Home & Camping at Sagehen

We are back in Emmett and getting ready to go play. I know that everyone thinks we "play" all of the time (and mostly we do), but we do a lot of just plain "living" in our 5th wheel. There are still all of the "living" things to do like housework, cooking, laundry, etc. But, loading up our camper on the back of our dually and hooking onto our boat is "playing!" We have a 15-foot pontoon boat that we got about 12 years ago. We have lots of fun in it. It needed a few repairs this year before we could use it. The crank was broken on the hitch so we had to replace it. But, after a year of non-use, the motor started right up!

Our camper was a different story! We haven't used it for about three years, and since that time we have changed pick-ups. We now have a Dodge dually (the Hippo) whose bed is shaped differently from our previous Ford. So, the tie-downs wouldn't work on it. We had a hard time finding some that would work and that we could afford. The refridgerator wouldn't work and needed a new compter board. Then, when we were all set to load, we went to back under the camper and realized that the "Hippo" would not fit between the jacks. We were leaving the next day to go camping, so Terry jimmy-rigged the jacks with some bolts. It was pretty scary loading it because the bolts bent with the weight of the camper.

We went camping at Sagehen Reservoir with Terry's brother and sister and their spouses. We had such a good time. We didn't catch any fish, but the lake was beautiful. Sagehen is a little Reservoir about 50 miles north of Emmett. It is right in the middle of the pines.

We were lucky to find three spots together. You can do that if you get there in the middle of the week like some of us retired people can do!

We did a lot of sitting around, playing games, fishing, walking, napping, and whatever else we wanted to do. It was great.

We couldn't get any cell reception from our camp, but if we went out in the middle of the lake, there were several little areas that we could get reception! So, we would take a ride out there once in a while and make our calls.

Terry and I stayed for a couple of days longer than his brother and sister did. We walked about half-way around the lake one day. It took us about two hours, but that was because we were not in a big hurry and took time to check out the other three campgrounds along the way.

There were lots of ducks and geese along the way. Some of them had their "family" with them.

Here is a Mama duck with her little babies swimming along behind her.

A few days after getting home from Sagehen, we went back up with our Church girl's camp. They needed a couple more adults to go and asked us. We readily agreed. It was great. The girls did most of the cooking and clean-up. So, it was like a vacation to us. We made ice cream in a bag one evening and omelets in a bag for breakfast. We played games and sang around the campfire. The girls put on skits for us. We helped with some of their activities. A special one was a "faith walk" where the girls were blindfolded and had to follow a rope for about a quarter of a mile along trees and through brush. This trail represented life and everything around it were the obstacles and trials they may have, but if they held onto the rope (their beliefs and standards) they would make it to where they want to be. Three of us women were all dressed in white at the end of the trail. I was the first to greet them. I got to take off their blindfold, give them a hug, and tell them that they had made it! What a great experience it was.

Here are all of the girls during one of our hikes. Thanks to Butte Ward for letting us go back to Sagehen and to their Ward Girls Camp!

Tremonton, Rexburg, and Home

Hot Springs, near Tremonton, Utah, is a really fun park. It is one of our Camperworld parks that we have belonged to for about thirteen years. We have gone to it a lot and have seen a lot of improvements in it through the years.

It has a nine-hole golf course, a huge hot springs swimming pool with two large hot tubs, a fishing pond, a playground with a volleyball court and basketball court, a clubhouse with a pool table and game machines, and a bunch of RV trails.

It doesn't have too many campsites, though. But, they are working on getting more ready. These are the ones we look down on--the ones with the nice lawns in front of each site. We stayed on the top level where there is no grass yet, but we had a nice view.

We met our son Shay and his family there. They live in Idaho Falls so it is not too far from them to come. They told us that they were doing all of the meal cooking and inviting us to join them! Boy, was that a vacation for me. I think the only meal I cooked was the first breakfast because they ended up with a few problems with their trailer, which got fixed by the next meal!

It was just the day after Terry's birthday, so they brought over a birthday cake that Heidi and Marissa baked. It was very yummy! We stayed at Tremonton for three days. We all went to Church on Sunday at the nearby town. It rained a good part of the time we were there, but we still got to go swimming, played games, and enjoyed the kids.

We ended up going on to our daughter Jill's home after we left the Hot Springs campground. They live in Rexburg, not too far from Shay in Idaho Falls. They just put sod in their yard about a month ago. It sure makes their home look nice, and Jill is so glad to be rid of all of the mud.
It was fun being with Jill and the kids. Her husband, Dan, was in Boise all week for a wrestling camp, so we kept her company for part of the week. Little Kamber has her arm in a cast because she fell off of a chair and broke her elbow. She missed out on swimming lessons and gymnastics because of it, but she was a pretty good sport about it. I think she is pretty proud of her hot pink cast! Jill babysits three sister-in-law's children four days a week. This is her back yard with the new sod in it. Several weeks ago, it was mud. I am sure she is really enjoying having nice grass, and it looks so good! She said that sometimes she just goes out and lays down on it!

Well, when we leave Rexburg we will be heading home to Emmett for two and a half months of camping and fishing! I think we are ready for it! Hope you come along with us--at least on the Blog!

From Ogden to Bear Lake

We left Dugway the day after Memorial Day and headed to my Uncle's house (Terry & Nancy) in Plain City, Utah, which is close to Ogden.
We parked in their driveway for three nights. The day after we got there, my aunt had to have surgery on her knee. We brought dinner in that night, but other than that, I hope we were not too much of a "pain in the knee" for her! They are always so hospitable whenever we stop at their house, which is usually a couple times a year.

They even let us plan a get-together with some of the rest of the relatives, at their house. We planned to have a barbecue outside, but it ended up being too cold so we moved inside. This is my Mom's sister, Eulala, Terry's wife Nancy (with her knee surgery), and my Mom's brother, Terry.

I have a cousin that we got re-acquainted with last year, but the others had not seen her in a long time, so we invited them to the get-together. This is Nicole (her daughter), my cousin Vicky, and her husband Ken. My Aunt Ann was also there. We had such a nice time reminiscing and getting to know each other again. I think Nancy was pretty tired out at the end of the day, but she said it was all worth it to get everyone together. Thanks, Terry & Nancy!

After leaving Ogden, we went to Bear Lake, which is half in Utah and half in Idaho. We have a Camper World (our Utah camping program) park where we usually stay at Bear Lake, but we were meeting Terry's sister and husband there and they are not members of Camper World. So, we stayed at another park that is an affiliate of Thousand Trails program, which we are both members of.

It was a really nice park with lots of grass and right on the lakefront. We were able to park in a way that put both doors of our 5th wheels facing each other, which was really handy. It was nice weather and we were able to eat a lot of our meals together outside.

Bear Lake is just beautiful. It has lots of sandy beaches and a very gradual, sandy, slopping bottom. It is so clear that you can see the bottom quite a ways out. You can drive around the lake (about 48 miles) and the lake is about 8 miles wide. We didn't do any fishing, but they say that it is good fishing. You pretty much have to have a boat because it is quite shallow until you get out a ways.
We drove around the lake one day and looked at all of the lakefront homes. This one was quite unique! In the yards of most of the lakefront homes, you see a tractor. They use them to launch their boats because the lake is so shallow for quite a ways out and is very sandy.

We had to be tourists and walk around the little shops in town. Of course, as we were at Bear Lake, there were a lot of bears around. We made friends with this one!

Lolita and I had to try on some of the local offerings. We decided to pass up a few of the items, as they would have broken our budgets for the next couple of years!

These fur coats were several thousand dollars each. But, they made us feel rich for a few minutes while we wore them!

Terry chose a little different style to model. I thought he looked pretty good in that hat! The elk seemed impressed.

Bob even liked it. But, neither of them liked it well enough to take it home!

One day we drove to Paris, Idaho, and toured the Tabernacle that was built by the Mormon pioneers in 1889. It was made from sandstone from a quarry on the east side of Bear Lake. All of the timber came from nearby forests and the wood was painted in a "graining" style to make it look like hardwood because there was a lack of natural hardwoods.

It was especially beautiful inside. The Church still uses it for some of their meetings. The original organ from 1928 is still used today. It has seating for 1,500 people.

Then, we traveled on to Montpelier, Idaho, and the National Oregon/California Trail Center. We became members of a simulated wagon train headed west. Before "leaving" on the wagon trail, we had to visit the blacksmith, the gun shop, and the general store to get all of the supplies we needed. Then on the way, we made a couple of stops to visit with others who had stopped along the trail. It was a fun experience and was all indoors, which was good because we didn't have very good weather that day.

The day before we left Bear Lake, we played in the water a little. Well, at least I did a little wading. I couldn't get anyone else to even take off their shoes!

It was Terry's 60th birthday! I made him a cake and Bob and Lolita celebrated with us and gave him a new deck of pinochle cards. He will be much easier to live with now that we are finally the same age again!

Tomorrow we will leave. Bob and Lolita are going home to Emmett and we are headed to our park near Tremonton, Utah, where we will meet up with our son Shay, and his family! See you there!

Fun With Grandkids/Baby Blessing

We are still camped ten miles from Dugway and enjoying Sarah's Family. Their new baby is doing really well. She will be blessed at the Dugway Ward of the LDS Church on Memorial Day.

Terry's niece's daughter, Madeline, qualified for the national clogging competition. It was held in at the Lagoon in Farmington, UT. We took Jenna with us. She was totally enthralled with the cloggers. We even caught her clogging and following the dancers pretty well! Madeline got two first places and a Junior All-American in her duet.
Madeline's sister, Isabelle, is Jenna's age and they became fast friends while taking in all of the rides at the Lagoon. This is the "Ladybug Drop" which was one of their favorites. Jenna spent the night before we went to the Lagoon with us and, because we got home so late, she spent that night with us also. We had a great time.
The next day after we got home from the Lagoon, we traded Jenna for Luke and JT and headed for five days at our campground in Mount Pleasant. We met Terry's sister Lolita and her husband Bob there. The boys played really well together. Besides playing "golf-shoes" they spent lots of time throwing pine cones that had fallen from the tree next to our trailer, back up into the tree. I told Terry we should go shake the tree every night to make them all fall off again so we could keep them busy!We had fun playing at the playground, even though I tend to get sick if I swing too long!
We spent quite a lot of time at the playground when the weather was nice. The boys had fun.

Luke wanted to take a picture. He did a really good job on this picture of off of us relaxing at the playground. (He got a good picture of Grandpa's tongue!)
The weather turned bad the day before we left. It snowed most of the night and in the morning before we left, we had to brush about 5" of snow off of the slides before we could get them in. As soon as we got the four miles down off of the mountain, it turned into rain and then it stopped and we had pretty good weather all the way back to Dugway. I think the boys were glad to be going home to Mom, Dad, Jenna, and baby Lindee.
On Labor Day Weekend, Lindee Ray was blessed. She was such a good baby and Ryan gave her a really nice blessing. Shay and Jill and their families came and Ryan's Mom, two sisters, two brothers, and five of their kids. It was a houseful, but Sarah did a good job feeding everyone and keeping things in order.
Here is a picture of some of our grandkids: Kamber, Jenna, Emily, Tyson, Boe, and JT.
And Marissa, Sean, and Luke. After eating lunch after Church at a big room with a kitchen that Sarah had reserved on the base, we were able to go to one of the parks. For the other meals, we kind of took turns having our family and then Ryan's family at her house. It was a fun weekend and we are so glad to have little Lindee in our family!

Tomorrow we are leaving Sarah and Ryan on their own (I hope they can manage without us!) We have really enjoyed spending five weeks living close to them. We will miss them, but I am sure they are ready to get back to having their family to themselves. We will be heading to Bear Lake to meet up with Bob and Lolita again for more fun and games!

Birthday & Mother's Day at Dugway

We are still at Dugway and got to be here for JT's birthday. He turned 3 years old on May 1.He is a big "Cars" fan and Sarah and Ryan made him the cake with Lightning McQueen and Mater on it. I think they did a good job and JT really liked it.

JT got the usual gift from Grandma Susie and Grandpa Howie, but because we didn't have to mail his card, he thought he was getting a "lot of money" because he got 10 one-dollar bills instead of a ten-dollar bill.

He got a "bubble barbecue" and the kids had lots of fun blowing bubbles with it on their little patio outside their kitchen.

The Saturday before Mother's Day we had Sarah and her family out to the trailer park and had a barbecue. We have a nice spot with a big cement slab. We thought it would be a good place for the kids to play, but they liked the sand, rocks, and dirt better, especially when they borrowed "digging spoons" from grandma.

Luke and Jenna even caught a little lizard in their butterfly net. They got to touch and hold him for a little bit and then they let him go.

I got an early Mother's Day gift from some of the kids--a bouquet of flowers and a can of gourmet mint hot chocolate. The flowers were really pretty and decorated our 5th wheel really nice. We had just run out of hot chocolate, so it was a great gift. One of these days it will get warm enough to not drink hot chocolate every morning!

Lindee got all dressed up in her "Bess Dress" for her premier appearance at Church on Mother's Day. This is a dress that Bess Hallam, a good friend from Emmett, made for Jenna. Sarah has a couple of "Bess" dresses that I got from Bess when she was born.

After Church, the new mom and baby were worn out and took a little nap after eating Mother's Day dinner.

The Young Women in Sarah's ward made Mother's Day cakes for a fund raiser for Girl's Camp. Terry bought one for Sarah and I. We had a really nice Mother's Day. I had phone calls from all of the kids wishing me a "Happy Mother's Day." It is always good to hear from the kids and I appreciate all of my daughter and daughter-in-law moms who do such a good job (with the dads) in raising our 17 grandchildren!