The Joys of Camping!

First of all...these pictures are of Derrek learning to drive Grandpa's boat, and pull a skier (Calvin). Derrek was so excited and I guess this is a little better than letting him out on the road...not much longer!

We went on a Ward Campout Friday through Saturday. It was a cool 100 degrees (it was 110F in St. George) where we went. We were having fun and someone came up to me and said that the "flies were following Dallen around". So, I went and checked him and somehow he had gotten poop on the outside, back of his shorts. He couldn't stay like that the whole time, we had just gotten there. We only live 30 minutes from where we were camping, so Scott took him back and got him all cleaned up. Then, we only put up a tent for me and Scott and let the boys sleep out on the grass, under the stars. After dinner, we played games and such and talked with everyone there. One of the moms came up and said "just so you moms know, the bathroom on the otherside is clean and there are flushable wipes in there." She said, "I just shut the door on the other one because there is poop all over the toilet and there is poop on the ground in the other bathroom, and I draw the line on what I clean." So, we were grateful to her that she was willing to clean the other one.

Around 3:00 a.m., Scott and I woke up and I thought the sprinklers had gone on (we were on a grassy patch). No...it was raining! We didn't have our rain tarp on, because, well...when does it rain in St. George? It didn't last too long, so we were drifting off to sleep again and ....yep...it started raining again. Mind you, my kids are out in the open! So, I told them to gather their things and go sleep in the van. Dallen was in with me and Scott and the other four went into the van. It died down and then had one more little spurt for the rest of the evening. We were very tired. The coyotes were howling, the dog in the neighborhood was howling, babies were howling, rain was falling, Scott and I were snoring...it was noisy. The funny thing is that we has some of our deaf brothers and sisters come up and I was wishing I was deaf really bad!

We all woke up the next morning, not too early...7:30 am, and it all of a sudden hit me that the reason Dallen had poop on his shorts was because he was the reason that the other toilet was condemned! I rolled over and asked Dallen if he was the one that made the poo mess in the bathroom and he said, "yes". Then I told him that I needed his help to clean it up. I walked in the bathroom and the toilet is full of poopy toilet paper (not much new in dealing with kids), but in the corner by the trash can was a nice big pile of poop...did I mention big! I asked him if that was from him and he said "I came in here to go poop and the toilet was like this and I didn't want to go in there and I didn't know we could use the other bathroom because I thought it was just for girls and so I just went over there." So, luckily there was a hose in the bathroom and a drain. I made him take the pile and put it in the dumpster, and then he hosed down the rest. There was no plunger, so we cleaned off what we could for the toilet and just closed the door. I hope someone isn't too mad about that whole thing. If they had known what they could have walked into...I am sure they would have appreciated what we had done. ARGH...kids!

Then we get home and go to leave again, and the keys are locked in the car...both sets. So, we waited for the locksmith. $50 later...we are going again. We went to pick up our dog and he had run away the night before. Poor Kent...I would have been really worried if Angel had escaped. But, I didn't think Shep would go too far. After about an hour we still couldn't find him. We were pressed for time, and I finally said a prayer to have some help. So, I had this thought to go back to Kent's house, and I got out and started walking toward the tamaracks. All of a sudden I heard some jingling behind me. I turned around and there was Shep running full speed. He was definitely happy to see me. We got him home. He won't be doing any escaping for the next few days because he managed to burn his paws from the hot asphalt and if a dog has tippy toes, well, that is what he is walking on. It looks pretty funny.

We also celebrated my Grandma Steurer-Nyquist's 80th birthday. I really love that my children are able to know so many of their great-grandparents. We also picked up Calvin's football equipment, so that excitement is in the air. Derrek heads off to Timberline tomorrow. He is nervous, but I know he will have a great time. Anyway, until next week...