to find them both for some reason and we'd been pressed for time. Friday I found them both. I'm not sure there are birds small enough out there to make a home out of this one, or the ceder one I'd bought but they sure did empty the bird feeder. Now that I know where everything is, I'll have to get more bird seed and fill them up.

I also took pictures of the trench that was dug. Part of the dirt groups job was to dig this trench from the well to the tank pad. We had three cement pads poured: shed pad, water tank pad, and a trailer pad for the trailer we hope to have someday. The distance from the well to the tank pad is about 210 feet. When I thought of a trench to lay pipe, I was thinking more of the type you'd dig through your yard to put in PVC. This thing is more like a war zone trench. It's certainly big enough to fit nice young soldiers in... just see exibit A where my soldier is in the trench. James was carefully chipping the cement casing away from the well so we can drill a hole for a pitless adapter. It's some dad-gummed thing we have to have to get water out of it and into pipes below ground level so everything doesn't just freeze and break.

Happy Birthday America!

Yesterday was the great day we celebrate our freedom and our country. In our family, we also celebrate the day grandpa got shot down in France. (Maybe this has something to do with why my kids are so morbid and think about straps breaking and falling to their deaths while parasailing!) In truth, we are really celebrating that he lived through this death defying event. Matthew summed it up eloquently on Facebook: "65 years ago today, my grandpa Moseley was shot down behind German lines in Normandy. A French farmer risked everything to hide grandpa (who pretended he was deaf/mute to fool German soldiers) for over two months until he could escape to the advancing allied lines. Grandpa (age 88) is still going strong. I have a lot to be grateful for today."

To celebrate, we got together, barbequed, made homemade raspberry ice cream with raspberries out of Roxanne's garden, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs (Addie loved the hot dogs and ate at least three whole ones, maybe four), and set off fireworks. Hillary's kids played in the water and took pictures of anything and everything. This probably sounds pretty much like anyone else's July 4th celebrations but another thing we do is probably unlike most everyone else. Each of us take the opportunity to call or trek over to grandpa's to visit him, thank him for his service and generally bask in the blessing of having him with us.

Here's Shawn playing games on his new Samsung Impression cell phone. He and Sonia got these new phones the day before. I purchased the same phone about a week earlier but didn't know half the stuff about the new phone that Shawn did. Here I was trying out the camera portion and I've also figured out how to send it to my email so I can save the picture to my computer. There's probably an easier way... like using the USB cable that came with the phone?
We also had an unplanned, impromptu birthday celebration for Sami. She will be officially 4 tomorrow. In this picture she has on the new outfit she received from Sonia and Shawn (dress, necklace, flip-flops).

Who knew that one of the highlights of shooting off fireworks would be making shadows on the garage door!

Happy birthday America and thanks for having your birthday when it's warm. Happy Fourth of July grandpa, we're proud of you!

Cancun Baby!

I yoinked most of these pictures from Sonia. She has tons of pictures to tell the tale of their June vacation to the beautiful Cancun. They parasailed, snorkled, ate fabulous food, generally had a great time and even shopped at Walmart. What? Walmart? Yep, even Cancun has been infected by the Walmart craze.

Their hotel/resort looks absolutely fabulous. I'm sure the castaways on Gilligan's island would have greatly appreciated such nice surroundings in their tropical paradaise. I also hear the water is warm... at least warmer than you'd think because it's quite shallow along many of the beaches. I think I'm going to have to follow the example of my children and go to Cancun one of these days. I'm telling ya, these all inclusive vacations are the way to go!