Camping With the Young Women

This past weekend, I went camping with ten young women, three pre-young women and five other adults. It was a lot of fun. So much fun that I didn't take much time to take pictures and when all of us were supposed to be taking pictures, Summer was using my camera. So, I've included a couple of the pictures she took :)

We arrived Friday night in time for dinner which was Dutch oven cooking by Br. H. Then there were games, a devotional by Sister L., hot chocolate and bed (but not sleep). I was happy to announce to everyone trying to sleep at six in the morning that it had snowed during the night - how exciting (and how annoying of me!).

Saturday we had Dutch oven breakfast and sweet rolls before a photography class by Br. L. and Br. M. Then we were off to hike and go on a photography scavenger hunt.

Finally, back to camp for lunch and packing up - it went so quickly, we'll just have to do it again!

Sick Day

I have been flirting with a cold the past week and today it is full blown, so I am taking the day off (as much as possible) and taking it easy, which translates into catching up on my blogging.

Fans (maybe that is too strong a word - smile) of Phraseology take note, I have caught up on the last three weeks, just in time to get a new assignment that I will probably procrastinate.

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First, a couple of Michaelisms -

This morning I told Rachel, "I feel rotten."
Michael stood up for me, loudly exclaiming,
"You're not ROTTEN!"

Then, when I put the popcorn on the table for snack,
he tasted it and pronounced,
"This is my favorite kind of popcorn I never tasted!"

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Heather has become adept at climbing the tulip tree in the backyard. She is hard to see, but I included this picture to give you an idea of how far up she gets.



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Here is a video of Naomi with Poppy. Mo used to be scared of Poppy because the chicken likes to follow her around, but they have become good friends. First, she shares her raisins with Poppy. Then she tries to teach her how to play an unknown musical instrument. Finally, Naomi chases Poppy around, loudly asking for a "HUG".

Fishing With the Young Women

Last Saturday, I woke up at 3:20 am - not something I do for fun, but it is something I do on a regular basis to tell Naomi that it is still nighttime and that she should go back to sleep. Then, that is what I usually do - go back to sleep, but not this time. I was up to stay and welcome the teenagers showing up at the house at four to go fishing!

A brave, intrepid couple - Brother Rod and Sister Shirley - in our ward took us surf fishing at one of our state beaches. We were ready to go by 4:30, so we were off! It was still dark when we arrived.

By the time we trudged down from the parking lot to the sand, the sky was beginning to lighten. As annoying as it is to get up and be out for it, there is always something magical about seeing the day arrive.

Before we fished, Brother Rod gave us instruction. Shirley had told me he was a good teacher and he really is - succinct yet thorough and a pleasure to learn from.

Sister Shirley is an excellent teacher as well and spent time teaching some of us how to cast, which is trickier than it looks.

Rod demonstrated the proper way to bait the hooks with blood worms.

Kaylee was brave and gave it a try, herself.

Here we are, set up and waiting for nibbles, bites and gulps.

Gabriella caught the first fish.

Here is Ryan with her first catch.

Kaylee with her first fish.

Rod and Rachel admiring her first catch - two fish at one time!

In addition to the first fish, Gabriella caught the first shark.


Everyone had to feel its sandpapery skin before we threw it back. We caught and released all the fish we caught except one, which Gabriella took home to eat.

Here is Rod showing us the stinger on one of the rays one of the young women caught. He warned us about these before we started fishing and assured us that if anyone was stung, we'd all have to leave and head to the nearest hospital, so we stood back and let him do the careful and experienced handling.

Kaylee caught the second shark of the day. She knew she had something big on the line. We were all excited watching her reel it in. She ended up catching a small fish on her top hook and a shovel head shark on the bottom one. We wondered if the fish was acting as bait for the shark. Ryan thought that was a great idea. Every time someone hooked a really small fish, she would ask Brother Rod, "Can we use it for bait?!?"

All together, we caught 47 fish during five hours of fishing with three lines including two ray and two sharks.

We all had a blast and want to give a big thanks to Rod and Shirley for taking and teaching us.

It was a great day!

Bo...o...o...oring

Michael walked up to me this afternoon and said, "Everything we are doing around here today is boring. Can you, like, get out the Tinker Toys or something?"

FHE last night

We went for a walk and bike/scooter/parent ride for our FHE activity last night. Naomi put on a hat and thought she was ready to go.

I caught her and traded the hat for a dress.

Here some of us are watching the guy across the street reading on his front lawn while Stan either puts on or takes off roller blades for Michael. He changed his mind and ended up using the scooter. Stan and I were impressed with his persistence. He went really fast for a three year old and would fall on a regular basis, get up, say, "I'm ok," if he caught me looking worriedly at him, and head off again.

Yesterday...

...we met up with a group that encourages kids to spend more time outside and visited a local botanic garden. It was so much fun to see the kids enjoying themselves and it really is a pretty place to visit.

Kelly and Naomi were impressed with the size of these leaves they found.

Everyone enjoyed seeing the turtles and fish in the pond.

We saw some baby bananas...

...and lots of bugs.

Mo was especially impressed with this big green beetle.

There were some apples on the ground in fairly decent shape, so we had a snack. They were pretty good.

Rachel also found a pear which she let me try and then ended up relinquishing to the screaming toddler in the back seat during the ride home, so Naomi ended up eating the lion's share of the fruit.


I spent most of the time saying things like, "Look at the rabbits!" or "Did you see that lizard?", but Michael always seemed to be just a little too slow focusing in on the lightening fast wildlife, so he kept saying, "Where, where?" until finally this lizard held still long enough for him to get a good look.

Naomi's New Hobby

Naomi likes popping bubble wrap online. She'll come up and ask, "Bubble?" She doesn't know how to move the mouse yet herself, so she needs an older person to help, but she pushes the left button and pops the bubbles herself. Try it, you'll like it - it's kind of addictive in a not too threatening way (we hope!).

The Return of Petsy (Sort Of)

We have a new pet. A family in our ward ended up "babysitting" a guinea pig for longer than they planned and were relieved to learn that we would be happy to add him to our menagerie. Isn't he cute? His name is Toby, which bothers some of the girls a bit. They don't think a pet should have the same name as an uncle, but the four owners have yet to agree on a new name.

He is so calm and good natured. I really like guinea pigs. We had one about a decade ago that Summer named Petsy. Petsy had almost the same coloring as Toby, so having him around is like a blast from the past.

PETSY

Gwen's Essay

Gwen had to write the classic, "What I Did Last Summer" essay and I asked her if I could post it for your enjoyment, so here it is.

My Summer Vacation

This summer I read a lot. I love reading. I went outside a lot, too. This past summer I planted a pear tomato. It is getting very big now. I taught my baby sister, Naomi, some animal sounds. I took piano lessons and am almost in the third level of my piano books. I played a lot of different sports with my family. I took level four swimming lessons. Some of the time, I played with my chicken, Daisy. She is a Jersey Black Giant. I wrote in my journal and I slept in late. I practiced standing on my head and told stories to my brother or sisters. Once in a while, I went to my friend’s house or she came to mine. Sometimes, my friend’s sister would come for a piano lesson and she would come too. It was a great summer.

A Snippet of the Last Three Weeks

A lot more has been going on around here than I will ever have time to catch up with the blogging about, but oh well, here is some of our crazy lives (whatever I happened to get pictures of).

We went on one last before-school-starts day trip, a couple of weeks ago (before school started - smile). Now that we have both a teenager and a toddler, with five cute kids in between, it is harder to find one activity that makes everyone happy, so we compromised. First, we went to Vons and used a gift card I won to buy bagels, cream cheese, water, grapes and candy (doesn't that sound like a balanced meal?). Then we headed to the coast. First, we went shopping in some of the boutiquish shops near the beach (to please the older kids). Summer and Rachel each went halfsy with me on some clothes. Summer picked a dress...

...and Rachel found a skirt.

After we were done shopping (well, some of us were done...) we headed a few miles north to a small municipal aquarium. It is just the right size to see in an afternoon. We started with lunch on the beach and then headed over to see the fish and tons of other ocean life. I was surprised at the variety of creatures they had!

Naomi was fascinated with everything in the tanks.

This part of the trip was especially for the younger kids (but when pressed I think everyone would admit that they enjoyed it) and they really liked the tide pool that you could touch things in.

Rachel and I both took our cameras and both had fun using them. Summer borrowed mine quite a bit, too and used it to take pictures of both the wet and dry wild life around her.

I'm not sure if Summer or I took this, but isn't it nifty?


And here is a slide show of more creature pictures. These are my favorites of the ones I took.





Here are a series of three pictures Summer took.

Michael tends to end up at the back of the line of women he has to follow around wherever he goes.

Sometimes he gets more interested in other things besides being the last in line. I have to keep an eye on him, or he'd get lost.

Heather, Gwen, Kelly Michael and Naomi had fun being eaten.

Gwen and Mo liked this big whale head statue.

I thought the Whale Graveyard was a good place to get a picture of everyone.

Then, the Monday after our last big shebang, Summer, Rachel, Heather, Gwen and Kelly all started school. Summer is in a public high school, Heather and Gwen (this is Gwen's first year) are both in the same public elementary school and I am home schooling Rachel and Kelly.

Here are Heather and Gwen on the first day of school with their shiny new clothes, shoes and semi-matching backpacks.

Finally, to end our catch-up, a funny story. The other evening, I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, with whole wheat sesame bread sticks on the side. I went ahead and gave everyone a couple of bread sticks before they sat down and when Michael saw his sitting on his plate, he asked, "Why do my meatballs have seeds on them?"