Utah: Goldsberry campout.

June 27

Mar had to work in the morning, so we didn't head out until 1:30pm. We had heard that construction on I-70 was nightmarish, but decided that we would go whichever way the Google gods said was best. We ended up going up through Steamboat Springs (I've never been, and it was a lovely drive), then through Vernal. We had to stop and snap a pic by the Utah sign because... we never do haha.

 We rolled into the Aspen Grove campground by Strawberry Reservoir that evening.

Just as we were crossing the damn, we slowed down and came to a stop on the signal of a stopped car going the opposite way. We saw two tiny fawns, one that was standing, another that looked like it had possibly been hit by a car. The man from the other car walked over to the baby curled up in a ball and shook it, then lifted it up and over the cement half wall, then chased down the other fawn and helped it over the wall also. Apparently he had seen the momma deer jump the short wall, and the babies didn't know how to get over it. By the wobbliness of the standing fawn, my best guess it that they were quite literally newborns. Phew. I'm so glad the babies were okay. Hopefully they found their momma.

We put up our tent in the dusky light of evening, visited briefly with the fam, then hit the hay.

June 28

We started the morning with a lovely boat ride around the reservoir.

Once we got back to the campground, we noticed that a couple of the campsites that had been occupied the previous day had been vacated. Since we had a few less-desirable sites (think full sun all. day. long.), we decided to move our camp. Believe me, it was a whole lotta work, but definitely worth it in the long run (except, perhaps, for mi mamita and papa, whose tent ended up STILL being in the sun all day... boo). Before we knew it, the Andersons arrived.

Photo creds Britt

That evening, some of the fam went for a {brief} leisure ride around the reservoir.

 Photo creds Britt

{Brief} because Ellis did NOT enjoy it, especially the part with the life preserver haha.

Photo creds Britt

June 29

Since Ellis had not enjoyed the boat ride the evening prior, Britt decided that he would be better off staying in camp during boat excursions. Great Grandma G. played with him while we took a morning boat ride.

 Photo creds Britt

Photo creds Matt

Later that day we did some crawdad catching. Initiailly I thought it was going to be a bust, since we couldn't see any, but after a while they started coming out of the woodwork. Or rocks haha. We were using raw chicken-on-the-bone pieces, a couple of chicken leg bones left over from Bill's lunch the previous day, and some weiners as bait, all of which were quite effective. It was my first time, so I was anxious and excited to see how this all went down. Sookie had grown up in South Korea catching them, so she was pretty much the expert in all things crawdad.

Photo creds Britt

Sookie washed those babies up,

....then boiled them...

...then a few enjoyed eating them. I tried a couple... they tasted a bit like chewy lobster. At least if my memory serves me correctly... it's been a long time since I've had lobster haha. It's not necessarily one of those things I'm dying to eat anyway.

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Austin

Photo creds Austin

Photo creds Austin

Photo creds Austin

That evening the Paulls joined us. Initially they were going to drive up, hang out for a bit, then head back home, but we convinced them to stay overnight to make the hour-and-a-half drive worth it.

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Lex

Photo creds Austin... amazing, right?

June 30

Photo creds Matt

Most of the guys woke up early early each morning to go fishing. 5:30am early. I slept in every day until my bladder told me to get up haha. I'm not exaclty sure what day these pics were taken, but let it be known that there was a whole lot o' fishin' going on, early morning and late evening.

Photo creds Matt

Photo creds Lex

Emmett thoroughly enjoyed his first ever camping trip... and even slept in. It probably helped that he had the most comfortable arrangements out of all his tent mates. Lex and Jase slept without a pad of any kind, and one of them forfeited their pillow for Emmett's comfort. The parental sacrifices have only just begun {wink}.

Once we had packed up camp and were ready to start heading out, we snapped a group pic.

Photo creds Austin

Bill, Mar and I hadn't been to a family campout for a couple of years, and it was so fun to be able to get to one. Nothing better than family, nature, campfires, food served in bread (haha), boating, fresh fish, and flushing toilets.

I love you guys!

A horse race, two birthdays, Girls Camp, Father's Day, and a project to boot.

June 9th
Taylor's birthday.

His final year as a twenty-something. Per his request, we had dinner at Red Robin. An hour or two before that, however, we became enthralled with a horse race. It was a bit random... we aren't horse race people. I turned on the telly while I was getting ready, and it just happened to be on: THE BELMONT STAKES. Previously unbeknownst to me (and the rest of the fam), a certain horse, Justify, had the opportunity to win the Triple Crown. Once I was ready, I went downstairs and shared this news with everyone else, and we continued to listen to the hype, hoopla, and build-up to the race. We knew it was scheduled to be run during the time we had planned to be eating dinner... but I also knew Red Robin has tellys all over the place, so I hoped the race would be on while we were there.

Once we were seated, I glance around... none of the tellys were tuned to the race. We asked our {amazing} server if we could change the channel on the one nearest us... she graciously found a remote and found our channel. We visited and ate as the race grew closer.

Finally it was time for the race to start. Previous to this, I didn't think anyone else in the restaurant had much interest in this exciting event. For some reason, after listening for a couple of hours to the coverage of the race, I was passionate and nervous and excited and hopeful for Justify to WIN.

Once the race was over (seriously SOOOOO thrilling), the restaurant erupted in applause. Cool. Other people were excited, too. We finished our meal and headed home for cake and ice cream.

Taylor requested the same cake Kody had.

Better-than-you-know-what.

Although we know it isn't haha.

But it IS darn good. Maybe the title of "Darn Good Cake" had already been taken at the time someone chose to name it. Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

 Do NOT ask me what Bill was trying to do in the above pic. A wet willy? or a wet Billy?

The birthday boy chose the game: Monopoly, Pokemon version.

I was the first to go bankrupt, and Tay was the big winner.
I'm telling you, I NEVER win at that game. That's okay, though. It's always a good birthday when you win the game at the end of the day.


Tuesday, June 12
Mar leaves for Girls Camp

This was Mar's 6th and final year, but her 1st year going with our new Stake.
I'll admit, I was stressed about how things would go for her. I prayed all week long that she would have a good time, make some new friends, have spiritual experiences, and fulfill her role as a YCL well (she had seemed so unclear on what was expected of her prior to leaving).

On our way to the church for the drop off, we picked up a young woman from our ward who is somewhat new, and who could use friends and fellowhipping.

Since Mar didn't have her phone with her (although she DID have a camera...) she didn't take any pics. She took a few video clips for the "one second a day" video montage she's making, however.

I had the picture below sent to me via text with the attached message: "Mauri will probably never know how much good she did this past week. I love your girl. We need more Mauri's in the world!"

What was I so darn worried about? 

When our ward girls arrived at the church at the end of camp, I was there to pick up Mar, but found out that she would be coming home with the Stake camp leaders, who were an hour or two behind (different from our last Stake, who sent YCLs home with their wards... an honest mistake on my part, since I had not been informed otherwise). While talking to one of our adult ward leaders, she mentioned that Mar and A were awesome -- that they had visited our ward's camp site every day, making things extra fun for the first years and other girls.

I made a second trip to the church to pick up once Mar had called to tell me they were almost there. I was so excited to hear how things went for her.

She loved it. She talked about how different it was from our past Stake's camp (even though they are held at the same location). She LOVED the camp songs (say what?)... there were some that were new to her, and some that were familiar, but sung differently. She taught everyone a song they didn't know, and they all loved it. She talked about how they welcomed the 4th years... much different than our last Stake... and how everyone got so emotional about it. And she must have made a good impression on {her boyfriend} Jake's momma, because, once she was home, she said, "Jake says his mom loves me now."

Thanks, Mar, for being YOU.

June 13th

Whilst Mar was at camp, Shi celebrated being 22.

I love that she and her sistas get together fairly regularly, and that they helped her celebrate by taking her to lunch.

I gave her a birthday phone call in between work and a celebration over dessert with some of her friends (she had given me a 20 minute window haha). Bill was working at the temple, so he called later. Much, much later. {wink}

We love you, Shi!

June 17th

Father's Day

Our ward serves pie to all the men during the last 20 minutes of church. Some of the Young Women filled in for Primary classes, and others served pie. It's a nice tradition that the menfolk seem to enjoy immensely. It was a little funny that the RS (in charge of procuring the pies) was so worried about not having enough, then ended up with TONS. I think Bill said he had 4 slices, and Tay had 5 (or vice versa). And there was plenty for any other ward members who so desired after the meeting block was over.

I made 2 pies, a chocolate cream and a strawberries-and-cream. I wanted so badly to snap a pic of them before taking them to the church, but we I, as usual, was rushed to make it on time because I had spent too much time hunting for pics on my old BigMac to make a not-so-quick Father's Day facebook post. If you spot the two pies in front of Mar... those are mine. (I'm so glad someone snapped these pics and kindly shared them... I was in the nursery helping Evie... adjust... to nursery life. She's official in a couple of weeks, hip, hip hooray!)

After our church meetings, Bill and I attended a baptism, then headed home for the rest of our Father's Day celebration.

Aren't dads da best?
Mom's are the best too, but we're honoring those hard-working daddy-o's this month.


June 19th
A project.

I have finally gathered up the gumption to start refinishing my table that has bugged me these many years. It had previously been our dining room table, but morphed into our kitchen table {due to it's rectangular proportions} after our move. I have always loved the style (minus the UGLY chair cushions) and the size, but have had major issues with the finish pretty much since day one (we've probably had this table for a good 13 to 14 years). If I recall correctly, we had paid for a warranty, and when we had our first issue (bubbling under the surface due to swelling from moisture), we were told that we should NOT use water to wipe down the table. WHAT??? It's a table, for goodness sakes. You put food and beverages on it, and it generally needs to be wiped down afterwards, right? That's just plain ol' dumb manufacturing in my opinion.

Anyway, I'm refinishing it. I've sanded away nearly any sign of the many bubbled areas, primed (2 coats), painted (2 coats), and am currently in the process of polyurathaning it (I'm going for 5 coats). We have the missionaries coming for dinner on Monday, and my goal is to have it done by then.

I will be doing the chairs after our upcoming trip to Utah. I'm still trying to decided what color to paint them... I'm sure all those who live with me are tired of my steady stream of thoughts on the subject. It will be good to have a little time to contemplate.