Zion's Camp

Tucker's cubscouts had their summer pack meeting at Zion's camp so we decided to stay the night.  It worked out perfectly because I wanted to go camping there with the kids one more time before we moved.

We got there in the afternoon and headed right over to the lake.

 All the kids also went out on the canoes.  I really wanted them to practice using a paddle.

 All the kids loved doing the rope swing, but Leon was pretty scared to give it a try.  Once he did it once though he couldn't get enough.  Tucker was the only one brave enough to actually jump off it into the water.

I did the paddle board, even though it kind of stresses me out.  I don't think it was very hard but the whole time I really didn't want to fall.  Maybe because I've never fallen on it before or maybe because I really wasn't wanting to get into the water.  But I did get a bit testy with the kids when they bumped me.

It took a while for Scarlett and Penelope to get the nerve to go down the slide.  I guess you could say that in the end they both went down.


Tucker's challenge was to jump off the life guard seat.  When we came to the water the next day there was a new sign saying not to jump off it.


The pack meeting was great!  We are going to miss cub scouts.

That night the kids all slept in the tent and Bob Calista and I slept in the car with the seats folded down.  It was a rough night!  I think I fed Calista hourly to keep her quiet.  And in the end I'm not sure sleeping in the car with the seats folded flat was more comfortable than the tent.  We were very squished and the seats were super hard.  One last hurrah before we sell the car I guess.

We forgot several things on this camping trip including, flashlights and matches.  Luckily people were nice enough to share.

The next morning we played around on their ropes course and all their fun toys.

Cub Scout Camp

Ok, so cub scout camp was a few weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it.  That is what happens when your husband takes the pictures on his tablet and you don't know how to get them off the tablet and onto the computer :)

Tucker had a blast at cubscout camp!  He was so excited to go and I'm sure it lived up to his expectations.  Five days of outdoor activities with other 9-year-olds, what could be better?

They did crafts.

Shot BB guns

Built things.

Practiced archery, this was Tucker's favorite.

And did an obstacle course, I guess this was also Tucker's favorite.  He continuously got faster and faster times throughout the week which is what we told him to go for.

On the last day the families were invited for the awards and outdoor program.  I think we waited about 2 hours before it started, so the whole thing felt ridiculously long and boring for the kids.  But we were there to support Tucker and the other leaders.  

I'm thankful for all the work that people put into making this possible.  It takes a special kind of person to be a cub scout leader.

Zion's Camp Day 2 & 3

While camping we spent a couple hours on their ropes course.  I wish I had more pictures but this one of Scarlett is it.  The kids and I did it first and then we all went back later with bob.  There was lots of climbing and balancing on ropes and beams.  The three younger kids needed help with almost each obstacle so you can imagine this took some time.  It was pretty fun though.  Made me once again wish I had a huge backyard where Bob could build fun things like this for the kids to play on.  The picture might be a little deceiving, Scarlett is about a foot and a half in the air.

Tucker also worked on the fishing badge.  This meant we spent about and hour learning about the local fish and fish laws.  Then some time learning about fishing poles.  Then over an hour trying it out and fishing.  I think we had five poles but no one caught a fish.  I'm ok with that.  I don't even know what we would have done if we caught one.

At one point during the hour I took a nap on the dock in the sunshine.

Camping can seem like a lot of work because of all the gear we need to bring.  Click the link to read an article about different camping duffle bags.

Both nights we were there we spend telling stories around the campfire.  Some were silly and some were serious.  S'mores are a family favorite!

At one point things got a little out of hand while I was telling reading a story of the internet.  I should have pre read the stories.  The kids were begging me to stop and Leon was even crying.  I really wanted to get to the end because I thought it would have a funny/ not scary ending.  And everyone would laugh and not be scared anymore.  I was wrong.  It had more of an open ending and all the kids were scared.  Tucker was especially scared and couldn't sleep well that night.  The pleaded with me the next night not to tell stories.  They said only dad can tell stories.  His are funny.

Leon tipped his lovingly named "Monkey Business" chair backward.  I think he was embarrassed because he didn't cry or anything.  He just laid back for a couple minutes half smiling.  Because he was just sitting there it was pretty funny for everyone else.  I helped him up and he didn't seem to care that everyone laughed.

We made sure to read the scriptures every night.  It just feels different reading them outside in the woods.

Our last morning we got up, ate, packed, cleaned, and went to archery.  I learned that I'm pretty bad at it.  Most of my arrows missed the target completely.  The kids even learned to ask dad for help instead of mom.  Tucker was on his own.  But for the other kids we did two at a time so Bob would help one child and they would do pretty well, while whomever got stuck with me helping happened to miss.

Then when the weather warmed up we went to the lake again.  This time I tried out paddleboard yoga.  Holy Moly it is HARD!

Tree pose I think is one of the easiest balance poses but I couldn't get it.  It took me a while to get this next picture and I was not holding still.  I probably had my leg up in that position for about half a second but somehow bob got the shot.

We had a great time camping.  I enjoyed it much more than our last trip this summer.  The weather made all the difference!

Zions Camp Day 1

It seemed like we kind of dropped the ball on camping last year so this year we made sure to go at least two times.    Last weekend we went to Zions camp.  It is a church owned camp about 45 minutes away from our house.  I love the church owned campes!  They always have plenty to do.  Everyone must sign in and is a member of the church so I feel a little safer.  And they are pretty inexpensive.

Zion's camp has a lot of these rope swings and our kids were loving them.

I didn't get a picture of it along with paddle boarding we went out on a paddleboat and a row boat.  Tucker earned a swimming cub scout badge and for that he had to learn lots of water safety things and about how to row a boat.

Leon and the girls didn't try the paddle boards but that didn't stop them from playing in the water.

Bob and Tucker really liked the paddle boards.  It was all of our first time trying them and they were pretty fun.  I'm surprised how well Tucker did.  He made me a little nervous but aside from the first few minutes he didn't really fall.

You know what I forgot.  Everyone did ride on the paddle boards. I gave the kids rides on the front kind of like the next picture but they were sitting.

Tucker's the only one in our family who did the water slide.  I wanted to but it was too cold for me to get into the water.

They even have rope swings into the water.

After a fun day at the lake we ate dinner and then headed over to the huge and amazing tree house.  I really want one of these.  Hopefully one day before our kids are grown Bob and I will have a house where we can build one for them.

One of the great things about this camping trip was we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.  Zion's camp is super busy during the week because of all the Young Women girls camps.  But on the weekends it is empty!  It think there was only one other family in the entire place on Saturday and they didn't even stay the night.

I always feel like camping is a lot of work to sleep outside, but it is fun and the kids love it so much!  Totally worth it.