Girl's Camp Part II: I'm a What?

Morning came way too quickly. I don't think I had slept more than a few hours. The morning was nice and cool and refreshing. For breakfast we ate muffins made in the fire with orange peels. You cut an orange in half and scoop and eat out the middle. Then put muffin batter in it and wrap it up in foil and then cook it in the fire. The muffins were tasty and very moist. One of the girls, Kiersta was having some jaw/teeth pain that kept her up all night. She definitely looked like she was in pain and she stayed behind while the other girls went to the morning devotional. I asked her if she would like a blessing and she replied that she would. So I ran to another camp to grab another guy if he would assist me in giving her a blessing. After the blessing she laid back down and I went up to the devotional.

After the devotional we packed up for our hike. Kristy had to speak to the stake leaders so I went along with her. She was asked to help run the hike and we quickly packed up our lunch and ran to catch the girls as they went on their hike. We hiked up past the amphitheater and headed right up the mountain, quite literally I might add. The first part of the hike was almost straight up. All of the girls made it up the steep trail except for one which Kristy and I stopped to help out. She was definitely scared so Kristy took her by the hand and helped her up. I stayed close behind to make sure she didn't slip or fall. She kept saying that she was going to die but she took it like a trooper and we made it up the mountain. And that is when we realized (well, the other leaders in front of the pack) that we were on the wrong trail and we had to hike back down to the amphitheater. It was so steep (how steep was it?) that almost all the girls (and we had about thirty of them) slid down the mountain on their rears to get down safely.

We found the right trail to take (and it was CLEARLY marked) and we headed back up the mountain to this lake. It was not as steep this time around but it was still quite the uphill hike. Kristy and I commanded the back to make sure all the girls were ahead of us. It was very hot and muggy but very beautiful. The trail was covered in green and at times the trail could barely fit one person. We took a few breaks here and there to view the scenery (or in my case to catch my breath) and we split off into our own wards/groups. I am really impressed with the girls. It was not an easy hike (and we were only half way) and they marched on with little complaining. We finally stopped up this steep grade to eat some of our lunch. There were a few girls that were really tired at this point and wanted to turn back but a few of our girls really took a leadership role and they motivated us all to finish the hike and see the lake. We were the last group to make it up to the lake and we celebrated when we got there.

It was so thick and green.

This was us half way up the mountain. I love this picture of the girls.

Taeler was so thrilled that we made it that she wanted to jump in the lake to cool off. It sounded like a good idea and then we saw the "lake". It was no lake, it was a swamp. I didn't even want to dip my bandanna in the water because it was so filthy. But we finished our goal!

That is no lake. That is a disappointing swamp.

We ate our lunch and then the other group of girls that made it up already got up to leave. We were so tired that Shonda suggested we stay for awhile and I am glad we did. We hiked a little bit further and found a real beautiful view of the valley. That made it worth the hike alone. Kristy had some Tootsie Rolls in her backpack and she tossed me one right before we were getting ready to leave. I commented, "This will give me the energy I need... ... to stand up."

One thing about camping with these people for a couple of days is that you really get to know them. I had no idea that our Camp Director, Shonda, dreams about her teeth. "I like my teeth." Is what she told us. She also shares my fear of going to the bathroom in other places aside from our homes.

It was during the long hike that the quote of the day was spoken by Taeler. I don't want to divulge all the details for various reasons but I do want to remember what she said. I am certain that this will remind me:

I died inside when she said what she said. I didn't make any reaction because I didn't want anyone to know that I actually heard her.

We stayed around for a little bit longer and then headed back home to camp. The hike down was almost as difficult as the hike up. My toes were so sore from the hike down. Kristy led the girls down and Shonda and I stayed in the back. Suddenly, during our hike back, Shonda decided to take a fast nap. She was walking one moment and the next moment she was lying down on the trail. She must have slipped a hundred times down that hike. I felt bad because I couldn't tell if she was hurt (she was actually laughing) and I have to admit that I was laughing because it looked so funny. I reached down and pulled her up by her backpack. Kristy and the girls were far ahead of us and she claims it is because they were just being speedy. Personally, I think it is because Shonda spent too much time falling on the trail. The girls in front of us kept shouting out "Marco!" to see how close we were to camp. Finally we heard "Polo!" and we were so happy to get back. I was proud of our girls. They made it through a real difficult hike and they did it singing and cheering. I overheard some of the other girls from other wards and they said that they wished they were with us because we were so happy.

I think this is the only picture that I am in. I am eating my Tootsie Roll to gather some strength.

Look at the view.

I tried to get the girls to pluck this flower. That way I can turn them in and maybe get a reward.

Shonda and Kristy decided to reward the girls by driving them down to the showers. After some snacks and some relaxation, the girls had to go and do a compass activity. They had to use a compass to find their way around the camp and finally to the end of the course at the amphitheater where Kristy, Shonda, Tiffany and I were waiting. Then there was a small moment of reflection of how a compass can lead and how instructions from our leaders and our scriptures can also lead us like a compass.

For dinner we ate these delicious tin foil dinners and our No-Drama-Mama came to visit the girls. It would have nice to have Tara and Karen stay at camp with the girls. They brought these delicious Popsicles (oh boy do I love Popsicles) and this funny pink zebra duct tape which they made bracelets out of. The only stipulation was that in order to wear it you had to have NO drama. And for the most part, there was little drama in the camp. After dinner we hung around the campfire and just enjoyed our time together. Kristy broke out the candy and we roasted Starbursts and I asked if anyone would would roast me some Lime Tootsie Rolls. Taylor graciously cooked me up some and they turned out better than I thought they would. She brought them over to me and they were piping hot and I couldn't snag them off the pole. "Just put them in your mouth!" She called out and so I immediately popped them in my mouth. "Are you crazy?" I yelled back as the Tootsie Rolls about melted my tongue off. But they were so tasty. It was nice just to sit around the fire with these people.

After the girls went to bed, the rest of us leaders sat around the campfire just chatting. Kristy got up and wanted to do a tent check to make sure all of the girls were in their tents and we all decided to go with her. The main reason is that we wanted to stop and eavesdrop on the girls for a little bit. We got up and surrounded the tent with the youngest girls and listened in. We could hear the girls giggling and talking when suddenly I heard my name (Dr. Pepper) being mentioned. "And then Dr. Pepper was a..." is what I heard one of the girls start to say. I honestly didn't want to know exactly what they were saying about me so I grabbed the tent and yelled out "I'm a what?" as I violently shook the tent. The girls screamed in terror. It was such perfect timing. Us leaders laughed and laughed.

I finally got ready for bed and easily fell asleep, I was so worn out. Kevin invited the Bishop to spoon with him and then told me that he doesn't fall asleep that quickly. Yeah, whatever. Kevin was snoring within a few minutes time. And he didn't even go on the hike with us!

Random Ramblings: Finally!

Happy: Are you ready for some football? This will be an interesting week for the NFL. The NFL is back as the players and owners have agreed to a new 10-year deal. And now teams will have to compress 5-months of business into a week or so. News will be flying fast and I couldn't be more happy.

Laughing: Patriots owner Robert Craft said something pretty funny during the news conference announcing the new NFL deal.

"I believe you're going to see a very great NFL over the next decade and I hope we gave a little lesson to the people in Washington because the debt crisis is a lot easier to fix than this deal was." 

Excited: This will be the final blog of the week as I am taking off to Girl's Camp early tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to spending time with my wife and these wonderful girls. At least it will be quite entertaining. Kristy put me in charge of taking pictures and I have no problem doing that. My only rule is no duckfaces. I hate that look. It is not cute, it makes you look plain stupid.

Sad, Worried and Confused: I have a situation drama that I am observing and it really gives me the heebie-jeebies. I can't blog much about it here because I certainly don't want to offend and with recent events, I have learned that I should keep my nose (and mouth) out of family matters, except for my immediate family. But I cannot stop thinking about it. Personally, I think they are making a big mistake, and one that could potentially be extremely drastic and that is what worries me. I get the reason why they are doing this, I desire the same thing. I get why they are helping someone, I want to help people as well. The big deal is not what they are doing but how they are doing it. The big mistake in my opinion is that they are being too casual.

*DISCLAIMER*

I am now on my soapbox.

You can skip this tirade if you desire. Just scroll down to the Monty Python picture.

It seems lately that Church leaders have warned us to be careful how casual we are in our relationships with others. We have been asked in our Stake (the local area) to assist each other in making sure everyone is being taken care of. My local ward has been asked to help visit (what we call home teaching) other members in other wards. But our leaders have stressed to be careful in these relationships. We should love them and treat them as we would our own family but we are to be careful in our casual this relationship should be. This casualness could lead down a road that will end up in a lot of pain and heartache. Being casual in some things can lead to other things becoming casual and so forth. And this is what I am seeing. I am seeing something that at first was good but now it has become casual. Too casual in my opinion.

Let's take me for instance. I am friends with the Young Women here in our neighborhood. I like being around them and I want to help them when I can. That's not bad right? Nothing wrong to see here. But what if I become to casual with them? What if I start to go out of my way to see them? Is that bad? I don't think it is bad initially. But what if it gets to the point where they come over and visit me? And what if they come and see me when Kristy is not around?

Do you see where I am going with this now? It started off all good and well but things are getting a bit too casual. It is not like I would do anything but it would be easier now that they are coming over alone than it would be if I only saw them in appropriate situations. This is why being casual could lead to problems. Why put yourself in that type of situation?

And this is the sort of situation I am seeing now. Now I know that I don't know all the details and I am not in the same situation. But I can't help feeling this way. It really frightens me where this could go. And unfortunately I wouldn't be able to help them once they are gone.

Boy that was depressing. 

And now for something completely different. 

I was going through some pictures and I found this one of my dad and sister and it reminded me of another picture.

I guess I do look a lot like my dad.

Random Ramblings: Memorial Day Weekend

Listening: It is the 40th Anniversary of Queen and to celebrate they are re-releasing their albums 5 at a time with a bonus disc of extra material. And thankfully iTunes has allowed us to buy just those songs instead of it being the dreaded Album Only. The new "Beeb" renditions of Nevermore and Teo Torriatte are spectacular.

Scaring: Last Sunday we helped out some friends of ours by watching their kids while they went to Salt Lake to pick up a relative from the airport. We first took them back to our house for some lunch and then we headed to their house to play while we waited for their parents. They were happily playing with Logan and then it was time to eat lunch. I snuck up the corner of our stairs to scare the next person who came down the stairs which was unfortunate for Shelby. I scared that poor girl good! Afterwards we took them back to their house and played by the river in their backyard. The girls showed me two large duck nests that were full of eggs. And then we played Fish until their parents came home.

Logan, Cassiday and Shelby

Their house was right on the river. Logan is at the bottom of the stairs leading to their backyard, which is now the Logan River.

Cooking: The morning of Memorial Day we had a neighborhood breakfast at the park. I was partly in charge of cooking up the French Toast. We had a real good showing and it was fun to spend the morning with my great neighbors. I cooked for the first hour and a half (with help from Kristy) and then went inside to socialize with everyone and play basketball with the Young Men and Women.

Freezing: I cannot believe that we woke up Monday to snow! It was not a lot of snow but I did have to scrape it off the car!

Really? Snow?

Riding: Yesterday for Memorial Day we took a road trip with my mom and visited a couple of cemeteries (Wellsville, Logan, Hyrum and Richmond) and looked at some of our deceased relatives. It was a beautiful day for the most part. It got sunny and warm and then cold and rainy. The weather made every cemetery clean and green. It was so awesome to see all the flowers and flags. Visiting these gravesides always puts me in a sober and reflective mood. But I am glad that I was able to do it. It is fun hanging out with my mom and driving around. It takes me back to our road trips to Idaho and Colorado. We stopped for some dinner at Big J's and had a nice drive back to Logan.

I cannot believe that it has been 7 years since my grandparents passed away.

Feeling Strange: We dropped by the USU Trailer Court (where Kristy and I lived right after we got married) and our trailer is gone! And so is every trailer that was on our block. The whole trailer park was stripped with only a few trailers remaining. It was like a tornado cleared it out. Both Kristy and I felt strange. A part of our early married life is gone forever. All that remained was a few bricks that Kristy put in for a flower bed.

Logan is standing where the bathroom used to be.

Riding Part II: I rode my bike to my dad's house today for work. 4.13 miles is not to shabby. But I can already tell that my butt is going to be sore.

Tempting: You know I just might have to go see X-Men: First Class at midnight Thursday by myself.

Logan the Wolf

When of the neat things about being a parent is seeing what kind of strange and funny things our kids can create using their imagination.

This is why Logan doesn't watch scary movies at home. We cannot have a full grown wolf running around the house.

Logan's Halloween Parade

Day 360

For Logan's first Halloween we dressed him up as Wolverine. We even made our own Wolverine movie which when I figure out how to upload it, I will debut it here.

Logan makes a perfect scarecrow for his 2nd Halloween.

I always wanted to have a cat.

He isn't just a Marvel guy. He dresses up as DC characters too!

Logan as a black widow.

I love his face here.

Instead of being a scary skeleton he wanted to go as one that glows in the dark.

This year he is going as a spider again. As you can tell he has his favorites.

List-Mania: Oh the Horror!

Day 356

I am totally stealing my cousin's (and fellow blogger) idea to list his favorite spooky movies. Since it is Halloween and a good idea is a good idea, I am going to list my 5 Favorite Horror Movies. I am not a huge fan of the slasher pics and I am definitely not into the torture stuff (Hostel, Saw) but I do like to be creeped out.

5) The Omen (1976)

Oh man. Kids can sure be creepy and this kid takes the cake. I would probably walk across the street if I saw this kid walking towards me. Why is this kid so creepy? Because he is the son of the devil, Damian. Gregory Peck was fantastic in this film as a desperate dad trying to figure out if his adoptive son is really the Antichrist. My favorite scene is when his dad takes a close look at his son's scalp (while Damian is sleeping) and finds a 666 birthmark. But that scene was trumped by the creepy smile we get at the end of the film.

4) The Shining

Stephen King can sure write some creepy books but unfortunately the movies that are made from the books fall a bit short. Sure we have Carrie, but that means we also get Thinner. But the Shining really is the best of the bunch. Of course Jack Nicholson is already a little creepy in his own right but make him trot around the empty halls sporting an ax and a demented look in his eyes and you have one of the creepiest dude ever. My favorite scene has to be when his wife (whom I could not stand!) discovers his novel and finds that it is just the same line repeated over and over again. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". And then he sneaks up on her. Even the poster for the film leaves me a weird feeling.

3) The Thing (1982)

Science Fiction has given us some of the scariest films around. From the Alien series to the Fly but John Carpenter's remake of The Thing was on an entirely different level. I loved the original movie and I loved the idea of a monster that can shape change. But this movie took a more realistic view of what would happen if there was a shape changer among us. The paranoia is ramped up to ten and I could actually feel the dread and anxiety of not knowing who to trust. My favorite scene is where they test each others blood to see if they are the creature or not. They put some blood in a small container and put a flame to it. That scene felt like hours. And the ending was perfect.

2) Night of the Living Dead (1968)

I do love my zombies and this classic is what started it all. I remember watching this movie on TV with my dad on Halloween and we were both drawn in. What made this movie great was not the zombies themselves (even though the little girl in the cellar was certainly creepy and I will never look at a cement trowel the same way) but it was how the survivors dealt with each other. Human nature is much more scarier than any monster. Now I don't want to ruin the ending because I highly recommend watching this movie, even if you are not a horror buff, you need to see this movie! The ending was so surprising, I totally didn't see it.coming and was shocking! And then just like that, it ended. My favorite scene was the last 20 minutes.

1) Halloween (1978)

Like I said before I am not a big fan of the slasher films but yet the grandaddy of them all is my favorite horror film. Jason and Freddy don't freak me out because I know they cannot exist. Michael on the other hand could certainly exist. And that is what makes him more scary than the rest of the films. Michael was not a monster but just a crazy person. I remember when this movie came out. I was only four years old and I was watching  Siskel and Ebert at the Movies and they showed a clip from this film. It was when she was hiding the kids from Michael and they said that the bogeyman was coming to get them. I ran upstairs to my mom it scared me so much. Just a small clip scared me! Flash forward to my college days and I saw this movie for the first time. And then I saw that scene again and I remembered that horrible creepy feeling. My favorite scene in the movie is when Dr. Loomis goes to the Mental Hospital and they find that the power is knocked out (and it is night time). They see these strange ghosts in the field when the lightning flashes and they realize it is the inmates of the hospital. And then they know Michael is on the loose!

I might have to watch a few of these here in the next couple of weeks. There are other Halloween films that I love too that are a little safer to watch and are not truly horror films. Maybe I will share those next week.

The Walking Dead

Day 346

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. I don't know why I like the spooky stuff; maybe it is because fear is such a primal emotion. It gets the heart pumping, it raises your awareness, it makes you feel.

I am a sucker for horror movies. I don't know why I like them but I do. It is not like I seek them out but when they find me, I will sit still and watch them.

And zombies are the worst.

They are slow but nothing stops them. They are numerous but yet they can be one of your own family. I think that is what freaks me about them. Your closest friends and family can become zombies.

Anyway, I have mentioned many times before that one of my favorite graphic novels, The Walking Dead, was turned into a TV show and debuts this Halloween. I am looking forward to seeing that comic book come to life (heh... come to death would be a better phrase) and I am looking forward to being a bit spooked. If you have seen zombie movies and like them, this will be right up your alley. What sets this book above many others is that it is focused on the survivors and not the zombie apocalypse itself. You may never know what caused the zombie breakout and I personally don't care if I ever find out what the cause was. I care more for the survivors and believe me, there are not that many. The author, Robert Kirkman is not afraid to get rid of some favorite cast members at any time. Oftentimes, the zombies are merely an afterthought.

The real danger comes with those surviving with you.

Here are a couple of teasers of the show. The first one is relatively safe to watch.



The second clip, I will warn you is graphic and does contain some peppery language. All stuff I am sure I would be blurting out if I was in a zombie apocalypse! You can see it by clicking here. If you dare!


Cannot wait for Halloween!

Random Ramblings

Day 331

It's amazing how much my mood improves when the Jets win.

Yesterday Kristy was put in as Young Woman's President. We didn't think it was going to happen but it did. She was called a couple of weeks ago and I know that the ward had some logistics issues with who is serving where. But they made the calling official yesterday. Kristy will do a great job. She has some fantastic counselors and advisers and the Young Woman themselves are awesome. The unfortunate thing is that she will be a little more busy than normal. But the advantage is that I get to spend more time with Young Woman. I have said this before and I am sure this is not the last time I will say it but I love being around the Young Woman. They are such great examples and they make me feel young too.

My calling is still in limbo. I was called into the Elders Quorum as the 2nd counselor and our President moved about a month and half ago. I know a new President has been called but that is all I know. Nothing will happen for another two weeks or so. At least I am not the new President but I am eager to find out where I am going to be placed. Because knowing this ward, they have a spot waiting for me.

October is one of my favorite months. The air turns a little crisp, you get to wear comfier clothes, baseball season is winding down, football season is in full swing, basketball season is just a few weeks away. Scary shows are being shown on TV (I am a sucker for horror movies) and Halloween is almost here, and I LOVE Halloween candy.

This October will be special for a couple of reasons, I am a week away from going to The Halloween Hootenanny Tour! I am so giddy, I have been listening to Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie non-stop in preparation for the concert. I am not familiar with Alice Cooper as much but I am getting a kick out of discovering his music. Lots of fun stuff.

 I just don't know what to wear.

I was thinking of wearing this...

Only kidding. I am not sure what to wear, all I know is that I better wear black.

The other special occasion is that this blog will officially end October 31st. I don't know what I will do with the blog. Blogging has become a habit and I think I will miss doing it everyday. What are my fellow bloggers going to do when it is all over?