It's been a hard days night

Today our family begins a new adventure. One that will last for likely the next 5 years or so. We know it will bring some ups and down, some craziness and blessings. We don't really know what to expect but are moving forward with faith. 

Today N8 was called as the Bishop of our ward. 

Many people told me congratulations today, others said condolences. I'll let you know in a few months which was right!

Usually when N8 goes camping it's with the 2 or 3 older kiddos and I stay home and entertain whomever is left. This past weekend we decided it was time for the entire family to go camping together!

I am a skeptical camper, not really being a fan of dealing with the dirty children, etc, but decided we needed the family time. We headed up to Rock Creek, which is about 30 miles north of Bishop,CA (about 3 hours north of us). We saw that we were too late to reserve a campsite, but there were TONS of walk-ups. Unfortunately many people must of thought the same thing. We were able to get one of the last sites out of hundreds. It was a pretty tight fit for our HUGE tent, but we made it work.

 

After getting the tent set up and getting all food and scenty things into the bear box we headed over to the creek to explore. The creek was just across the campsite road from us. Lots of vegetation, logs to cross and rocks to throw in!

For dinner the kids roasted hot dogs on the fire and N8 and I had foil dinners. It started raining during dinner which made it a little difficult, but we managed.

The kids retreated to the tent to wait out the rain.

Some smores and chocolate bananas and a verners for N8 rounded out the night

At night we tried out something we saw online. You fill up a milk jug with water and stick a headlamp on it facing toward the jug. It made a a night little night light, not quite a lantern, but still some light.

It rained again during the night making everything nice and wet and muddy for the morning (but cool!!). We had pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast!

Then we headed to Rock Creek Lake which was down the road a few miles and explored, waded and threw rocks.

After Henry decided to fall in, we headed back to take down our campsite and drove a few more miles past the lake to Mosquito Flats (we didn't see any mosquitos!) and the Little Lakes Trailhead. It was only about a 1/2 mile hike and we found the first little lake!

  

It was so nice a cool, there were flush toilets and the scenery couldn't be beat! Pretty great family campout!

So furloughs are in full swing. It's dumb, but rather than dwelling on the negative (loss of pay!!!) we are focusing on the positive-more family time!! So yesterday it was supposed to hit 109*. So we took the chance to drive up to higher elevation and escape the heat. We headed to Whitney Portal.

We spent the morning exploring the waterfall and the creek.

We had a little issue with them emptying the drop toilets and it being stinky, but we dealt with it.

After our picnic lunch N8 and the kids took off for Lone Pine lake (the first 3 miles of the Mt Whitney trail) while I enjoyed sitting by the creek, reading a book!

The kids all made it to the lake, a total of 6 miles there and back!

N8 carried Henry in the backpack, at the trailhead we had him weigh in- almost 45 pounds!

We finished off the day with Pizza at the Lone Pine Pizza Factory!

Next week (since every Friday is furloughed until the end of September) we're planning on going camping up North. We'll see how that goes!

The kids and I were home for just a couple of days before we headed back out on a trip to Phoenix. We were headed to my parents house (even though my dad is in Idaho for the summer) to go through some of my mom's belongings. Things like clothing, sewing things and crafting items.

We headed out on Wednesday. The kids with tablets and movies to keep them occupied and I put in ONE headphone and listened to and audiobook of Sense & Sensibility as well as Pandora. We made decent time and got to the house in about 7.5 hours. Pretty normal. Luckily my sister had been there a few days prior and had turned the AC on, I just had to turn the water on. Since the water had been off, this is what welcomed us in the bathtub-meet GECKO!

While my sister and went through things the kids stayed busy swimming in the neighbors pool and playing dress up!

We also sent them out to weed the front flowerbed by bribing them with Popsicles!

One afternoon we did head to Costco for lunch and the kids loved trying out the furniture.

In the evening my sister, niece and I watch the newer BBC version of Sense and Sensibility. It was awesome!! I highly recommend it!

On Friday afternoon it cooled down slightly and the humidity left, so the kids headed out front and made a chalk city! They hope it's still there when we go in December.

It was great to visit with my sister, it was a good thing to get things taken care of at the house. Now we're planning on staying home for a while!!