Maren has participated in MESA (math, engineering, science, accomplishment) at her middle school for the past three years. They use these disciplines to build things and compete throughout the school year. As a reward the teachers that run this program in her school takes the 8th graders on a trip to California and Disneyland. They have to do a fair amount of fundraising, but the teachers run all that, and make it pretty fun for them. This year there was only these three girls, the smallest group they have ever taken, and they all get along beautifully! Maren loved this trip.
She even got some selfie practice in because I kept asking for pictures.
Lots of driving...
Thye had a fun evening at downtown disney. Then spent a day at Disneyland. Then spent a day at the beach and observatory before heading home. She had a good time, but was ready to be done driving in the end. Too bad we have lots more driving lined up this summer, including another drive to California next month!
Back at home we had some fun without Maren. Maybe too much fun. Let me show off this bruise. I got this mountain biking, I usually don't bruise up like this, but wow! I always laugh though, because the nastiest falls usually have the lamest bruises, but ones like this happen when I barely tap myself...go figure.
We took the kids out for our first paddle board trip of the season. So fun to have our own now. And fun to find something that Amanda enjoys doing with us.
Jacob is perfectly his lazy rowing techniques.
And then onto the thing I have been working all spring to make happen! I was asked by the Young Women girls camp leaders to lead the 4th year campers on their overnight hike this year in the beautiful ragged mountain wilderness. I was thrilled. Dave has helped be priesthood support for the past three years and I have been so jealous seeing the pictures when he come home. I was more than ready to have a turn up there.
It is absolutely stunning!
Especially at sunset!
The first day we hike into a lake that serves as our "base camp". We set up camp and give the girls their duty assignments, and help everyone figure out how to cook dinner. This year was unique, in that because of the fire restictions, all of our meals had to be cooked on a camp stove. Kind of a bummer not to have any fires out there, but when you saw how dry it was, it wasn't hard to see why.
The second day we take a day pack on our long hike (10 miles) to this beautiful waterfall. It is a hard hike, as there is a fair amount of trail blazing, and a few water crossings, including one that is usually pretty deep. But the girls all made it, and only with one minor injury (a cut up hand) and one broken hiking boot. Unfortunatly they both happened to the same poor girl. She luckily had a great attitude and had prepared herself so well despite not being in great shape, that she was able to finish to hike.
These ladies were the best to work with! I honestly could not have asked for a better crew of leaders to make this hike happen. And they made me look short in this picture, which never happens, so I have to document it.
These girls are all 14-15 years old, and for most of them, this is one of the hardest things they have ever done. It is so rewarding to see them finish, and to hear them talk about how empowering that is. Mostly though, they are just fun to be with.
Back at camp I got to catch up with these girls. As I walked into camp, Amanda took my pack, and carried it into camp for me. So cool. As I have never been up to girls camp here it was awesome to get to see it and to spend a little time with the girls up there. And it felt pretty great to shower as well!
Maren decided that she wanted to learn how to make homemade donuts. She loves to cook, so I put her work for Fathers Day and we did it. They weren't perfect, but next time hopefully! We discovered that it is really hard to keep the oil at the right temperature without a deep fryer. But by the last batch we had them just about right.
Of course the boys couldn't be outdone for Fathers Day and had their own gift up their sleeves...lazer guns! You know you are blessed with an awesome Dad that when he looks forward to playing lazer guns with you, just as much as you do with him.
Amanda had already taken off for her BYU music camp at this point, but even she came through with a text for her Dad. even if it was just a silly picture.
Spencer made the jump from cub scouts to boy scouts. It was fun that Dave is now the scout master and met him on his crossing over ceremony. Spencer had worked hard, and had some awesome leaders for weeblos, and was able to not only earn his weeblos badge, but also his arrow of light. Lots of extra stuff to do to earn that, and he did it well.
No comments:
Post a Comment