2008 Lakeside 7th Ward Youth Conference

One of the members of our ward has family that still live on the family ranch in Star Valley Wyoming. They graciously hosted us on their ranch this past week. We had 7 girls and 5 boys with 5 leaders for three days of fun and learning.

We got there late Thursday afternoon and the host family had a dance all ready for the youth. While I cooked dinner in the dutch ovens the kids learned some square dance moves and go to know some of the youth from the local ward that had come to enjoy in the festivities. It looks nice and warm in the photos but the temperature was already beginning to drop as the sun set behind the mountains.

Good thing they had a large firepit. As we sat around the fire we listened to a couple from the valley that teach at the local high school and give inspirational talks to you groups. They talked about making friends and working to keep them by showing genuine concern for their needs.

Friday morning we went for hike up a bluff behind the farmhouse. When we got back, Rex, the host had some team building excersizes for the kids to try. One had the kids try to swing across an open space and land on a pallet and then each kid in turn went across. They had to get everyone across and had to help those that had a hard time. It took a while but they accomplished the task. Afterward Rex talked to them about what they had to do to accomplish their goal.

The next game was moving everyone on logs around without crossing the same person twice. I didn't get it. I'll admit it. The kids seemed to have fun with it and eventually had fun just jumping across and trying to stay on the logs. Mandy got kinda bored and took a seat.

In the afternoon we went across the road and played on their private lake. We couldn't swim in it but that was okay because we saw lots of leaches and water snakes. The kids played with the canoes and the floating docks and even the leaders got in the act with an impromptu guitar solo while standing in their boat.

Well, that's when my cameras batteries ran out. Later in the afternoon we went up in the mountains to a zip line and played on that for a couple of hours. While we were up there we saw lightning and heard the thunder and decided to head back. We didn't beat the weather. We got caught by a hail storm and rain for about half and hour. When we got back to the farmhouse we were soaked. Some dry clothes helped and then it was back to cooking for me. After dinner we had a fireside in the barn where it was a little warmer.

Saturday morning we did a service project for the Gomm's by moving some stones that they wanted to use in landscaping and some of the youth cut and raked grass around the lake to make it more accessible to boaters and hikers. After a couple of hours of work we fed the kids and hit the road back to Provo.

Our thanks to Bro. Gomm whose family owns the farm and showed us a great time.

Olympics

So, how many of you are having a hard time turning off the tv at night and going to bed? I've dragged my butt to work each day this week. I have a little bit of an excuse. We were on vacation the first week of the games and it was easy to stay up late and sleep in the next day. That was easy to get used to. Maybe our businesses should just shut down for the two weeks of the olympics, it's only every four years! That actually sounds reasonable for those of us who work for the government. It would show national pride. But alas, the wheels of government continue to grind along no matter what is happening. I'll just have to deal with burning, red eyes and cat naps at lunch...or should I say that my boss will have to deal with it.

For those of you who haven't hear yet Amanda and Eric have recently bought cars. Two different reasons. Eric as an investment and Amanda for freedom and independence. Eric bought a little Acura hatchback from a friend and is fixing it up to re-sell for a profit. Amanda's is a Geo Storm that has been passed around the neighborhood. The last fellow to have it had abused it, but it's in reasonable shape for transportation to school, work and home.

Speaking of fixing up a vehicle, have you priced tires lately? I can remember just a short while ago seeing adds in the paper for $25 tires for small cars. Try doubling that. Then add the mounting fees and disposal fees and taxes and tire on that Geo was $69! Poor Amanda just about croaked when I told her how much it cost her. But now she has four good new tires and I feel better about her driving it around. The old tires were so bad that the whole car rocked back and forth as you went down the road. You could actually see the cables showing through the tread.

One last vehicle story. Our Suburban has been running poorly the last couple of years. It started with sputtering while trying to haul our camper trailer up hills. It progressed to sputtering while just trying to go uphill without anything in tow. I had a guy work on it and replace one of the injectors and clean the rest. Eric and I then replaced all the spark plugs, wires and rotor cap. That didn't fix it. Then went to a dealership and had them work on it. They replaced the fuel filter and replaced the head gasket. That made sense actually. Sucking air while trying to haul something at high speed. Quite a bit of money but what can you do. It still coughed uphill while pulling the trailer. At least it wouldn't do it without a load. Well, last week I pulled a trailer (much heavier than our camper trailer) up to Wyoming for Youth Conference. I was hesitant to volunteer to pull the trailer because of the problems we've had, but it was a necessity as it had all the food and baggage in it. I pulled that first hill out of our valley and waited for the usual sputtering. It never happened. When we stopped at a rest stop in Wyoming I almost said something to one of the other drivers. But I was scared that I might jinx it. The truck pulled some big and long hills on that trip, both up and back and never once hiccupped. I attribute it to the prayers of those on the trip and my wife at home who knew I was nervous using the 'Burb on this trip. Heck, she was the nervous one. Now I just hope that it's okay to pull our camper trailer for Labor Day weekend. Wish us luck!!

Oh, back to the Olympics. How many of you, at work, plug your ears while a sports report is on the radio, so you can go home and watch it that night. Acting like it's live. HA!

MIDWAY UTAH

Janet and I own a time-share up in Midway, Utah. It's in the Heber Valley. We usually trade our week here for a week in Park City. There's really not a lot to do in Midway proper. There are only a few thousand residents, but the weather is cooler and the scenery is greener and prettier than Provo. We prefer Park City because of the old main street with all the shops and restaurants but we waited too long to book and missed out for this summer. Midway has a Swiss theme to the buildings and has a Swiss Days in late August. Some of the first families to settle in the area were Swiss converts who emigrated in the 1850's. So our condo project continued the theme.

One of my more favorite attractions is the golf. The course goes right by our condo. The condo we stayed in was the one you can see the roof on the left of this photo.

While up there we went to the Wasatch State Park. Right behind the visitors center they have a spring fed lake with fishing for the kids and ducks to feed. Well, they changed the law this year and you have to buy a license to fish when you turn twelve. But they didn't sell fishing licenses there at the vistors center. Huh? I thought for sure they'd sell fishing licenses at a state park. So we fed the ducks and enjoyed the quiet serenity of the park and lake. BTW Amanda is filming the ducks. That's what she's concentrating on with her phone.

Janet had the ducks eating out of her hands.

Eric and Sarah noticed these little black things crawling on the bottom on the lake and Eric picked one up to investigate closer. Then he said, "It's a leach! Yep, it's a leach. It just bit me." Sarah was grossed out but couldn't keep her eyes off of it.

After we left the state park we headed over to a resort called The Homestead. It's a collection of old buildings from the pioneers and new ones that make up a resort and conference center. They have one of the largest hot water cones in the area. Heber Valley is dotted with hot water pools that have formed calderas that have water that is kept warm year round by the geothermal action underground. The photos above are inside the cone (and borrowed, so don't rat me out.) You can pay to swim but you have to wear a flotation device because they're afraid that you might faint from the warm water. It has a year-round temperature of about 90 to 95 degrees. Or you can pay to scuba dive. The water is 65 feet deep but they limit you to 45 feet so as not to stir up the silt on the bottom. The visibility is 40-45 feet and the water glows blue from the light coming from the hole at the top of the cone.

The cone is 70 feet tall and has a stairway on the south side to the right in the trees.
Sarah ran up and down the stairs just to prove that she is in better shape than the rest of us. Eric couldn't prove himself because he had broken two toes and had a large gash on one of them from a swimming/rope swing accident the day before. Sorry, no pictures of that. But the story is he was swinging out over the water and wasn't able to let go because he would have landed on his girlfriend. He held on as long as he dared and when he finally did let go he landed in shallow water and rocks. The doctor at the insta-care told him that he should take it easy and they'll heal eventually.
Here're the kids looking down the cone to the water and swimmers below. I guess they've had trouble with drunk guests falling in the hole in the past. But you can see through the wire.
Turn around and there's our condo in the background. Right over Sarah's head and Eric's shoulder.