Ohana Means Family - Girl's Camp 2016

 Calissa and I went to Girl's Camp last week.  Calissa was a 3rd year this year and I went as a Crafts helper.  I was asked to go in late May (and wasn't very excited about it), but ended up having a great time.  The girls had a pack check on Saturday evening.  Here is Calissa and Lillie dropping off their packs. 

 Monday morning I dropped Calissa off at the church and checked her in.  Another leader rode with me up to Girl's Camp.  Here we are at camp once we had arrived.  The theme for the year was "Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten."

 Bright and early Tuesday morning, the 3rd years were off on their 15 mile, 3 day/2 night hike.  Here are the 3rd years and their leaders.

Calissa ready to go! 

 We had quite a few crafts for the girls and leaders.  Here is the sample board and some pictures of rocks they could paint.

 Because our theme came from "Lilo and Stitch" the craft area was Jumba's Jewelry. We had some surfboard to brighten the place up.  (Behind is the cabin I slept in each night. We even had electricity in it until 10:00 each night.)

The crafts area, decorated and ready for girls! 

Some cute rocks that one of the leaders, Ruth Mannion painted. 

Beautiful Rucker Lake

 Tuesday night we had a special campfire where the girls each put these lotus flowers into the lake with lights.  The lights were representing the gifts that each girl had and sharing it with others. I got to help the girls make the lotus flowers.  It was a bit crazy trying to teach a big group to make them, but they turned out great and they didn't sink!

 Unfortunately there was no wind at all that night, so they used an oar to try to push them out in the lake.  They all ended up against the pier, but it was a beautiful sight with the lights and the moon.

I held this snake one morning ...

Wednesday morning after breakfast, the camp was girl free.  They were all off on their hikes, so the leaders got to have a little fun.  I went paddle boarding, canoeing, (I dumped one of the leaders in the lake on accident and she was fully clothed!)

and kayaking.  I also got to go to archery and shoot a bow and arrow. I didn't do too bad.

Thursday, right before lunch the 3rd years returned from their hike.

Calissa had a great time and did great carrying her 20+ pound pack.

  Silly girls!

 Here we are waiting to greet them as they hiked back into camp.

 Welcome home!

 She did it!  I was so proud of her!

 Welcome back ... now you get to do the dishes!

 Friday, Trav came for Bishop's night.  It was great to see him.

 All the craft ladies dressed up for our final night in camp while we served dinner.

Jen Paris, Allison Curtis, Ruth Mannion, and me

Glad I got the chance to know these wonderful ladies!

 After dinner they had a Bishop's devotional before the testimony meeting.  Here we are on the pier waiting for the girls to come for our devotional.

 After the great talk by Trav, the girls each got a letter from their parents to read.

  Concord 2nd ward girls.

(Minus Taylor who went home sick and Janel who went home earlier that day to go to a wedding).

 Saturday, we packed up and headed for home.  We enjoyed a nice shower, clean clothes, and a comfortable bed.  So glad I was able to go to Girl's Camp with Calissa this year!

Anniversary in Pismo!

We were able to book a short trip to Pismo this summer.  We only had 2 possible weekends that would work, so we booked the one on our anniversary.

We got there on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed the gorgeous, peaceful ocean before heading out to a yummy dinner at Pizmo Pizza.

After dinner we went to the movies and then came home to this beautiful sight.

We attempted to take a few pictures with the moon in the background.

What do you think about this one?

We were laughing so hard ... I'm sure the people sitting by us probably thought we were drunk and awful parents.  We were just making memories! 

Conner decided to sleep on a pillow bed on the floor.

Friday morning we got up and Trav and I went for a nice long walk/run on the beach.  After breakfast we rented bikes and rode through two neighboring cities.

After our bike ride we walked down the beach to the downtown area for some lunch, window shopping, and ice cream.

We stopped along the way to write a note to Parker in the sand.

After relaxing for a couple of hours in the sun, reading and listening to the waves (and getting sunburned) we headed out to dinner and to the Melodrama. We had a great time at the Melodrama, as always. They sang "Happy Anniversary" to us as we were celebrating 23 years!  The next morning, after another long walk, breakfast and some relaxing, we got back on the road to Concord.  Pismo Beach is our happy place and we were lucky to be able to fit it in this summer!

4th of July!

 We woke the kids up on the morning of the 4th of July to go on a hike on Mt. Diablo.  Can you tell that we had enthusiastic kids?  They weren't terribly excited about going AND they didn't want to take any pictures.

 The scrambled when I pulled out my phone.

 Smile!

 We went on a short 4 mile hike.

After our hike, we stopped at IHOP for breakfast, then went over to Drew and Tina's to swim, BBQ, and play some games.  Then we came home and watched the movie "Martian." We did step outside and watch the fireworks from the backyard for a few minutes.  We had a fun and busy 4th of July celebrating America!

High Adventure 2016 - The Lost Coast Trail

For high adventure in 2016, the Teachers and Priests went hiking on the Lost Coast Trail in northern California.  They call it the Lost Coast trail because the highway had to go east due to the rugged terrain so the only way to get to the coast in this area is to hike.

We drove up on Monday.  We made good time until we got within 20 miles or so and then we drove on horrible dirt roads with lots of ruts and pebbles.  The other vehicles were big trucks but I was driving our Santa Fe so I tried to go slow when I could so we wouldn't damage the car.

Monday night, we stayed at a campground a few miles from the coast.  We cooked hamburgers over the fire and had brownie surprise in the dutch oven.  We also got to play a little basketball since they had a hoop at the campground.  We got up the next morning, had some breakfast and drove to the coast.  It was chilly and windy there and we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.

After hiking for a while in the sand (which is really, really hard), we saw these sea lions sunning themselves on the beach.

We camped right on the beach that night.  Conner and I both saw a rattlesnake slither through the camp and were on high alert the rest of the night.  Fortunately, we had our super small tent to sleep in so at least we were safe.  The winds blew hard that night and caused issues for some of the tents but ours is so small it wasn't really affected.

Here we are right on the beach.  It was pretty amazing to be right there and hear the waves all night long.  We saw an eel the next morning which was pretty cool.

An amazing sunset.

We hiked several miles again the next day.  By the end of the day, my watch said we had taken over 33,000 steps!

We saw lots of wildlife throughout the week, including some deer.

When we weren't hiking on sand, we hiked on loose rocks, which were about as bad.

Here we are -- just a slight chill in the air.

Again, the sunsets were amazing!

More wildlife.

This was one of the more challenging parts of the hike when we had to slowly climb down some rocks with our packs on.

On Thursday night, we got to where we planned to camp and there were really no campsites big enough for us.  Since it was only another mile an a half, we took a vote and it was close but they decided to hike out the rest of the way and head for home.  Right at the end of our hike, we noticed a horrible smell and then came upon this whale that was decaying on the beach.

We drove to pizza, which took a really long time to cook but was worth it.  After that, we drove all the way home and made it there close to midnight but at least we got a great night's sleep!

This trip was lots of hard hiking, amazing scenery, and wildlife everywhere.  The Lost Coast has been found!