Scouts - Bear Necessities

1) On a camp out with my Dad and brother

2 & 3) List of things I should take camping and list of what the group should take camping

4) Setting up the tent and explaining about the tent spot.

Hiking a mountain

I've never been a hiker. I never enjoyed the exercise, heat, dirt, and fear of wild animals. Recently though, I've turned over a new leaf. I've decided hiking is awesome. The journeys discovered on way, are often better then the final destination.

A friend and I recently decided to venture together on a path neither of us had hiked. We hiked for a solid two hours. It was incredible!  It was refreshing to just talk, talk, and talk some more without children interrupting and complaining.

June in Utah means cottonwood. Amazingly, it didn't bother me, and it looked just like snow. Super pretty.

This trail was fabulous because the majority of it was in the shade. I took a hat so I wouldn't get sun burnt, but I didn't even need it. We followed magical streams all the way up the trail. If I was a fairy, I would live beside those streams. It was absolutely stunning. Whenever I go on trails like this, I imagine being a Native American riding a horse thru these areas. I wonder where I would have hunted, stopped to eat berries, made a stream crossing, or even camped for the night. 

I think this spot would have made a fabulous sleeping area.

Becky and I are both excited to go try this hike again. I would have loved getting to the end. I think another hour or so would have gotten us there. Perhaps next time I'll also bring water shoes for the wet stream bed areas. 

Camping with Dad

Brandon's goal for the summer is to take the boys camping every month. It's one of his favorite ways to get away from life. On the other side of the coin, I hate camping and refuse to go...ever. Thankfully, we both accept the others point of view and make it work.

This month I took the boys up early Friday morning to get a nice spot since Brandon couldn't take the day off work (year end commitments). They went to Whiting Campground in Mapleton Canyon. It's only 15 minutes from our house. It ended up being perfect! They boys and I went and setup the tent and stayed a couple of hours reading books together.

Then, we went home, ate dinner, packed the camping gear, and left. They had a marvelous time even though they did forget a few things (contact solution, grahams for smores, and an apron for cooking bacon). Luke also got really bored on the second day. But, Brandon is already prepared with fun (cheap) toys for next time. Hello, big container of bubbles. 

For Cubscouts, Peter had to help put up the tent and discuss how to find a good spot for the it. He loves anything to do with scouts, so it was easy to get him to help me. We got lucky since it was a cooler weekend, and the spot we found had lots of shade. Brandon said it was amazing.

Brandon's coworker, John, tagged along for the Friday evening/Saturday festivities. Luke really enjoys having John around. Luke can talk to John about video games, and he actually knows what Luke is talking about. On Saturday morning they went for a "hike" and Brandon captured this picture of the two of them. What a blessing to have people around who care for my kids almost as much as I do. This was a great first camping trip of the season, and the boys are already looking forward to their next trip to Nephi Canyon in July.

Animals

Luke wants to grow up and take pictures of animals in far away places for his career. He is always talking about how he needs to get really good at taking pictures so he can do it when he gets a lot older. Naturally, I look for opportunities to help further his career choice. LOL.

When a local animal rescue center announced a presentation all about animals, I signed my boys up to attend. I was especially excited that it was a free event. This morning we went and enjoyed an entire hour getting to know these specific animals. Both of the boys loved it!

They were able to pet a ring tail lemur, bearded dragon, turtle, rabbit, skunk, and pygmy hedgehog. This is actually our fourth time attending this presentation and they have different animals every time. It was a fabulous way to spend a Wednesday morning.

The Garden

A few days after returning home from Missouri, we planted our annual garden. This year, the boys are able to each have their own garden box, plus the two other plots we have in other areas of the yard. They were so excited when we went to IFA earlier in the spring and bought them seeds.

Every Saturday morning they spend 10 minutes weeding their garden. Their plants have grown from teeny, tiny to medium size. We managed to setup a sprinkling system just for them, so I don't ever worry about them getting water. It's been heavenly.

Peter has tomatoes and carrots in this garden box. Plus, big pumpkins in the area by our garbage can.

Luke has peppers, cherry tomatoes, and baby pumpkins growing off the end of this box. He also has sunflowers and cucumber in his other garden area.

While I don't have any garden boxes for myself this year, my flower beds have kept me busy. I've found great satisfaction in seeing Peter and Luke become gardeners this year. I hope they will always be excited about gardening. 

Missouri Trip

For over a year, I've been looking forward to our planned vacation to visit my parents and sister.  It turned out to be just what I needed. I was able to forget all the cares and worries of life, and enjoy a different state that has unique things to see.

My family lives in the lower western half of the state, so we were too far away to go visit church history sites. We found plenty of things to keep us occupied during our 7 day visit though. We rented an AirB&B for this first time. It was fantastic to have a home base that really was a home. I was able to cook dinners, and the local Walmart was just 5 minutes away.

Here are the highlights of our trip:

The boys enjoy flying. All things considered, they are well behaved too. They were happy that they were able to watch shows that mommy wouldn't typically let them watch at home. Our flight to Kansas City was just under 3 hours long. We then rented a mini van (it was so nice to have a huge vehicle) in Kansas City and drove another 3 hours to get to our rental home in Nixa. We chose Nixa because it was halfway between my sisters home in Ozark, and my parents home in Clever.

Halfway through the drive we felt the need to get out and walk around. We found a gas station with ice cream. Hallelujah. In the back they had a large shaded area and we lounged for a few moments. Peter was especially excited when he discovered a birds nest built on this rain gutter. Can you spot it?

The next morning my parents drove to our rental, and then we all piled into the car to go to the Dickerson Zoo. We were super excited when we were told our Utah Zoo passes would get us in for free. We just paid for Grandma and Grandpa which was super cheap since they are now considered Seniors. 

In typical Luke fashion, he kept the map and marked off the animals as we saw them. We had a superb time. A bunch of school group buses had just left when we got there, and the weather was overcast with a touch of raindrops at times. We all loved it. 

Mom has a hard time walking up and down hills (her asthma is so temperamental), so we got a wheelchair for her. It was very humbling to see Dad pushing her all over those hills. Retirement has been amazing for them.

This zoo had peacocks everywhere. After a little while, they even got annoying.

The next day we drove into Springfield (it was about 30 minutes from Nixa), and we went to the Children's Museum there. It was AMAZING!!! Best one that we've ever gone to. We were there 2 hours and we could have easily been there longer. The building is huge and they have so many awesome exhibits. 

The highlight for me was the bed of nails, water table (water current exploration), and the bee hive area. The boys went crazy and ran around doing whatever they wanted while Bran, Mom, Dad, & I tried to keep up with them. Thankfully, nobody got lost for too long. 

They had a termite colony. It was fascinating. They also had an exhibit all about beetles and bugs that eat small rodents. It was gross, yet, disturbingly captivating. I'll tell you about it, if you ask me.

Peter, Grandpa, and Brandon built a bridge.

The bee colony. They actually had a hole in the wall so the bees could fly in from outside and deposit the pollen. I could have watched them for hours.

Ironically, this didn't hurt, and after a while, it was even relaxing. 

Here are some pictures of our rental house. It was in the most darling neighborhood. The neighbors were friendly, yet quiet. There was also a darling park within walking distance. One night while the boys were watching a show on tv, Brandon and I went over there and walked around the walking path they had there. I felt so safe.

It was a three bedroom, 1.5 bathroom house. Honestly, it looked like a double wide. It was super comfy and the boys each took a room that had the double beds. So, the parents slept on the smallest beds. It was hilarious. I felt very safe here, and I will stay at this same home over and over again in the future. 

Saturday was such an amazing day for me. We found the Springfield Botanical Garden. We were able to spend a few hours walking around and looking at all the beauty. Since Missouri's climate is similar to ours (except for the humidity), all the plants we looked at would work well in our garden. I took lots of pictures for future ideas. I just need more garden beds to create the magic they had there. 

Since it was Mother's Day weekend, they were having a special butterfly exhibit. The local news station was even there. By the time we got to the enclosure the boys were totally done. However, Brandon and I enjoyed it. We then went to the gift shop where we bought the boys a snack so they would stop whining. The gift shop was having a Mother's Day sale and everything was 50% off. I got a silly t-shirt that says; Gardening, Diggit, Diggit. It's hilarious because it has a frog with a garden spade on it. It cost me $3 - score! I also bought the boys garden gloves for $3. We've already used them a bunch of times, and I now wish I would have bought all they had. Sturdy gloves can be so expensive. 

In another section of this massive garden was a special Japanese Garden. By that time Luke was extremely miserable due to allergies. I stayed with him while Brandon and Peter wandered around. Hopefully, we will all be able to enjoy it a little bit more of this slice of heaven when come back (hopefully next year). 

That evening we finally met up at Grandma and Grandpa's for a family dinner. Brent was feeling sick (not a good thing for a Saturday when he has Bishop responsibilities on Sunday) so he stayed home. But, the rest of us where there and it was simply delightful. Grandma made WAY too much food. We had Hawaiian haystacks. My favorite part was sitting on the rocking chair outside just rocking and talking with my sister and Brandon. I have a slight obsession with rocking chairs. They make me so meditative.

Grandma also had sewn white pillowcases as Mothers Day gifts for Lisa and I. The grandkids colored them with fabric markers in all sorts of creative patterns. It was such a fabulous gift, and I sleep with mine every night. It's going to be a tragedy when it wears out. 

My cute Mom made these dolls for the chair in her front room. She dresses them up for every season/holiday. Sewing is her creative outlet and she has a house full of amazing quilts. I vow that someday I will be able to do that too. 

Before leaving on this trip Brandon caught a very bad sinus cold/nasty sickness. It caused his ears to plug up with gunk and not even medication prescribed by a doctor could clear it up. Consequently, he couldn't hear much at all. He was very patient throughout the trip. I would just yell really loudly when had something important to tell him.  Sadly, my family doesn't speak very loudly, so he missed out on most of the conversations we had. Hopefully next time we go, he will be completely healthy. 

The town of Ozark, where my sister Lisa lives, has an amazing swimming pool at their Recreation Center. We ended up going there twice since it was open in the early morning, and it was super cheap to get in. An entire family pass was just $14. Score!

The first time we went, the local High School kids had come to experiment with the cardboard boats they had made in their engineering class. It was HILARIOUS to watch almost all of them sink. The boats that made it across were always shaped like a triangle, and the kids worked as a team to row their oars in rhythm with each other. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The best was when a macho group of boys got their boat in the water only to promptly sink. So.much.fun.

The second time we went we had the entire pool to ourselves. Ah, the benefits of homeschooling and going on vacation when all the public schools are still in session. 

They had two water slides with this spiral staircase leading up to the top. I thought it was an amazing staircase. I also thought it wasn't very safe, but the boys never got hurt running up it. I'm glad about that.

Another highlight included the trip to the Fantastic Caves. It was pricy to get in, but you rode in a jeep through an amazing cavern. Grandpa had always wanted to go, so we took him with us. It was beyond fascinating. Judging by how well Peter and Luke like it, I think they would also enjoy Timpanogos cave here in Utah. Even if you do have to hike a while to get inside. 

They even have two sink holes that fill up with water. At this time last year there was so much water they had to close the cave to visitors. Whew, so glad we came in a year that wasn't so rainy.

One morning Brandon took the boys to go and see the movie A Wrinkle in Time. While they were gone, I went to my sisters house and spent a few hours watching her little girl, and chatting. Later we all got together at her house to just relax. 

I had hoped the lightening bugs would be out during our visit. But, we came too early by about a month. The amount of birds out there was incredible though, and I went home not even content with the wildlife we have in Utah.

The amount of frogs, turtles, opossums, and armadillos that live in that part of Missouri is incredible. I'm not surprised because there are so many dense forest areas in the middle of the city, or just outside a subdivision. Thankfully, we never hit any animals, but there was plenty of road kill. We even saw a wolf that had been hit on our way back to Kansas City to catch the flights home. CRAZY!

My Dad goes on early morning walks most days of the week. He often rescues turtles from the middle of the road. There seriously are that many of them. Brandon was in heaven with all the hills. He thought it was hilarious to go super fast down them. I was just praying we wouldn't hit anything or anyone on those narrow winding roads. 

The last night in town, we discovered a hidden garden that my sister recommended to us. It was the most magical place ever! We walked down a long narrow dirt road. At the end was a home that had converted large areas to beautiful gardens. I was in heaven. They boys loved the water and the bridges. I instantly fell in love with all of it. The darling stepping stones that had things on them were a highlight for me. It was such a fabulous ending to an incredible trip. It was even a deeply spiritual visit for me. Nature often makes me feel that way. It fills my heart with gratitude to a loving Heavenly Father who has provided me with so many things to enjoy. 

This trip was a time of deep introspection for me. Brandon has been going though some changes, and consequently its made me reevaluate some of my own thoughts/beliefs/habits/perspectives. It was such a blessing to be able to go to a "safe" place to find the peace, quiet, and answers I needed. I dare say this trip was defining moment in my life that I will often look back on with gratitude. Missouri no longer seems so far away. I now carry a piece of it in my heart.