Being Fed

I love General Conference weekend. It's always a good feeling to be spiritually fed. I will need to read the talks again when they appear in print. In the meantime, here are some of the things that have remained with me:

-simplify our lives

-the beauty of missionary work

-we should prepare our spiritual and home storage

-not reading the Book of Mormon is like refusing to read a letter from a father, or not eating a meal lovingly prepared by a mother

-the importance, and sacred nature, of sacrament meeting

-hope

-unity

-live for today

What the...

I was in the kitchen listening to the vice presidential debate from the TV in the living room.

Every once in a while, an outburst from the three guys in the living room:

"OH, Noooooo...."

and then

"Yeah, baby!"

This amused me, and somewhat confused me, but then I remembered the football game. And the convenience of picture-in-picture.

And now for the long version

Just in case you wanted more details about our week at the lake, here they are.

This photo could sum up the theme of the week:

Here's Laur, back in top form just five weeks after having her fourth baby.

I might just say, a confession of sorts, that for me this was the most enjoyable trip to Lake Powell with my in-laws. I love Chris's family, but when it comes to water sports they've always intimidated me (see photo above for case in point)! The last time we were on a vacation like this I was constantly hoping that no one would encourage me to try to do anything crazy, which to me meant being in the water and getting yanked up behind a boat. The few times I did try wakeboarding or skiing were very embarrassing - and time consuming. I really have no athletic or coordination skills.

Over the past two summers Chris has given me a lot of good opportunities to try and try and try again, with a lot of patience on his part. Now, finally, I actually get what's so fun about it! I love wakeboarding and feeling like I'm not completely out of control. Still can't do any 180s or jump the wake or anything, but it's a major change and one I'm glad about. I'm also glad Jordan got an early start with this kind of stuff.

View from the top of the houseboat. Here are the kids hanging out on the water trampoline.

Hooper loved it there.

Jordan's first catch.



The kids hiked up the hill and found some words spelled out with rocks. "FRIENDS"


Sunrise.

We spent the first night sleeping on the roof of the houseboat, but then moved down to a tent, which wasn't too bad. (Yeah, I'm not really a camping aficionado. I'm more of a list aficionado. It was making all the packing and camping lists that spurred me on to enthusiastically write that post. Everything else I said was true though.) Anyway, we had a nice pad under us, so it was completely comfortable. And the evenings and mornings were just cool enough that it didn't feel all stuffy and claustrophobic like tents sometimes - usually - do. I loved the morning light filtering in on Brielle and Jemma as they did some coloring.

This is Trudy, my mother-in-law, on the slalom. She was inspired by the fiddling in Johnny Cash's "The Devil went down to Georgia." We played it for her from the boat and off she went.

I wish I had a better picture of this, but here's Travis on the Air Chair. He's injured both of his knees, so now he does back flips and on this! It's a very interesting thing to see - we were cracking up.

Brielle and Jemma with their braided hair and matching life jackets.

Payton, Marcus, Leanne and Jordan on a wave runner.


Jordan, Bryson and Trey digging away. (Jordan was starting to get scorched, even despite the frequent applications of sunscreen).


The after-effects of the braids.

This photo doesn't look like much, but this is how it looked in real-life anyway. The kids made a murky aquarium out of one of the empty coolers. They named all the carp (names like Aberson and Bronco) and then later Travis sent them flying down the slide back into their natural environment. This whole afternoon activity provided excellent entertainment for all of us.

Jordan fishing with Matthew and Payton.

Here's Jemma fishing in between Caden and Bryson.

She caught a catfish that very quickly got filleted and grilled and eaten.

Chris on THE MOLECULE...before he got whipped around on it.

Making mud pies.

Brielle and Jemma getting ready for one of their many synchronized jumps.

Chris on an early morning ski.

And here are the 15 cousins that were there. Jordan's the oldest. (This is 15 out of the 18 cousins on that side of the family.)

Ahhhh...Lake Powell

We spent the whole of last week in the red sand and blue waters of Lake Powell.

The best things:

the stars at night

the sunrise

being warm in the sun, cool in the shade, taking a dip in the lake when it got too hot

feeling free

watching kids play happily for hours, days on end

reading books

music on the boat

The worst things:

spiders

flies

red ants

sunburn, dry lips

allergies

All in all...

Turning Six

Here's how to make a little girl's 6th birthday very happy:

*Let her wake up to a festive birthday display, including wrapped gifts, balloons and cake.


*Make sure the cake lives up to her specifications. (Pink frosting with a white six, although I apparently fell a little short in that it was expected to have more frosting swirls and sprinkles. And the super camera flash washed out the coconut six.)

*Help out in her classroom at school and bring treats.




*Let her bring along a friend to McDonald's for lunch.


*A trip to Build-a-Bear workshop.


*Indulge her request for dinner at The Training Table, even if it is only for macaroni & cheese and the novelty of ordering by telephone.


*Surprise her with the two-wheeled scooter she's been wanting for a long, long time. (The one that's pink and that her brother will definitely not want to borrow it since it's B-B-B-Barbie!)

Camping Aficionado

Yep, that's me: camping aficionado. Maybe that's stretching the term aficionado a bit, but it is kind of true.

It hasn't always been true. The people who know me best would never describe me that way. My sister's husband, before he officially became part of the family, used to call us - and not without a little disdain - City Slickers. I took it as a compliment (although I'm pretty sure my sister didn't).

A few years ago, when I got asked to be the Young Women's camp director I panicked because I had only made it through one week of girl's camp as a youth, and never went back. I thought there must have been some mistake and that they clearly did not know who they were asking to head this up. How could I direct a camp of 19 young girls? Plan for the tents, the food, the activities to be done in the wilderness? It seemed like an overwhelming task. But it turned out to be really fun, especially with the advice of a great Young Women's President and a helpful assistant.



The following year Chris and I went with the youth on a four day high-adventure camp in Wyoming. It pushed me way beyond my level of comfort. It was like Survivor or Fear Factor, but without any cash prizes. We had to do a ropes course, a very steep and difficult mountain bike ride, river rafting and a super long (and beautiful) hike in the Tetons. Except for the hike I'd never harbored a remote desire to do any of the rest of that stuff. But again, I came home feeling happy that I'd been there and experienced it.

Yes, Chris had the pleasure of joining me at that camp

Later that year, again with the youth, we camped at Goblin Valley. It was November and it was freezing (at night)! I never would have thought camping in November was a wise thing to do, but it was great.

By the way, here are a few tips for camping in 30 degree weather:

• Sleep with a hat on


• Use two sleeping bags (one inside the other)


• Plan on not changing your clothes (you'll be way too cold)


• Make hot chocolate by placing a gallon of chocolate milk in a pot of boiling water until the milk is nice and warmed through.
  
  
  Last year, I got to go to Youth Conference, again in Wyoming (it was one of my very first blog posts). This time, the whole experience of sleeping in tents, hanging tarps and preparing food in pouring rain, along with all the activities we managed to pull off turned out to feel extremely rewarding.
  

So all of this recent camping activity has resulted in a change of heart. I'm quite happily anticipating our upcoming camping trip. We'll be on water, so that will be nice, but it still requires a lot of gear and thinking ahead. The difference is, now I feel like I can and will manage. I've come to terms with not showering for days on end. (It makes the first shower upon returning oh so sweet.) And camping food can be very good. And being completely out of your element for a few days usually results in new and refreshed perspectives. How is that so bad?

In a Dither

I like to think that I'm a pretty flexible person, not stuck in any sort of routine, but really our days do have a familiar pattern to them. We get used to it at each change of season and settle into knowing what it's like on a typical Monday, Tuesday, etc.... Last week all that changed.

Friday (the 29th) was my birthday. Jordan was out of school, so I also took the day off and we did some things. My work schedule changed. Monday was a holiday and it felt like a Saturday. The weather got drastically colder. Tuesday felt like Monday and Jemma started school and our power went out so I couldn't work from home (that always throws me off). Wednesday felt like Monday again. I can't even remember Thursday. And now last week seems like a year ago!

Having this new format to our days with kids in school, a quiet house in the mornings, arranging car pools, homework in the evenings (oh the homework! I get to brush up on my pre-algebra and Utah geography skills), I've got a long list of things that must get done now that I seemingly have some uninterrupted time, and it's this that has me in a dither. It always takes some getting used to.

So the birthday did not involve any big celebrations or balloons or cake or anything, but it was good. We went to the lake in the morning. (I do not like to post this photo, but someday I might be glad I did.)

Then Chris went to work and the kids and I went to visit one of our newest little nephews, Jack:


Next we visited my dad who was in the hospital fighting an infection. He's home now and much better. And we stopped in to see my mom and Maya, Avery and Jackson before heading home. (My mom took this picture of us right before we left.)

Happily, when we got home the mailbox had some very nice things in it! Blogging friends Michelle and Jill sent me some of the fruits of their Creative Fridays!

I also had a nice surprise from my parents, sisters-in-law Michelle, Leanne, Laur and Maryann! A beautiful card from Claudia. My email box also had some greetings, as did my voicemail. I got instant messaged a happy birthday greeting, and text messaged too. Got an e-card and an e-video, a couple of phone calls.... Isn't technology great?

My mother-in-law gave me this cute picture that shows a dad & mom, two kids and a dog. Jemma has fallen completely in love with it.

We went out to dinner, which is something we rarely do all together. Japanese food.

Skipping to Tuesday. Jordan got back into the swing of things after a four day weekend and Jemma started kindergarten.