Ward Campout

Oops! I forgot to blog our ward campout from a couple of weeks ago. We got a group campgound up Provo Canyon at a place called Rock Canyon Campground. It's straight up the mountain from Provo but you have to go through Provo Canyon and it takes a little while to get there but it's worth the drive. Set in a small mountain valley in amongst the pines and scrub oak.

Our Activities Committee chairwoman counted at least 60 people there on Friday night. The most popular thing to do with the teenagers and some of the adults was to play Uno Attack. They played for hours (with a break for dinner.) The rest of the time was spent visiting and swapping stories.

Dinner was bring your own. But dessert was an assortment of cobblers and homemade ice cream that was provided by the ward members. We had every kind of cobbler you can imagine.

We ate until we were ready to burst...and then we ate some more! I think there were at least 10 different kinds of cobblers. We enjoyed each others company and one of our ward members (Bro. Lapioli) brought his guitar and we sang primary songs around the campfire until 10pm.

Sarah learned a new trick. Can you touch your tongue to your nose?

She also made a new friend. This is a Shi Tzu owned by one of our neighbors and camping buddies. He was passed from kid to kid to be cuddled and loved. Sarah wound up being the last kid to hold him and she took advantage of the opportunity.

The next morning we had to get up early to get back to the house to take Tiffany to the airport. Along the way we stopped at a place called Squaw Peak overlook.

Overlooking Provo. Can you see our house out there?

Turn around and there's Mt Timanogos.

We had a great time. The mountain air was nice and cool and the company was even better.

Lagoon

So, last week we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Lagoon Amusement Park. It was instigated by the invitation of our youngest by our next door neighbors. I'd never been, Janet hadn't been for 20 years or more. So off we went last Thursday.

One of the first rides we went on was the newest one, Wicked! It's a roller coaster that starts by shooting you straight up 110 feet, then straight down and into the twists and turns that you're used to. It also has a corkscrew loop about halfway through too. The two following photos are from the amusement parks website.

We don't have any photos of it, but we went on a ride called the Cliffhanger. It takes you over fountains of water while haning you upside down. It gets you all wet but that was okay because it was a hot and sunny day. Which is probably why we liked the ride over the park in the ski lift chairs.

And then there was the Rocket. They have two versions, Re-Entry and Blast Off. The Re-Entry ride takes you up 200 feet and then drops you down almost to the bottom then you bounce your way down on air pressure in the pipes. Sarah was so phyched when we got off the ride that she ran right around and got in line for the Blast Off portion. On Blast Off you are shot the 200 feet up and then bounce back down like the Re-Entry. It was nice and cool in the heat of the afternoon. The second photo is from the amusement park's website. There were some old fashioned rides that you would find at the county fair in your home state. There was the Tilt-A-Whirl that you see us in here...
The Turn of the Century swing ride. It's the usual merry-go-round swing attraction. But it wasn't installed until 1987 for Lagoon's 100th anniversary. It swings you out over a spring fed pond that the park is named for. We had just come from Rattle Snake Rapids when we decided to go on this ride to dry off.
There was the Space Scrambler that is a centrifugal ride that you squish your neighbor. Fun for first dates to see if she can handle close contact with you. You can see Janet was anxious to get out when we finished. She wasn't gonna wait for the attendant to open the door for us.

We found the bumper cars to be a lot of fun...
Sarah never slowed down and was rearing to go for more...
Mandy found a shady spot and took a nap...The highlight of the evening was the Sky Coaster. Notice the brave faces that we're showing. Inside we were nervous and throwing up (NAH!! not really). We were nervous but it was a long wait and hearing the screams of the other riders didn't help our nerves....

Here's how the park describes the ride...

The Sky Coaster is a sport/amusement attraction designed by Sky Fun 1, Inc. of Boulder, Colorado. The attraction offers all the thrills and excitement of skydiving and hang gliding.The attraction operates by putting the participant in a full body harness (usually referred to as a flight suit), that supports the flyer (from one to three at a time), in a prone position. The harness is then connected to the flight support cables.From a static point approximately 6 feet above the ground, the flyers are then pulled aloft by a launch cable to nearly the top of the launch tower. At this point the flyers are approximately 143 feet above the ground with the flight cables taut and the flight is ready to begin. Upon being given the signal, the flyers pull the rip cord, releasing them from the launch cable, and they begin to rapidly swing towards the ground at speeds reaching up to 80 mph. The overall feeling is similar to that of swooping along the ground in a hang glider, or that of skydiving.

Sorry. No Video. You'll just have to use your imagination....or go to You Tube and type in Sky Coaster and watch some videos of other rides to get the feel of what we did.

Before and After

So, a couple of weeks ago Amanda decided to cut her hair off. Well, she asked JulieAnn Libutti to do it. JulieAnn is a gal around the corner. I've been after Amanda to cut her hair for a couple of years now. I think she last had short hair when she was about 12 or 13. She looked so cute. I've been bugging her about it ever since.

So...

BEFORE....

AFTER....

Isn't she cute!?!?!?

Ain't Life Funny...

Five years ago Donna and her family went to Disney World. They took pictures of their girls wearing sombreros in the gift shop at the Pirates of The Carribean ride. Low and behold, five years, almost to the day, we took pictures of our girls wearing sombreros in the same gift shop. Life is funny that way.

New(er) Car

It's a 1998 Honda Civic with 123,000 miles on it. We expect to get between 35 and 40 mpg.
No air conditioning, no power windows, no cruise control, no automatic transmission, nothing.

About a week before I took off for Varsity Scout Camp Janet and I took a little drive around town looking for something that would get better gas mileage than the Suburban that I was commuting in. We'd been thinking about it for some months now, at least I had. Janet was on board with the idea, but since it would be my car to commute in it was up to me to find something. I'd been keeping an eye open along the ride home each day and hadn't really seen anything. That's when we decided to look in some of the used car lots around town. We spent a couple of evenings looking and driving and were kinda getting discouraged. Our intial price range proved to be too low for our expectations. We didn't realize how Honda's hold their value and how much in demand they really are. Well, we re-visited a car lot that deals with mostly Honda's and there it was. We took a test drive and were sold. It's a good thing too, gas here is $3.98 and climbing. When I got back from my Moab/Varsity Scout trip it took almost 36 gallons and $142.00 to fill the Suburban.

Varsity Scout Camp in Moab, Utah

Day 1

The first week of this month I went on a Scout camp with the Varsity Scouts from our ward (that's the 14-15 year olds, Teachers Quorum.) It was organized by the Stake and each ward was represented by a boy and a leader to help plan the trip. It was decided that we'd camp at Gold Bar Campground just outside of Moab, Utah on the Colorado River. Here is a link to the road we used to get to our camp site. It just so happens to be a scenic byway...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_State_Route_279

Our camp is the group of tents in the left corner of the campground with the blue dining fly. The river is flowing left to right and was quite high. It had rained the previous two days and had rained that morning we got there. I was talking to some kids who had been camping there the previous two days and they were wet and miserable and ready to go home. They packed up that afternoon and headed home a day early. The rest of the week was perfect weather for our camp...too bad they didn't stick around.

The first thing after setting up camp we climbed to the top of the bluff overlooking the camp and the river, as you can see from the photos of the campground and my photo here with the bluff in the background. The plan was to rappel off the bluff.

Here I am getting hooked up to go over the cliff. There is a guy in our stake that is a climber and owns his own equipment and lots of it. He had two ropes over the cliff. One was 75 feet long, which is the one in the photo above and below. It was actually a little more technical that the other because there was a lip on the cliff and you had to take a little hop off the ledge or lip for your first step. I was a little scary for your first step. But with my long legs it didn't take much effort.

I was joking around waiting for the line to die down for the longer 100 foot rope when I asked, "Can I go down face first?" The guy looked at me and asked if I had already gone down once and I answered positively and he said, "Sure. Since you've already gone once." Then I thought to myself that I'd opened my mouth and now I was committed. I looked this up when I got home and the style is called "Australian." I guess because you do it backwards of the usual?

It doesn't look like I'm actually going down face first.

This is a few feet from the ground. By this time my whole body was so tense that when I jumped to the ground my legs just about gave out. I had to put my hands on my knees and let the tension leave my body. I took a couple of minutes.

There were three arches within walking distance of our campground. One was Jug Handle Arch (which I don't have a picture of), then Bow Tie Arch and Corona Arch. After a big dinner of Navajo Tacos we hiked about a mile up a canyon right across the road from our campsite to Bow Tie and Corona Arches.

Bow Tie Arch.

Me under Bow Tie Ach. The water was running down the rocks from all the rain that they'd gotten the previous two day. They'd gotten almost 1 inch in two day. Quite a lot in the desert.

Corona Arch with the sun lighting the cliffs in the back ground.

There aren't any people under the arch for perspective, but the trees are about 15 to 20 feet tall.

The reason for hiking to the arches was to hold a fireside. President Orton from the Stake Presidency spoke to the boys as the sun set and lit up the cliff behind him. It made for a dramitic setting.

Future arch. And the close of the first day.

Day 2

Day 2 was river rafting on the Colorado. We hired a rafting outfit out of Moab and they took us upriver and floated back to Moab. It was about 8 hours in all. I don't have any pictures, yet. I didn't want to take my digital camera on the river, but Steve Gorski (our YM's first counselor) had a camera that he'd brought just for the occasion. When He gets me his photo's I'll put some in here.

But I did take some pictures that evening. After dinner we had some free time and Matt Morrise (our Varsity Coach) and I headed up a nearby bluff and searched out some petroglyphs that I'd been told about.

Jacob's ladder?

Bear being shot by Indian's with accompanying Big Horn Sheep.

200 foot spire. Can't see the top. Sorry.

Day 3

The third day was our last. The plan was to break camp and drive out to a trail that we could bike on.

Breaking camp.

The name of the trail was "Klondike Trail." It was about 2.5 miles uphill to a bluff overlooking Arches National Park. Couldn't see any arches from there but the ride was fun, especially downhill. It's all slickrock. It sound and looks smooth, but believe me, it's not. You have to stop every once in a while to let your arms recover.

On one of my stops I noticed something on the ground. It looked familiar. I knew I'd seen something like it before. Then I started noticing more and more. They were dinosaur footprints. They were everywhere. I'll bet there were 30 or more in the area I was looking. I put the shoe there for perspective.

Someone had put rocks around these prints that were in a straight line. They did the same thing a couple of other places.

I wanted you to see the blooms on the cacti in the area. Where we were camped the blooms were all yellow. When we drove 10 miles away to bike near Arches National Park the blooms were all red.

When we were done we made some sandwiches and loaded up the bikes and headed for home. Three days, three activities and a lot of fun.