she's back from the trek

we just picked up taryn from the trek--a pioneer journey the youth in our stake experienced. she was gone for 5 days (no showers, no electricity, no cell phone, no flushing toilets, no internet, no beds). the group pushed and pulled handcarts near Mt. Hood over part of the Barlow trail. they were grouped into "families" and traveled about 5 miles each day. at night they set up camp--their tents and sleeping bags. each youth was allowed to take a sleeping bag and a 5 gallon bucket filled with the supplies they needed. they were all asked to dress in pioneer clothing. taryn didn't change all week (even though she took another pioneer outfit). taryn took NO pictures (where did i go wrong?) but here are some of her return.

look at the dirt on her collar!

oh, her poor feet!

the first thing she wanted to do was go to taco bell! and the second was to take a shower!

barbeque

a great way to spend an afternoon--a barbeque with friends. we gathered at kelli & mario's to celebrate chial's homecoming (from his mission to fiji).

i love this photo! tanner, quinn and i went home early because both quinn and tanner still had school the next day. tanner HATED leaving all the fun.

a boy and a dog

tanner would love to have a dog. but neither of his parents want one. so he has to get his dog fix wherever he can. we were at a barbeque at kelli & mario's and tanner spent a lot of time playing with G, parker's dog. it was cute to watch.

summertime

for us, one of the sure signs of summer is when it is warm enough to pull out our friends' big water slide! this week (end of june) it was FINALLY warm enough for this kind of fun.

one day we invited friends to come and slide. we had a grand time!

ward campout

our ward's campout was last weekend at Metzler Park, just south of Estacada. for the last couple of years, we have just come out for the evening campfire or only quinn and the kids have stayed to camp.

this year, because of our new tent purchases and our double-height air mattresses (and electricity at the site), i decided to camp overnight too! we persuaded grandma to come too (again, i think it was the air mattresses).

quinn, grandma, tanner and i came out first and set up camp. our new big tent was not that hard to set up. we had to borrow an air pump (the one we had was too weak) and it pumped up those mattresses just great. we all slept pretty great (quinn and i just needed another blanket).

the ward had a campfire with a special speaker (pres. henderson) and s'mores and some singing (thank you, bro. mayer!). in the morning the bishopric came out to cook breakfast burritos.

the girls, grandma and i left early so that tay could get to work. quinn and tanner stayed later so that tanner could play ball with other campers.

testing, testing, testing

we've been working on improving our level of preparedness--from using our food storage wheat to make bread, to updating our 72-hour kits, and to gather the supplies we need in an emergency. i searched and saved for a new tent for our family (our old ones were broken). i wanted one with a "sunporch" so that we wouldn't track dirt into tent. i actually bought two-a small 3-person tent and a large family tent. i found both of them on sale (and had a discount coupon) and was able to find two double-height queen air mattresses (also on sale AND with a coupon).

here are pictures of our new tents that we set up for the first time at the ward campout last weekend. the double-height queen air mattresses were heavenly! and we could stuff a single-height queen into the small tent (the girls slept there).

i'll post pictures of one of my loaves of bread soon!

dangers of a creative life

all aspects of my life--home, family, school, church, and work seem to require some type of creativity and the accompanying "stuff" that goes with it. while i love being creative, one of the dangers is all the STUFF you accumulate in your artistic pursuits. in our small house, sometimes it seems like there is stuff everywhere! i guess it's good that i like to organize! my goal this summer is to try to consolidate and pare down some of my supplies, to simplify my creative outlets!