Apple Garden Campground, Bear Lake, UT

We left Hot Springs on Tuesday to go to Apple Garden Campground at Bear Lake.

We took Jill's two kids, Boe & Kamber, and Shay's daughter, Emily, with us. This was pretty much a new experience for us to have grandkids camping with us without their parents. We have been looking forward to this since we started our new life style. It was tons of fun!

The park is pretty small with few amenities, but it is really pretty and peaceful. It is made right in the middle of an apple orchard (which still produces apples). There were lots of birds nesting in the apple trees. They didn't appreciate the kids' curiosity about their nests!

It was a big job coming up with activities to keep the grandkids busy. They are making necklaces to take home to their parents. Boe and Emily did really good (they are 5 years old), and Kamber (3 years old) did well, too, but she finally gave up after dropping her almost completed necklace several times.

They decorated cupcakes and then got to squeeze the leftover frosting into their mouths.

They had fun having a tea/lemonade party and eating their cupcakes. Emily was the hostess and served Boe and Kamber.

There was a fun playground where the kids played. It was above where we camped so we could hear and see them, but we were usually up there with them.

There were a few bumps and bruises from the playground, but they had fun. Kamber decided we needed to buy her some knee pads!

We had a fun campfire, but the marshmallows were a little sticky!

There was a big hill and they had lots of "tricks" to perform on it. Here they are in various stages of doing somersaults down the hill!

The lake was beautiful. On Friday we drove clear around it. Part of it is in Idaho and part in Utah.

We found a fun beach where we played in the water.

Boe enjoyed trying to skip rocks.

We will head back to Emmett after spending a couple of days in Idaho Falls dropping off

We will be coming and going from Emmett until after Labor Day. We have an Oregon/Washington Coast trip planned for September, then on to Northern Idaho and we plan to end up back in Eastern Idaho for hunting season and Thanksgiving before we go back to Wikieup, AZ. I will try to keep the BLOG up somewhat during the summer. Thanks for joining us on our RV adventures!

Hot Springs, Tremonton, Ut

We were excited to go to Hot Springs campground because I had a family reunion scheduled there for my family on my Mom's side. Two of my brothers came and also my sister, all from Idaho. We had a good turnout and had a lot of fun. We were really worried because we got there the Tuesday before and it rained constantly for two days. It finally cleared up the morning of the reunion.

This campground is really fun because it has a natural hot springs swimming pool that you can swim in no matter what the weather. There is also a 9-hole golf course that is very inexpensive for members and their guest. We had a golf scramble that Shay and the other boys organized. It was a lot of fun.

This was the first time in a long time that all of our kids and grandkids were together. We attempted a family picture. It is certainly a "camping picture," but we are all there. What a group!
I was glad to see my cousin, Scott Robinson (my Mom's first cousin). It had been quite a while since I had seen him.

I was lazy and didn't get my camera out much, so I didn't get many pictures of the other relatives.

But, I did get a picture of my brothers, Frank and Mike Fisher, with their wives, Andy and Janet. They are always a lot of fun to be with. They kept the camp awake part of one night with all of the laughter coming from their trailer!

After the reunion, Shay and Marissa and Emily stayed. We decided that since we are so close to some of our kids and grandkids, we would take turns taking some of the grandkids with us. We kept Jill's kids, Kamber and Boe, and will keep Shay's daughter, Emily with us for the next week. They had fun burying Boe in the sand at the playground.






Of course, there is always time for another round of golf for Shay and Grandpa!



Paddle boats are a new addition to the Hot Springs campground. Shay was out with the kids for about 10 minutes and then I took over. Marissa, Emily, Boe, Kamber, and I paddled around for the rest of the hour. I am sure my legs will remind me tomorrow than I am not as young I used to be!

Emily brought along her "make up" and she decided to practice on Kamber. I am not sure Kamber's mom would approve, but they had fun!
Grandpa is always excited to fish with the grandkids! This little fishing pond hadn't been fished in for about two years before our reunion, but a couple of my nephews caught some good-sized bass during the reunion. Terry was hopeful that the grandkids would do the same.
But, the only thing caught was an ugly yellow catfish by Emily. The amazing thing was that we got her to touch it afterwards!

Echo Island, Coalville, Ut

Echo Island is the Camperworld campground that is closest to Salt Lake. It is just above Park City. It was pretty full the week we were there. As we walked around, there was only one other camper that was not from Utah. It is a lot different than going to the Coast-to-Coast campgrounds where there are people from so many different places. There are also a lot more families.
We didn't feel lonely this time, though, because Sarah's family came and stayed a couple of days with us--her husband Ryan and kids Jenna, Luke, and JT. It was fun. I hadn't had a grandma fix for several months, so I was ready to see them.

It is amazing how much the kids can change in a few months. Jenna will be in kindergarten next year. JT is really starting to talk. Luke is very determined in everything he does.



We all got to celebrate Terry's birthday while the kids were with us. It was a couple of days early, but that's okay. He finally caught up with me in age. There are two months that I am a year older than he is and it can be a miserable two months! We got him a cake and he got a screen tent and a new white shirt for Church.



It has been fun having our tandem bike with us. It gives us good exercise, is economical, and is a good conversation starter. Ryan and Sarah took a little spin on it. When they came back, Ryan was in front because Sarah said he wasn't doing his share of peddling! I get accused of that all of the time, but it certainly is not true!
The weather turned nice enough to swim. There are now two pools at Echo Island. The old one has a slide. The new one is larger and there is also a new hot tub that holds 16 people. They told us there were 141 camping units there over Memorial Day, which is more than the actual number of sites. If you are a member of Camperworld, they have to find you a place to park, whether there is an official site or not--in the parking lot or someplace. It is nice because you know that you will always have a place to park.
Our grandkids, including Jenna, are little fishes in the warm water.

There is a fishing pond that they stock. Only children under 12 and seniors over 62 can fish in it. Of course, having grandchildren visiting always gives Terry an excuse. He kept putting "fish candy" on the hooks and the kids caught fish. (You were only supposed to us artificial bait and no powerbait.) He soon had all of the kids fishing around him asking him to help them catch a fish!

Knotty Pine, Woodland, UT

The last time we went to Knotty Pine Resort, it was pretty rough, but that was several years ago. They have made a lot of improvements since then--swimming pool and hot tub, new restrooms and showers, laundry room, nice playground, clubhouse, more sites, and lots of grass. It may be our favorite Camperworld campground.

The only bad thing is that there was no Internet here and we had to travel to the Church about 7 miles away to park in their parking lot to do my transcription for Travis.
It has surprised us that we are ready to go on to someplace else after a week. We thought that we would be tired of moving so often, but it seems, so far, that we are ready to move on.

We didn't do any fishing in the Provo River that runs along the park since Terry doesn't have a Utah fishing license. But some of the sites were close enough to hear it running during the night.
The new pool and hot tub are really nice. We actually were able to go swimming one of the days we were there. Since it was really busy during Memorial weekend, we waited til the crowd was gone to go.

There were lots of families here over the weekend and it sure made us feel lonely being all by ourselves with no family around, so we invited three brothers to come in and watch the Jazz game because they couldn't get any reception on their TV.

Knotty Pine also has a new playground for the kids. It is really nice. The grandkids would love it here.
We had a campfire a couple of nights. We were camped on a corner and got all kinds of suggestions as to what we should be cooking over the fire. I was roasting some marshmallows and a man brought his two grandkids by so we could show them how to do it. They were waiting for their fire to get to the right stage for marshmallows and I think he was trying to keep them entertained while that was happening.
Our wood was some we had gathered from the woods and it was pretty green--thus the smoke. We have a hard time paying $4-$5 for a small bundle of firewood.





Well, on to the next adventure, and Echo Island Campground in Coalville. It is only about fifty miles away, so we won't have much time in traveling, or cost of fuel! That is always good.

Pleasant Creek, Mt. Pleasant, UT

Terry moved to Pleasant Creek Campground in Mt. Pleasant, Utah, while I was in Hawaii. It was the first time he moved without me. He assured me that I was really missed, but he managed! Pleasant Creek is one of our Camperworld campgrounds that we have ownership in. The best thing is that we have paid up a lifetime membership and there is no cost to them and we can stay in them as many times as we want per year.
This crazy weather!! It was cold at Pleasant Creek. It is kind of high in elevation, but snow is unusual this time of year. We woke up one morning with snow on the top of the mountains behind us. Terry still wouldn't let me turn on the furnace during the night, so we were ready for hot chocolate each morning!
The campground manager likes turtles. She had this one sitting in the office. It looked like the sea turtles we saw in Hawaii when we went snorkeling.

They have built a big new pavilion at this park. They allow family reunions, which we had about five years ago. It is really nice.

There is also a fun playground for the kids to play on.
The pool is really nice, but it didn't open until Memorial day, which is still a couple of weeks away. I am going to loose my Hawaiian tan!
All over the campground there are little carved animals sitting on stumps. There was even a snake carved out of a long stump. They kind of add to the scenery!
I brought back a bamboo wind chime to Terry from Hawaii. It sounds kind of like the drums that were played at the Polynesian Center and in some of the performances at the Resort. It was a better gift than one of those "dumb t-shirts." (He got one of those, too.)

This is the coolest way to cut and serve pineapple. (I learned this in Hawaii.) We had fun eating it, although I ate too much and my mouth was sore for a couple of days!

Aloha from Hawaii

We can't believe it!! We are actually going to Hawaii. It was crazy how it worked out. They changed our tickets at the last minute, so the girls drove from Salt Lake City to St. George, picked me up, and we caught the plane in Las Vegas. We then flew back to Salt Lake City for a 2-hour lay-over. It was the same on the way back, except the lay-over was not as long. Then we drove back to Nephi where Terry met us. He had moved camp from Lake Powell to Mt. Pleasant in Utah, while we were gone. The girls traded cars in Salt Lake and Jill drove on home to Idaho Falls.

When we first got this crazy idea that we could go to Hawaii. (After all, Terry and the boys got to go to the NASCAR race in Phoenix for some "father/son bonding" so it was only fair!)
Travis and Shannon have a Marriott time share and they just happened to have a week they couldn't use, so they let us have it.

We stayed at the Ko Olina resort on the Island of Oahou, about 30 miles from all of the business of Honolulu and Wakiki. It was a beautiful resort.

We were on the 7th floor and the view from our balcony was beautiful.

After we settled in, we headed for the beach.

There were four lagoons that were part of the resort. They were all kept so nice and had lots of lounge chairs to sit in.

The sunset that night was really something.

First thing the next morning we went to Lagoon # 2 and watched them call in the fish and feed them. We all got to through in a handful of feed and we learned a lot about the fish in the area. We were a little late getting to the program, but he told us it was okay and that the motto of the Hawaiians was "hang loose," and he showed us the hand sign. (I had a bit of trouble getting it right!) We "hung loose" the rest of our stay!

Jill and Sarah decided to take surfing lessons. They did pretty good and actually got so they could fall off of their surfboards quite gracefully!

Sunday was Mother's day so the girls took me to dinner there at the resort. They were really busy and forgot our order, so dinner was on them. Sarah and Jill thought that was about the least expensive Mother's Day they ever had. We had gone to Church that day at one of the family Wards. All of the Moms were wearing leis that their family had given them. At the beginning of the meetings and before each talk in Sacrament Meeting, the speaker or the one in charge would say "Aloha" and everyone would say it back. There is a lot of hugging and cheek kissing also. They were very friendly. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the resort.

The next day we went to the North Shore. On the way we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Factory. We learned a lot about pineapples.

We learned that if you stop on the road and steal one of the pineapples off of a tree, it is a $5,000 fine. The pineapples were good, but not that good!

One of the funnest things we did was to snorkle. I was a little nervous to start with, but the girls coaxed me in! We snorkeled first on the North Beach and later in the week we snorked a couple of times at the resort lagoons. Both times we saw many brightly colored fish and we saw sea turtles each time. The last time we snorkeled at the resort we saw a very large turtle and got close enough to touch it.

After we snorked and ate lunch on the North Beach, we went back to the beach and Sarah and Jill tryed their skill at body surfing. They had a good time, but landed in the sand a lot.

It was nice to just play on the beach because the water was warm, but quite salty.

On Tuesday we got up early and went to the Temple. It was a beautiful drive to get there. It was through the middle part of the Island which is a lot more like we imagined Hawaii to be, with lots of green trees and shrubs. Even in the Temple session, the greeting of "Aloha" was said back and forth. The temple was beautiful.

After the Temple and lunch, we went to the Polynesian Center. There we met our guide, Cousin Eddie, and he guided us around the Center where we learned about the cultures of six Polynesian Countries.

and watched the Pageant of the Canoes where each country wore their traditional colors and costumes and did their dances.

Then we went to a great Luau. They roasted a pig in the ground and served bread made out of poi and had other traditional foods. The only thing I didn't care for was the raw salmon.

Later, we went to a wonderful program where all of the countries performed. One of the most spectacular were the fire dancers. They wouldn't let us take pictures, but we got a CD with lots of picures.

On Wednesday we went to the flea markt. I'm not sure that was wise becasue it cost Jill the money for a new suitcase so we would have enough room to take all of our purchases home!

In the afternoon we went to Pearl Harber. It was quite a somber experience. Terry and I had watched the movie of Pearl Harber the week before, knowing I would be there to see where it all happened.

There is really a special feeling you get by being at the acutal place. This picture shows the USS Arizona underwater below the monument.

Because Thursday was our last day at the resort, we decided just to hang out there all day. It was very relaxing. We spent time on the beach and went to a couple of activities on the resort schedule--lawn bowling, Island fruit demonstration where we learned how to cut a pineapple, and Jill even entered a ping-pong tournament!

These are a few of my favorite "hanging out and hanging loose" pictures.

Me & Sarah posing on a tree.

Jill "hanging around."

Jill and Sarah standing by the torches, with Jill looking like a "Polynesian."




"The girls" in front of a waterfall in the front of the resort.

Friday morning before we left the resort, we got brave and each of us got a "tatoo." (They assured us that we could get them off with rubbing alcohol if they didn't come off in a week.)

We packed up our stuff (thank goodness for Jill's extra suitcase), spiffied up the little condo, and left to spend the rest of the day at Diamond Head, Wakiki Beach, and shopping before catching the plane at 10:00 pm.











Diamond Head is a dead volcanoe that was used to keep the Island safe during wartime, although it was never used as that. You can drive inside the crater through a tunnel and then climb up to the ocean side where the big guns were kept.

It was a long climb, one of the stairs had 98 steps and another had 52.




But, getting to the top was well worth the climb. You could see the whole island from the top. Behind Jill and Sarah is Waikiki.

Sarah took a picture of Jill and I and our final walk on the beach before heading to the airport. All week she wanted a picture of us running along the beach like in the movies. This is the best she got!

We had a great time. We wouldn't have been able to go to Hawaii without two great son-in-laws who took care of my grandchildren and things at home to let their wives leave, a husband who was willing to move on his own to the next campground, and a son who allowed us to use his timeshare. Thanks to all and ALOHA!