Fish Lake Fun

We had a great summer vacation to the mountains this year. We decided to spend an entire 10 days camping at our favorite camp spot, Fish Lake.  This year we stayed at UM Creek and the rest of the Morwood clan stayed with us. We were there over the 24th of July holiday and along with celebrating our pioneer heritage, we all got together for the Morwood Reunion.  My family was in charge of the reunion this year so we were really involved.

Because it was Pioneer Day weekend, the kids had a blast dressing up and pretending they were pioneers.

 Here Jack is pulling the "covered wagon" with all of the pioneer children inside. They loved it! 

As one of the activities for the reunion, we had a Little House on the Prairie party for the girls. 

The girls got together and learned a little more about Laura Ingalls and her books. Emily and Taylor gave their own reports on her and then we had a trivia game.  Next we made little rag dolls out of fabric like Laura's doll, Charlotte, in the books. The girls had a lot of fun making these and got pretty creative with them. As a treat, we tried Almonzo's favorite snack, popcorn in milk. We were all a little skeptical at first, as you can see from the picture of Jess, but once we tried it, we all liked it. It was different, but still good.

The next day was Sunday so we had a little devotional.

Cassie was our main speaker and she gave us a little report on her mission and the things she learned from serving and trusting in the Lord on her mission.  We then talked about some of the other missionaries in our family and how they were doing.

That night we had a big family dinner. Unfortunately it started raining right before dinner so we didn't know what we should do. Finally we just put up more tarps and hoped for the best. Luckily, the rain stopped just as we started dinner and didn't start again until we were done.

It was so nice to get together with everyone and talk and have dinner. We were all celebrating the fact that even though Grandma will be turning 100 this year, she was still able to come camping and enjoy this mountain she loves with all of her posterity.

On Monday, we all went on a big four-wheeler ride from the UM side of the mountain to the Gooseberry side of Fish Lake.  It was all day long.

I was able to take Emily, Colby, and Charlotte while Russell stayed back at camp with Logan.  

We were all kind off cramped on the four wheeler but it was still fun and we saw some beautiful country. Here we are at a nice overlook before we dropped into the Gooseberry side of the mountain. We had to stop here for a minute to kind of blaze a trail for the Hughes' Razor because the trail was only meant for four wheelers. Then their four wheeler over heated and wouldn't start so we let it chill for a minute before moving on. We took advantage of this and took some pictures of the scenery.

Then we moved on to the beaver ponds and finally stopped at Cold Springs for lunch. On the way back home, we stopped at Gates Lake for a rest and then moved on to UM Pass. Above is a picture of another overlook near 7-mile. This was another spot we had to blaze a trail for the Razor. We finally made it home by dinner time. 

One bad thing about going on these long rides is that it is hard to wait for everyone. The people in the lead always seemed to get breaks while as soon as the people in the back got to the stopping place, the lead people were wanting to go again. It was hard for me because we would stop and the kids would want to take their helmets off to cool off but then it was time to go again as soon as they got them off. Oh well I guess it is just part of the fun.

When we got back to camp, we decided to make homemade ice cream for Cassie's birthday. Clay and Shauna had made a few cobblers to celebrate and we brought the ice cream. The kids love cranking the hand crank ice cream maker. They all had a good time taking turns in order to freeze the ice cream.

The next day was July 24th. This was the big celebration day and the day for the most activities. First though we had to get pictures with Grandma.

My mom had these sweatshirts made for us and Grandma. The shirts said "100 years of camping at Fish Lake."

We love our Grandma and the legacy she has set forth and we all love camping at Fish Lake because of her.

After pictures, it was time to start the pioneer games. First we had a pioneer heritage lesson where we heard a lot of stories about our great grandparents. They were very interesting and they really got everyone talking about the fun memories they have had with our great grandparents. It was so good to hear my aunts and uncles talking about their grandparents and most of the stories were pretty funny. Then Grandma talked about her life and how she and Grandpa met. She also set the record straight on some of the funny stories of my aunts and uncles childhood. It was a real treasure to hear these stories from her mouth. I wish I would have recorded them.

After the stories, we played some pioneer games.

We played Stick Pull, made pioneer Yo-yos, stick ring toss, and colored pictures. We also made our own butter! I have never done this before but Pinterest said it was really easy so I put it together. All we needed was heavy whipping cream and a jar. Then you just shake it forever and walla, you have a little ball of butter. We even tried it on some bread and it was pretty good!  We are real pioneers! This was a pretty fun day.

The whole week, Colby had been building this awesome hut using sticks and logs he found around the area. 

 

While we were having the pioneer games, he and Cole went off to play in his hut and then it started pouring rain and hail.  They holed up in their hut in the rain for quite a while but then they said the roof started leaking.    Russell and Jess finally ventured out into the storm to go rescue them.

They were surprisingly dry but grateful to be rescued.  We all laughed at their ingenuity to blocking the door and trying to patch the roof in order to prevent the water from coming in.  They had so much fun.

This summer we bought a new trailer.  We now have a toy hauler and there is much more room for the kids to play in the trailer.  This was good because it rained a lot while we were camping.  Here is Charlotte thinking she is big because she could climb the ladder in the trailer.

The next day we took the kids fishing at Fish Lake.  It started raining again so we spent the time in the camper shell watching our poles.  Charlotte loved pretending she was fishing with Emily's pole.

When the rain finally stopped, we tried out something really fun, kayaking!  The Hughes' let us try out their kayaks and we had a blast.  I was worried at first because I had never kayaked before but it was so easy and so fun.  We were hooked and now think we need to get some of our own kayaks.

We kayaked all over the north end of Fish Lake near Pelican Point.  The water was really shallow until you got to the middle of the lake and then it seemed to drop off and get really deep.  Colby and I kayaked all around and even went to the other side of the lake and found a beaver dam and watched a beaver swimming around.  Russell took Logan out too and Emily was brave enough to try her own kayak.  She did great and loved every minute.

The next day, we went fishing again but this time at Gate's Lake.

We had some success fishing this time.  Tami caught a fish and let Logan reel it in for her.  He thought that was pretty cool and was so excited to hold the fish.  Then Emily caught her own fish as well.  She was pretty happy with that too.  The rest of us got skunked but that was okay with me.  

The best thing about camping this summer was spending a lot of time with cousins.

Logan and Cole came out one morning and discovered that they were twins!! We didn't even plan it so that made it even more fun.  They were so happy to be matching that they had to get a picture taken.  These two had a blast playing together and got along so well.  This is also a picture of the hut they made and played in all the time.

They also loved playing with the Hughes'.  Here they are practicing their rock skipping skills with Tyrel.  

The next day we went on another four wheeler ride.  This time I took all of the kids because Russell had to go home and work for a few days.

This time we drove over the UM mountain to the I-70 and then back.  It was a long ride as well but still fun.  There were a lot of good lookouts and we were able to see a lot of beautiful scenery.

The next day was July 29 and Russell came back to the mountain after getting off work.  It was also our 12th anniversary!!  We decided to take a little family trip to the Lodge and spend the day together.

We hiked around the Lake shore trail, had a picnic lunch and spent time looking at the lake.  We even practiced skipping rocks.  It was a great day and we loved spending time together.  

The week was winding down and it was almost time for us to go home.  Our last day was a really chill day, we didn't have any plans and we just spent the time hanging out at the trailer.  

While Russell and I were relaxing in the shade, Emily took her brothers on a four wheeler ride.  She had been wanting to learn how to drive the four wheeler all week so Russell finally gave her some lessons and we let her go.  She rode up and down the road for hours.  They had a great time.

We loved camping this week and had a great time with our family.  We had great meals together, played a lot of card games until late in the night, and just enjoyed talking and spending time together.  The kids had a great time playing with cousins and being outside.  We love camping!

Activity Days Camp

Probably one of the best callings in the church is Activity Days Leader. It is such a chill calling and the only thing you have to do is plan fun activities for these cute girls twice a month! I love it and have been the leader for almost three years. These girls are crazy most of the time and there is never a dull moment. 

This last week I was able to take them to a fun Activity Days Day Camp at the Boy Scout Camp near us called Camp Fife. It was so much fun and the girls really seemed to enjoy it too.

At the Day Camp we got to participate in a bunch of different activities.  First we started off with the Zip Line:

Each girl took their turn and then, since we still had time, they got to go again. There were some girls that were scared to zip line at first but then once they tried it, they said it was the best part of the whole day. They really loved it.

Next we moved on to the rock climbing wall.

All of the girls gave the wall a try. Some did really well and climbed clear to the top! Others made it half way and all of them had fun trying. The second picture is of Emily climbing the wall like a champ.

Our next activity was the craft station and the trading post. The girls kind of went crazy in the trading post buying a ton of candy. I told them they could not get sick while they were with me so they had to take it easy on the candy. The craft was a leather key chain that the girls could decorate with some metal stamps. They all turned out well.

Probably my favorite activity was the BB gun shooting:

The girls liked it too and some were pretty good at aiming.  I had to help most of the girls with their form and with cocking the gun but soon they got the hang of it. Then the scout leaders said that we as leaders could try it too. This was so fun because I don't think I have shot a gun in 2 years! But luckily it was a BB gun so it was pretty easy. I was able to hit all of my targets which is great for me because in Hunter's Safety, I couldn't hit anything. It was pretty fun. I kind of like the picture of me shooting because it makes me look tough even though it is a BB gun...

By this time it was time for lunch. It was a pretty hot day so we were glad to be in the shade and cooling off a little. 

Then it was back to the fun. Next was archery.

This was a little more tricky than BB gun shooting. You really had to have good form and I did not have that. I think I only made a few arrows even hit the target. Emily was doing pretty well and hit a few targets as well. It was fun to learn a new sport. We did have a couple of girls that were really good and they even hit the bull's-eye on the target. Whitney and Maylin were the champion archers today.

Next we learned about fishing and practiced casting out fishing poles. Then we moved on to another fun activity of BMX bike riding.

This was really fun for the girls. They were able to ride the bikes around this dirt track full of jumps and turns. They all had a good time even though it was super hot. This really reminded me of when I was a kid and riding bikes with my friends. We rode everywhere especially in the desert and dirt hills above our houses. We rode dirt trails and jumps like this all the time.

Before moving on to our next event, the girls wanted to get sprayed by the hose near the obstacle course. They got soaked and loved it because it helped them cool off from the heat.

Finally our last event was tying knots and our nature walk. Luckily I knew how to tie the knots the boy was trying to teach us because I had to help the girls because he was not a very good teacher. But we learned the square knot and the double half hitch.  Then he took us on the nature walk and helped us use identify a bunch of different plants.

Finally we ended the day with a flag ceremony. 

The theme of the Day Camp was Nintendo or something like that so we got to see Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach. The girls had a good time posing for a picture with them. 

We all had a great Day Camp day.