Scout Camp

Tyler had his first scout camp this summer. Dave and Spencer went on a 50 mile hike, but they went up a few days early to help out with the camp.

There was a pretty small group this year, but they had a ton of fun. Instead of going to one of the established scout camps, they did their own thing. This made it a lot cheaper and more relaxed. They were still able to mark off 5 merit badges: canoing, kayaking, rock climbing, first aid and cooking. 

They went to Courtright Resevoir. It's up in the Sierra Mountains, about an hour past Shaver lake.  

They woke up really early one morning to go fishing. They didn't catch any fish, but they said it was incredibly beautiful to watch the sunrise with bald eagles all around them.

They ate really well - way better than the usual cafeteria food at scout camp.  

Tyler especially liked canoing and jumping off big rocks into the water.

He LOVED all the rock climbing. He got to the top of all the climbs and he even did repelling for the first time. That doesn't just mean repelling back down after climbing up. It's when he starts at the top and just steps back over the edge and self-repels down. He said it was one of the scariest things he's done, but it was awesome.

We were so grateful to our bishop for going to camp! When he heard they couldn't find another leader to help (Dave had to leave partway through the week to go on the hike), he volunteered to go. He's awesome!

The weather was perfect for the first few days. Then they had a hail storm Thursday night (the same day the older scouts left to do their 50-mile hike) and a huge downpour Friday evening. The rain hit just as they were about to cook dinner, so they drove into town (Shaver) to buy dinner instead. 

Tyler came home SO happy. He spent hours telling me all about his week. We missed him so much! 

Last beach trip of summer

We went to Cayucos Beach a couple Saturdays ago. We usually go to Hearst Beach, but we chose this one instead because Spencer wanted to find a webcam geocache. He "signed" the logbook by going in front of the camera and taking a screenshot of himself online. That was different and fun.

I've mentioned before that it's hard to get a picture of Brennan because he's so distracted looking everywhere except the camera. I've learned to just take a slew of pictures and eventually there's one of him looking right at me. He loved playing in the water the whole time!

The waves were great for boogie-boarding.

They built a tunnel this time.

I love Levi's wild, curly hair. But it was getting out of hand, so I cut it a few days later.

We took a walk down the pier to look for a geocache at the very end, but it was closed off for construction. Apparently this pier was built in 1872! It's a good thing their rebuilding it! We were disappointed we couldn't find the geocache, but then Spencer discovered another one a short walk away. Brennan found it!

As usual, the summer flew by way too fast. Three more days 'till school starts!

Pioneer Fun

We had a lot of fun at our church's pioneer activity. After an indoor potluck, we went outside and played games in the field behind the church. The most popular was the water balloon launcher Jacob got for his birthday. 

 This was fun for all ages. 

Ha! I love these!!

Chloe's haircut

I gave a couple of my boys haircuts recently. Chloe likes to copy everything I do. A few days later, she got ahold of some kid scissors. I was at the computer in the same room with her when I heard her say, "Mommy, I did it!"

This is what she did. It went really far back and all the way down to the scalp. I found clumps of hair all over the floor. I cried. She cried. It was sad.

The next day I took her to a hair salon to try to fix it. We had to give her major bangs to cover it up.

We had never cut her hair before, so she trimmed the back also. 

She held perfectly still, so that was good. Look how far back her bangs go! :(

She often touches her bangs and says, "Off...better," because we made it better at the salon. One day she was telling me about cutting her hair. I said, "Yes, and that made mommy sad." She looked down and said, "Sorry, mommy." 

For about 2 whole days I couldn't look at her without crying. But I guess I'm getting used to it. Sorta.