Scout Camp, Arrival (the Music of Abba) and Vacation Time at the Cabin

Well, it's been awhile since I wrote here. This time I have a pretty good excuse. I haven't been around a computer where it is easy to write.

Friday the 17th was spent with my family, and we went to see Harry Potter (whatever the newest one is - I think Half Blood Prince). We enjoyed the movie, but we didn't feel that it was as good as some of the other ones. It just didn't have the same amount of action that the others did. They seemed to do a pretty good job of following some of the stuff in the book, but there were things missing (of course they can't get it all in there). We also went out to an AT&T store to get new phones for my daughter and my wife. They didn't really do a lot to impress us, so we went to T-Mobile and joined that family for now with a new two year contract. I think it will be better, and bet on it enough to upgrade and pay another $10 per month to have the fav five that they started up. That with the tmobile to tmobile should hold onto a lot of our minutes that we currently use up.

Saturday was spent taking care of a few things around the house and preparing to go to the Scout Camp on Monday morning.

On Sunday the 19th, we did the normal church things, and then I grabbed my son and we went and did our home teaching. It feels good to get that done, but I still struggle trying to get it all done. My son doesn't much like to do it because it is just another meeting to him.

This past Monday started out early. I had to be to the church at 6:00 AM so we could leave. We did finally leave, but it was around 6:45. I had the majority of the Scouts in my vehicle, along with my gear. We headed out for Bear Lake Aquatics Camp. It is about three hours away, and we listened to my Queen CD's on the way there (along with a little bit of Tomita).

Nothing much happened on the trip, but when we got there we found out that the Scoutmasters lounge was not completed after all. So, no flush toilets for us. We checked in, got a tour of the camp and then took the boys for their swim checks. I also did the swim check. After I finished that 75 yards of any stroke I wanted and another 25 on the back, I could tell that I was not in shape. The waves added to my tiredness and I almost fell over walking back to shore. But, I did the swim check and made it through it just fine. We had some lunch and then got all the Scouts to their merit badges. We also set up a little bit more of the camp. We used the excuse of my Cpap machine to get electricity down to us. During the time I was there, a few people asked about it and one of the staff members unplugged us briefly. It was nice to use that cord for the machine, but we were also able to charge up our cell phones and other electronic devices. Of course that first night there was the usual campfire along with its usual silliness.

Tuesday was more of the same. We got the boys to their merit badges and then just did a few things. I got my safety afloat as well as the other water thing you need to have in order for the boys to be able to go out on water adventures with the scouts. It was good to get done. We also did a bit of lounging about and just enjoying the out doors as long as we were in the shade (it was awfully hot). Later that night we went to go rifle shooting. They asked me to come in and be the person they needed who was over 21 so the boys could all shoot. I didn't do much but just sit there (that was good because it was a bit of a hike to get up there). And, just before we did that we helped a truck unload for the new building they have (the one we didn't get to use). That was our service project for the week.

Later on in the evening I helped one of the boys get his report done for his environmental merit badge. That took some doing. Working with ADD isn't always the easiest thing, but we got his report done and it was him that did the research and wrote it with me simply helping him formulate his ideas.

Wednesday I only stayed a little bit after breakfast was over. Originally I planned on staying through lunch time but as I looked around, there wasn't a lot of reason to do so. I had packed up so I simply left. Once again, I cranked up the stereo with some Queen and headed home.

My wife was glad I had left early because there was a little bit of shopping that we needed to have done, so I was able to accomplish some of that. She was busy doing some of the cooking that we needed for our weekend up at our in-laws cabin. My wife was a little bit worried because she hadn't heard from her mom and dad and if they were going up to the cabin, but we finally tracked down some people to let us know that they had headed up. The worry was still there because we had no idea if they had made it.

My main reason for coming home from the Scout Camp was so my wife and I could go to a concert at the Sandy Amphitheater. It was "Arrival: The Music of Abba". I have to say, they did a wonderful job. They are a group that is approved of by the people who created Abba to dress and do an act as if they were Abba. They made no bones about the fact that they weren't, but the sound was just as I remember the original Abba, and they had guest appearances of the drum player of the group Abba. The audience all seemed to have a good time at this concert, and my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though we got there late enough that we had to go up into a neighborhood and park our car because of how full they were. We decided that we had better get there a lot earlier on the 30th when we go see Clint Black because we don't have reserved seating, but rather are on the lawn.

Thursday, my wife had to go cut a few peoples hair, and me and the kids prepared to go up to the cabin. We didn't know if we would go that day or the next (we kind of planned on the next day) but thought it prudent to prepare anyway. My wife came home. She had a few things to do, and then around 5:00 we headed up to the cabin. The traffic wasn't too bad, and we got there in pretty good time. My son just wanted to get up there to shoot his BB gun. He got a little bit of that in, and we went to Dairy Keen to grab some hamburgers. Pam and Anne came up in the meantime, so it was a full house.

Each day that we were up there we slept in till around 9:00. Friday, we didn't really know what to do. Our kids went with Anne and Grandpa to go kayaking on the Jordanelle Resevoir. I started to work on putting a screen in the front door and Pam came and helped me out with that. It has been a long time since that door has had any kind of screen in it. This would help out the air flow through the cabin. It was kind of hot. Once everybody got back to the cabin, we had lunch and dinner, played a few games, shot the BB gun, and then we headed to Charleston for fireworks for the 24th of July. It was a great fireworks display, but we had gotten there early, and there were no public restrooms open. The finale' that they did was one of the best that I have ever seen. There was one part that I thought I may go into epileptic seizures, but it was really good. We were right on top of the fireworks. It was an Ooo Aaa type of evening.

While sleeping Friday evening, a fan fell over and hit some silverware. It sounded like somebody had broken a window. We all woke up. We all (including me) made fun of me because when somebody else would kind of be scared I would tell them to calm down (in a load uncalm sort of voice). My wife was made fun of because she ran for the door (actually to lock it) and we joked about her looking out for herself (she wasn't but it was something to make fun of). Well, we all got back in bed and had a good night despite that.

Saturday, we headed to Heber to pick up some pads for the swamp cooler and to get some supplies for eating. We got all of that taken care of, and after a little while Pam and Anne left to go home. My son and I took care of the pads in the swamp cooler (they had to be cut to size) and then I did some weeding and trimming around the cabin. It was quite hot, and I had to take a shower because of how soaked I was in sweat. We had some dinner, shot the BB gun and watched a movie. That's about it for the day. It was a nice relaxing day.

Sunday, we didn't do much of anything. It was just a day to relax and take it easy. Rod did do a little bit out in his garden with more trimming. The cabin is going to look nice when we are done. We went down to Chicks in Heber City for a meal. That was quite good.

Today, was more of the same. Games, BB gun, eat and relax. We did have to pack up. I did some and then let my son finish it since he is so good at organizing the car. We finally packed up to leave at around 3:00 PM. We had a reasonable trip home. There were only two messages when we got home. One was a reference for one of our daughters friends who wants to move into a rental home in our neighborhood. We are in the ward of the owners, so that is good. It will be fun for our daughter if they can move in there. The house is just around the corner. We kind of cleaned up what we brought home, and just relaxed around the house. All this vacationing wears one out.

Well, that's the week. There were a couple of small issues at the cabin. We were able to get through them, and hopefully are a stronger family unit because of them. I'll sign off now.

Just Stuff

There's really not too much going on. I just thought I had better write something here before I forget things that did happen. Already, I'm thinking there is something I wanted to write about, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it is.

Our daughter went to Raging Waters with her friend on Monday. It was something that her friends orthodontist was doing for all of his patients and their friends. The friends just needed to pay about $8 for the park, but that included a pizza for dinner. She had quite a bit of fun. It is this night that I'm thinking I blacked out as far as what I did. Getting old is for the birds.

Tuesday night was Young Men. I went there and we had the bishop teaching all the boys (12-18) about fly fishing. They then went into the parking lot to practice casting. Some of the boys had it down in no time flat, and others struggled with it. I didn't embarrass myself by trying to do that. My son did a good job. He was a natural. I told him that he should ask his uncle Larry to go out and do some fly fishing with him.

Tonight wasn't a good night for me. I got into an argument with my wife and I think we both felt pretty crappy after that. I just hate it when this kind of thing happens. We still need to work things out, and I will do all I can to work it out. Family relationships aren't always easy.

Kids gone

Not too much is going on. We just spent Friday evening at home and then on Saturday, my wife and daughter went to a shower of one of my wife's relatives. I had done some cleaning up around the house (vacuuming and dusting), and then after my wife and daughter left went to the store to pick up a few things so I could make dinner for that night. I also purchased something for Sundays dinner.

Just before my wife came home I started to make the dinner of chicken pot pie (one that is healthy from a women's health book that I have). My son had mentioned that he wanted it, and since I found one rotisserie chicken on sale (they do that to get rid of them after three hours) I had all that I needed. It turned out pretty good (if I don't say so myself).

Our daughter ended up going home with her Aunt Pam and our son was wondering why he didn't get to go. That changed after Anne got off work. She asked if she could come over and pick him up, which we allowed. He was happy about that. I was watching a movie in one room and my wife in the other room. When Anne came over, I came out and visited with her. We gave her some of our dinner (she is the one that gave me the book when I had my heart attack). She said that it was good.

This morning, I had a headache. I didn't want to get up. I did finally get up and get ready to go to church. My wife had a hard time too. It was just one of those days. It was a good thing I went to church because I was the only leader there for the 12 year old boys. We had an ordination of a new Deacon today and that was good.

In Sunday School we were discussing missionary work and I was able to read to them from my fathers "Book of Wayne" about my great-great grandfather (there may be another great on that). It helped the lesson so we could see the troubles that people went through in order to preach the gospel. I thought it was helpful.

After arriving home, I just relaxed for a bit. We then called the kids to see when we were going to pick them up since our daughter needed to be home to go to Raging Waters tomorrow. She was upset because we were going to be picking them up tonight rather than wait for tomorrow morning. I had to run to a key scouter meeting though. That's what happens when Glen is not around. After that, we found that we would pick up our kids around 7:30 or 8:00 tonight.

Well, I watched a video on netflix website. I did not finish it because we had to go pick up the kids. I was going to finish the last hour after we arrived home, but the website was down when we got home, and it would finish to late by the time it came back up (I last checked at 10:30).

At Pam and Anne's we finished watching Taken and then had some dinner (this was unexpected). It was a good dinner that she made us out of her garden. We really enjoyed that dinner and my wife said that it was exactly what she needed.

It was a pretty good day.

Just Stuff

I must be getting old. I am finding that I have to wear my old mans glasses (reading) while I work on the computer more and more. I hate that. I still have my reading glasses that I bought quite a few years ago when I first started noticing the degeneration. I keep them at my desk because it is a joke about me needing to see through rose colored glasses. When I bought those glasses, I didn't know that they had a pink tint to the glass. My color blindness didn't allow me to see that at all. My coworkers that were immediately around me just thought I was weird, and it wasn't until I was in a meeting and pulled them out when Amber asked me what was with the pink glasses. I had no idea. Ah well, that's the way life is. I have since found better glasses and just the other day brought in another pair to leave at work along with the ones I always carry in my pocket. Getting old is a pain.

Anyway, since I last wrote here, there have been a couple of things that I should note. We didn't really do anything noteworthy on Monday. I didn't even get a family home evening together. That is something that I am not very good at doing. Instead, we took care of a few things that needed taking care of. I went with my son to buy an Itunes card and then we went to Walmart to look at and buy a few things. We ended up buying him a Daisy BB Gun. He had most of the money, but I put in just over $10 to pay into the $40 gun. Since that time, he has made a little trap out of some scraps we had at home. He has been enjoying going out and shooting some targets with that trap and worrying my wife that he will put a hole in the fence or in the stucco through some ricochets. He has told her that a ricochet will not cause any kind of damage. His trap that he has made is one that we can easily take up to the cabin with us so he can shoot up there without worrying too much about hitting things out further. I have only shot the BB Gun a time or two. He isn't even pumping it up because damage is being done to the cans he is shooting when even doing one pump on it.

Tuesday night I went to Young Mens. Our daughter headed out to girls camp on Tuesday and won't be home until Saturday. No Young Women were there because of this and the only group that was meeting was our Scouts. Glen wasn't there because he is out on a business trip and Scott wasn't able to make it tonight. We had Brother Whipple and a new guy in our ward teach the boys a few fishing knots. That seemed to go pretty well. It was a good thing I showed up because they needed at least one of the leaders.

Tonight is the next time that anything worth writing about happened. We went to a Bees game (the local minor league baseball team) with my work. There was dinner, and then the game. We enjoyed the game although the Bees ended up losing. We left before the game was over. We picked up some creamies on the way home and just had a general good time with one another.

That's about it for my boring week.

My Birthday at the Cabin

Well, a couple of things happened that I thought I should write about. The early part of the week was kind of the same old stuff.

Tuesday evening, I went to our Court of Honor. Glen wasn't there, so as his assistant Scout Master I was asked to stand up and tell the parents and Young Men about the Bear Lake Summer Camp coming up in a few weeks. I was also to answer any questions that they may have. I hate getting up in front of people, but I guess I have to do it. There weren't any questions, and I was able to get home from that at a reasonable time. I then went to fill both of the cars up with fuel.

Wednesday was a day that I was hoping to leave work at around 3:00. There were some problems with kicking off my tests, so I was quite a bit later than I was hoping to be. I finally left around 4:00 PM so we could start out our long weekend.

After I arrived home, I had to hurry and throw together my personal stuff so we could leave home. Thankfully, my son had put all of our camping gear into the car, and was just waiting for the coolers at the last minute. He was quite good at getting it all done. We were able to leave home around 5:00 in the evening.

We arrived at the cabin, and went in to see how things were. We knew of the mouse problem and knew that Decon had been put down to get them. Well, my wife got sick when she looked in the kitchen sink. It seems that Rod and Margaret left water in there and one mouse drowned in the sink. We found another mouse between the carpet and the tile and a third in the bottom drawer of the stove. Only the one in the sink was smelly and bloated. We then started to vacuum up all the mouse poop, and the decon that the mice had taken all over the cabin. We had to keep Lizzy in her cage or in the car while we were doing all of this. The mice had taken the decon and put it in the bed, a couch and the stove. It was also spread throughout the cabin. We got it all taken care of and were able to release the dog. We then went down to Heber City to get us some hamburgers although my wife said she wasn't too hungry after seeing and smelling that one dead mouse.

We still did more cleaning up at the cabin because my wife is a worry wart. My wife and I finally got to actually sleep in the bed in the cabin since it was only our family up there. That was nice. We woke up on Thursday and my wife made me a nice birthday breakfast. After that, we headed out for Seven Peaks water park in Provo Utah. It wasn't as great of a park as I thought it would be, but we had fun. It was cloudy all day which was nice because it wasn't too hot. But, as we were getting ready to leave the rain came down. That, along with lightening was what finally got us to leave. We had our four hours there, and I think the kids enjoyed it. We didn't like all the extra expenses ($5 for parking, $6 for a locker [$2 refunded], and then the tubes cost $5 and $9 [$1 refunded]. That on top of the cost of the park. It is no wonder that people are going broke these days.

After getting back to the cabin, we had my birthday dinner (which my wife had made before we left so we only had to heat up the roast). It was all good. We watched the movie "The Reading Room" that night. It was pretty good. We then went to bed.

We slept in on the third and then went to Park City to watch Ice Age 3 (in 3D) for a family activity. We also did a few things around Park City and then once again got back to the cabin. Our daughter texted and we played Sorry with our son. We picked up some chicken to cook at the store and made a nice chicken dinner.

We put some screen up on the outside of the cabin to hopefully keep birds out of the attic of the place, and that was about it.

On the 4th of July, we just hung around the cabin playing games and enjoying some family time. We did go into Midway and went to an antique shop and a boutique and just general wandering around. We decided that we would head to a park in Midway where we could watch fireworks from Memorial Hill there. We got to the park around 6:30 and just hung out there lighting a candle (to keep bugs away) and played some games. People wanted to use our candle for lighting their sparklers and of course they were welcome. The nice part was that the park didn't get crowded. We had a lot of space and were able to watch fireworks in relative comfort at 10:00 that night. We hung around the park for a bit longer to get rid of any traffic and got home quite late.

Today, we also slept in. We had breakfast and started some cleanup so we could go on home. We checked out all the places we thought a mouse could come in and made it so hopefully they won't. We even put steel wool under the front door because of the gap that is in parts of it coming into the cabin. We got home and just kind of relaxed (well after putting away all the camping gear). I caught up on the news and watched some TV. My wife cut both my and my sons hair tonight. I was getting quite shaggy.

Not much else to say. I'm tired now. I need a vacation to rest up from my vacation.