Mack's Creek Camping Extravaganza

 

Monday came with a new gymnastics schedule! The little girls practice from 10-11 and the boys and Ambree from 11-12. The wait felt much longer with little people wriggling about in the van, luckily the weather was cool so the kids could hang out in the van. The gym was packed with parents watching their kiddos. Next week my plan is to bring lots of books and have reading time. I brought Sleeping Queens as a diversion but that ended with Everett hopping mad (Phillip cheated) and yelling. Evelyn and Josie were content to play with the bin of Duplos sitting in the trunk (I am going to sell/donate those). Grandpa Lance organized a family zoom meeting, we're a little behind the trend. Each family had a moment to talk about our kids and goings on. Grandma Jean shared her most recent medical diagnosis. She's dealt with extremely high calcium levels, now we know she has some sort of cancer in her bones. Intervention is minimal at her age just pain relief. We hope Grandma will be with us for quite some time! Joseph was asleep during the meeting and Jeffrey was driving truck. Mia and Lia were copying each other for the entire hour to our amusement. I suggested a book club with Boys in the Boat as our first family read. The Lance's Nerdy Book Club was established at last, my life is now full. Rudy gave the best update for the Suapaia family. I can't wait for our next meeting. The rest of our evening was spent preparing for an overnight camping trip. Justin and Mia borrowed two small kayaks from the Palmer's. I laid out the new tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, swim/sand tote, and the myriad of little things needed for camping. 

The kiddos were up extra early already dressed in their lake swim wear around 7 am. We had the truck packed and ready to go by 10 am. Sara was able to fit half of our supplies in her van since the truck bed  was filled with 4 kayaks. I fit in the large tent, cooler, and other items around the kayaks. Sara took Amelia, Everett, Ambree, and Logan in her van. I had Phillip and Carson in the front cab with me and the littles in the back. Waiting for 1 pm was killer! The campground was open for us at 2 pm so we waited until 1 to leave. Of course the little things always cause a delay like noticing Josie had no shoes, getting gas, bathroom, and tightening down the load. The drive up was a so fun! The kids were excitedly pointing out all the fun scenery up the canyon. We had our walkie talkies to communicate once we lost cell service. Our campsite was positioned a good distance from the parking lot, down a steep hill. The kids helped slug supplies down the hill to our neighboring campsites. Phillip stayed to help me set up the tarp and tent which went up quickly and easily! The kids immediately went to the water and stayed in the water until 7 pm. Our view of the lake was magnificent. Josie and Oliver melted my heart as they paddled around in their little kayaks for hours. I worked on inflating the large flamingo and several other floaties to join the beach party. I led an expedition to Naked Rock 2 miles down the reservoir with Sara, Ambree, Logan, and Everett all paddling their own kayaks and me towing Evelyn, with Josie sitting in front of me. Sara turned back after a mile to make sure Oliver was ok. The rest of us made it to the site for 30 minutes of rock jumping fun. We scaled up the rocks to jump into the deep water. Let me just say that first jump into frigid water was absolutely breathtaking. Ha ha ha. Justin and Dustin joined us after work for walking tacos and/or cowboy hot dogs. Right after dinner the kids hopped back into wet swimsuits for more lake fun until the sun set. The older kids raced down the dock to jump in, Carson chickened out last moment instead flapped his hands like a chicken! Phillip later got him back by flipping over his kayak. The guys took a paddle across the reservoir. It's a good workout. After the guys left we roasted marshmallows and hi-chews before turning in. The camp monitor came over because we were way to noisy, she was nice about our noise but asked us to quiet down. We played telephone around the fire! The kids settled right in for a nice sleep. Sike. Evelyn and Phillip kept me awake half the night with their constant movement. I tried to calm down Evelyn's trashing legs but apparently that kept her awake too. I crawled out of the tent after midnight to find a skunk slinking around. The sky was brilliant with stars, the Milky Way a visible ribbon of stars. I felt close to heaven gently rocking on the dock with my face to the stars. 

My alarm woke us all up at 8 am, lazy bones! Most of the Ostlers were awake and around the fire pit. We ran out of wood so the kids fed the fire pine straw and branches resulting in a very smokey fire. The kids were right back in the water and kayaks after breakfast. A light breeze ruffled the water and make kayaking a new adventure. The kids quickly got cold so returned to warm clothes then explored the shoreline. Sara, Amelia, Everett, and I played a rousing game of Scrabble. We scrambled to get our gear deflated, collapsed, rolled, and cleaned before the noon deadline. Sara left first with most of the gear because Ambree was going with some YW to do baptisms for the first time. I was left with the slackers and tired kids, meaning my energetic kids who carried everything down the day before were now reduced to whining puddles of nonsense. Took some yelling and a few hugs but we hauled up all the kayaks and the heavy tent and crates before 1 pm. We came home a collapsed into dirty puddles. The kids all cleaned up and showered before we worked on unloading the truck. Took the remainder of the day to start laundry, wipe down our gear, and unload. Next time we are camping for at least 2-3 nights to make all that work worth the effort. Our new pool delivery was either delivered and stolen or mis-delivered. The fancy camera doorbell was out of batteries so the timeframe was not captured so we have no idea what happened. Walmart refunded the purchase and I ordered another one at a lower price point! 

Thursday we worked more on unpacking and resting from our busy camping trip. Josie and Everett did not wake up until after noon. My cute garden is busy growing. The sunflowers are a good 12 feet tall with sunny flowers starting to bloom. I am not sure my tomato experiment is going to work: I'm pruning most of the leaves off the vines and spraying flower set on the vines. I'm so used to big bushy plants the gangly vines this year throw me off. Once again my pea crop failed, only got 12 pods so far. It's fun to go outside and putter around after dinner for a while. My hands look quite a fright because wearing gloves is an aversion of mine. The kids had quite a time organizing a skit for the little neighborhood kids staged in our garage. The motorcycle helmet was the prop of the night! 

The house was quite cluttered so we worked together as a family to clean bedrooms and assigned jobs. Evelyn and Phillip spent my nerves with constant whining and crying. Gah! We went to the library and then roller skating for a few hours. Evelyn and Phillip spent 20 minutes in time out watching everyone else have fun as their consequence for bad cleaning behavior. Amelia's choir recital was on Friday evening at Kleiner Band Shell in Meridian. Justin met us there since the park is close to his work. We found a nice spot in front of the band shell to watch various piano, ukulele, guitar, and voice students. The sound system was terrible, apparently the main speaker was dropped before the recital. The kids rolled around in the grass until Amelia's choir started at 7:30. Amelia practiced for months on her solo, the microphone and speaker set up did not help at all, but she still sang her heart out. It was quite nice to enjoy an evening away from our norm.  Way to go Amelia! She is working hard developing her musical talents. Justin and Amelia surprised us while we were sitting on the front porch by speaking through the doorbell camera. Guess the batteries are now charged...the doorbell is ringing non-stop as well. 

Saturday morning I had a fun newborn session with the Lynes family from our ward. They welcomed a second daughter a couple weeks prior. Sara spotted a dining table with chairs at a garage sale in our neighborhood. Our current table is falling apart, I wanted to replace the table top but wood costs too much money right now. We went over to find a decent table set for $300 in much better condition than our set. We spent $50 more on stain and polyurethane to finish the new table. I want to use our current table as an outdoor picnic table! I'm going to paint it and urethane it before it goes outside. I've always wanted a picnic table. Hooray. Amelia went to her very first Stake Dance! We worked on a cute hairstyle, makeup, and outfit for the occasion. YAY! I hear the dance was a lot of fun, 4 entire boys asked her to dance! She danced and enjoyed her first experience with dances. 

Phillip spent Saturday afternoon writing his first sacrament meeting talk. Justin assigned him the topic of the Aaronic Priesthood Theme. He floundered for a couple hours. We helped him find some articles to read on the subject. He struggled to answer the question: Why is it important to know you are a child of God? We discussed the question during dinner to help him think about possible answers. I helped him finish up his talk, he dictated while I typed. He delivered an epic first talk! I was worried he would get up there and verbally spew words all over the place. Instead he stood up straight, made eye contact, reading his talk at a reasonable pace with incredible annunciation! My jaw was on the ground. That was quite surreal to watch my whirlwind of spit and dust kid stop and deliver his talk. Further 3-4 RS ladies stopped me to compliment Phillip on his sincere talk which they could understand and follow. Miracles do happen. Amelia taught the lesson in YW on the topic of faith bringing miracles not miracles creating faith (testimonies). Sara and I decided to swap Sunday dinners once each per month. Last week I hosted dinner thus we had dinner at the Ostlers this Sunday. Our after dinner lesson was about being a child of God. We watched an amazing short video about a gentleman (Peter Johnson) who grew up in the NY projects, his journey of discovering he was a child of God.  I loved how he said challenges are expected, that we can pull through still knowing our worth. Running away from darkness and towards the light is our purpose in this life.