Time for Picnics

Saturday we had our Annual SS Picnic at Castlewood Canyon State Park.  Each teacher takes their class for a hike through the canyon and as I teach the 4-6 year olds, our hikes usually go like this:

"Ok guys, any three leafed plants are poison ivy, and you shouldn't touch them or you'll get very itchy." 

   "three leaves? like these?" 

"NO DON'T TOUCH THEM!" 

   "Take your shoes off if you want to play in the water, but make sure your socks are in your shoes on the beach.  Curtis, your sock is floating away, put them IN your shoes not in the water."

   "Careful, if you run in to the water you might slip and fall, the rocks are slippery.....like...that.."

   "The water bugs are not going to hurt you." 

"Be patient, there is plenty of Otter Pops to go around"

   "Seriously Audrey, don't touch the plants!"

I also got to hear a great story about a star that drank milk and ate salad on the hike back.  It was an awesome day for a picnic!  We spent the afternoon after the hike eating great summer food, playing volleyball, and of course the main event for the kids, busting the piñata.

Sunday there was another picnic for the 8th grade graduates.  We planned on all kinds of activities, but instead we spent most of the time sitting under the shelter that had a hole in it listening to the thunder and watching the rain, lightning, and a 3 hour baseball game.  Young versus old, the old won by 2.

I've missed having my camera, as both picnics would have been fun to capture some moments.  Such as when the plastic bag covering the hole in the shelter dumped it's entire contents on Annie! Poor girl...but really funny : )  Here are some random pictures though that I have taken over the last couple weeks with my rather pathetic phone camera.

I drove a screaming employee to the emergency room at a high rate of speed where they spent an hour trying to get this beetle from out of his ear canal...yuck!

Spinach from our thriving plants!

Not sure where these glasses came from but they work great for protecting my eyes when I'm cutting onions : )

Our garden.  This was actually 2 weeks ago and it already looks a lot different.  Mostly because of the weeds : )

Kanorado 2013

Last weekend, this cool cat...see amazing kid glasses for obtaining cool cat status...

and I took girls to KS for our yearly Kanorado.  This years theme was Living Water: Is it in you? and we camped at Pomona Lake reservoir, which is just south of Topeka.  Thursday, through powerful and scary winds, we drove the get-a-way van to Gridley where we spent the night with my Gma.  She had cookies and orange juice ready for us when we got there at 1am.  The girls were so tired, but they were troopers and stayed up long enough to have a midnight-yish snack.  I had the following conversation with one of the girls after:

Me: (sees girl sitting on couch with light on) Annie, are you going to bed?
Annie: Yes. (continues to sit upright on the couch)
Me:  Do you need help getting your bed made up?
Annie: (Throws head back) I'm so tired!!!
Me: (helps lay her down and put a sleeping bag over her as no motion was made by her to get in or on top of it)

Friday morning Gma made us a great breakfast and then we got everyone's hair braided up and traipsed out to the fish pond to see if the catfish were still alive.  Sadly, in the 3 minutes we were there, none showed up.  Yes, we were impatient. Once we arrived at Pomona Lake, the girls spent most of the rest of the afternoon swimming.  It was awesome to be able to swim in a lake and not freeze! Our crew was thoroughly sunburnt by the end of the day.  For supper we cooked pudgy pies which we filled with meat, tater tots, mushroom soup, veggies, and seasonings.  They were really good but took quite a while to cook.  Amy R, Malerie S, Lydia M, Kerry, Aeriel and I got tired of waiting and therefore made a little fire of our own in another pit.  Let me rephrase, I made another fire while they cheered me on and stood around and watched : D  Lydia and Malerie gave their testimonies later that evening and then we had our annual singing.  These girls are a huge blessing, I can't describe what it's like to be around them.  I captured 1 picture from Friday..

Why? I have no idea.

After breakfast and devotions Saturday morning, half of the group tried to go on a hike.  I so wish I would have had my camera for this!  We drove around for probably 20 minutes trying to find the path, stopped at what looked like a mowed trail, walked 50 feet, and then realized it was just a mowed path to a bird house.  I'm sure by-standers were confused why all 30 of us needed to see that birdhouse.  HA! We moseyed up the road a bit and walked along a path that was longer...but dead ended at a wheat field 3 minutes in.  It was at this point the girls started finding the ticks.  They were tiny and all over everyone's shoes.  It was quite gross, even though us older ones had to keep it together for the younger girls that were FREAKING out.  I have never seen that many ticks in my life.  One CO girl declared she hated KS and never wanted to come back : )

We ended up getting rained out early afternoon and so went back to Burlington for pizza and then to Gma's. The girls had a blast exploring the farm, catching frogs, and were still able to present their skits for Gma and us. Sunday we went to church in Lamont, changed at Aaron & Maria's, took some final pictures and then headed home.   In their words, "We got to do everything we like about Kanorado, sing, see everyone, swim, and even skits!" (see skit here)  I think that means success!

And then 5 hours in to the returning trip, I was text this picture.  Fail...

The Roadtrip

Yay for long weekends!  Jake and I traveled the following path over Memorial weekend.  I had never been to Utah before so we took off early on the Thursday before and semi-planned to travel to Moab, UT (location C) and camp around the Canyonlands.  Our excitement at being away from a schedule led us to a wee bit further of an adventure.  We accumulated about 30 hours of drive time in 5 days.  Each evening we would get a general idea of where we wanted to drive the next day, and then make adjustments as we desired.  Which usually I have a hard time doing, so I had prayed a lot before the trip that I could accept "go-with-the-flow."  I knew from experience (aka on our honeymoon in Spain after a couple 6 hour long what I thought to be "purposeless walks") that if I didn't go in to it with the idea that there would be no concrete plan, my emotions would be OUT OF CONTROL.  Scary.

It was a blessed time away, with thankfully only a couple minor mishaps. : )  All our pictures can be viewed here: 13.05.24 Utah

Looking Glass rock close to Moab, UT

Close to Lake Powell

Trachyte Creek

Fishing the Green River South of Dinosaur National Monument.

While this ended up being a good idea in the long run, driving along this cliff  face
was rather nerve racking at times.

Sooooo...after I took the above picture, I laughed really hard and once I uploaded put the caption on my picture website said:
an accident...but Jake's ear looks hairy so I kept it... : )
After sending the link with pictures out to family, I received the following message from Steph:

Looks like an awesome trip... :)

Did you really think that was Jake's ear or are you just joking?  It's his chin, right?  And part of his lips...?

Hahahahaha, I laugh every time I think about this!  I definitely thought it was his ear!