Girls Camp

Wow! I've been busy!

Over the last two weeks I have slept in a tent, fished, hiked, clocked 1700 miles, been from southern Utah to Montana, floated down two rivers, cooked over a fire, seen my family from all over the county, seen bears, buffalo, elk, scorpions and more. I'm pooped! So I'll start with Girls Camp.

This year we took the girls to Goblin Valley. If you pay attention to my blog, you know that the family and I went down in March to check it out.

I was so worried about it being too hot. It was hot, but not so hot we wanted to die. It never got over 97 degrees. We had so much fun!

Here's our camp.

The first night we went over to the goblins to play night games. It was so much fun!

The second day we headed into Moab for a float down the Colorado River. FUN!

The third day we hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon. Amazing as ever!

By day four, we were tired and ready to come home.

I'm so glad that all went well. We literally had no problems whatsoever. The girls were great!

The men were great!

The leaders were great!

I couldn't have asked for any better and trust me... I was praying for miracles. Prayers answered.

We saw this little friend on the last day.

 The day we left (after we got home) This was the forecast...

Eleven

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROMAN!

He turned 11 years old last week. I can't believe he's only one year away from being in Young Men's at church, only one year away from middle school, and only one foot away from being as tall as me.

Since he would be at 5th grade camp for his birthday, we celebrated all weekend long.

We went to breakfast at Gandolfo's and dinner at Lucy's Pizza on Saturday.

Sunday we had ice cream cake and presents.

He got some new shorts (that go past his knee.... that's a thing now I guess). For his big present he got a pack with every football card for the year. And a big folder to keep them in. Too bad school is out so he won't have anyone to trade with for a few months. He was pretty happy and got right to work organizing his new collection.

These two had fun playing with all the packaging. I promise we don't encourage putting plastic bags over your head around here.

Monday we shipped him off to camp for the next three days. It's hard to tell for sure, but he says he had a good time... except for the 7 mile hike... there is not mistaking that he didn't care for that.

He came back sunburned and tired.

A Hard Decision, A New Toy

I think I mentioned before how we were toying with the idea of getting a new car. Well.... we got one.

SUCH a hard decision. I loved our car. We bought it just before Ezra was born.  I have been 99% pleased as punch with it these last 7 years.

But that 1% was a very big percent. It has always had a little transmission issue that has progressively gotten worse over the years. No one seemed to have a solution for it other than replace it when it finally died. Sad. We decided to trade up while our car still had some value. Here's Ezra, helping to take off the old license plates.

 And with so many road trips planned in our future, well... We bought this car so that we would have one good reliable car to take places without the worry of a major failure. And here we were... with a major failure looming over our heads.

So, we picked out a new one. (well, new to us anyway. It's a 2012) Same color, same brand, just newer and without my beloved leather seats (Tear drop).

We both liked the old body style better, but Shane played hard ball (he's really good at buying cars although I don't like being there while he does it). He got them to throw in a roof rack (helps with the look so much), some nice new all weather floor mats, a new rim and a tiny bit of body work that needed done and we're back in business. In all, they put $4000 in it before we picked it up.

It's hard to get excited about a new car that is just like your old one only maybe we liked the old one a little better and add to that a car payment (blah). But I am happy to have a car that doesn't have me worried sick as I drive off to Yellowstone and Disneyland and anywhere else we decide to drive to. Also, it's a touch bigger than the old style, which might come in handy as our children grow and we pack it to the brim with camping gear. :)

I don't love new cars. I drive around as if I'm in a demolition derby and everyone is out to destroy my car. I'm so paranoid and every new speck of dirt is something of interest and if I'm hungry... well, it's just going to have to wait because we don't eat in the new car..... yet. Yeah... I will be glad when that wears off a bit.

Still, so grateful that we can afford to get a new one just to save some potential problems. I know it's a luxury and I'm so glad that we have it. Really glad I have Shane to do the though stuff for me too. Buying cars is the worst!