Lake Tahoe -Fun, fun, fun!

Our trip to Lake Tahoe was lots of fun. Monday we relaxed and watch the olympics. Creed and I went for a walk everyday. He loved exploring. Day two we went to the outlet stores and to see the Tibetan sand painting. Here is the masterpiece in process. Don't sneeze!
Steph and Creed admiring the sand painting. Day 3 brought us to North Star for a free gondola and chair lift ride.
Marissa, Mike, Logan, Stephanie, and Creed unloading.
Here is the gang at the top getting ready to hike to the next chair. Lt-rt. my dad, sister Cheryl, me, Brett, Creed, Steph, Mars, Mike, and Logan. It was so beautiful. We even got to watch the mountain bikers take jumps, etc. as they went down the mountain. (The bikers have to pay $39 a day to ride the chair but any one else is free. Hippee! It was such a deal! We loved it.)
More of the gang.
Papa and Creed.
Grandma and Creed. Flattering shot don't you think? I got to be the pack mule. Lucky me. :)
Steph and Creed. I don't know how she can carry him around. He's heavy.
Logan and Mike.
Riding the chair down. We thought Creed would hate it but he did great!


We always try to do some work projects while we are at my parent's cabin. This trip's project was cutting down dead branches and picking up branches from the yard. See the pile?
OK, it looks like there were a few slackers. Well, maybe they were on babysitting duty. My dad is always taking pictures. I was glad he was taking these. We needed proof that we really did something.
Here's the hubby gathering and sawing a branch.
Ah, the lake. We spent some time there too. My dad is fending off the goose who bit him when he didn't get fed. It's so beautiful. We all took turns kayaking around Meeks Bay on this day.
This is the cabin. We love it. The big part is the new addition.
This was Creed's favorite place to be...driving grandma's car.
"Hey grandma, look at me!"
We celebrated Logan's first birthday. Happy birthday Logan. You are a cutie patootie.
Oh look, it's Stephanie's birthday too! They got presents and everything!

What a mess. We let Logan play in his cake. Someone needs to rescue Marissa.
Great Grandma and Grandpa Carr with Logan. I don't know why we didn't take a 4 generation picture while we had the chance.

The Garners. What a cute little family.
Brett and I checked out some art galleries, we checked out some of the local food, attended a craft fair, my mom and I babysat while everyone went river rafting, went to church, played games, and we watched lots of Olympic events. We spent a week there and had a great time.

King's Peak Hiking Adventure

Oh the adventures we have had lately. This is or little group by the parking lot getting ready to back pack in. Mine weighed 30 pounds but my husbands weighed 49. Never go back packing without a great man to shoulder more than his fair share. Aren't I lucky?
Above (lt to rt) me, Brett, Cory (my husband's brother), Niece Madison, SIL Lynette, and friends Laurie and Kathee.

You remember Kathee. She is with me on most of my exercise adventures. Hiking King's Peak was on her bucket list. I thought I'd help her fulfill that dream....what was I thinking?!
This is almost to base camp. It was about a 10 mile hike in.
Me stopping to pose for a picture.
Now it is my husband's turn. We set up base camp, had dinner, talked for a short while but we were freezing so we all went to bed. You should always bring a book or at least a deck of cards when camping. Hmmm. I guess I didn't want to add any more weight to that pack. LOL
Here I am climbing the boulders towards King's Peak. Day two. This was about a 7 mile hike...I think. These pictures don't tell you how hard it really is. I had to keep reminding myself to just take one step at a time and keep going. It felt like we would never get to the top.
But, we did.
This pictures is out of place and I don't seem to be able to make it move to the right place. This is the shoot that was supposedly a "short cut." It was extremely steep and very tricky. I preferred trying to climb down the boulders. Laurie did the "boot skoot" down. The guys liked slipping down the loose shale. This pictures just doesn't do it justice.
The view on the way to the top.
More view.
Even more view.
The gang at the top.
BIL Cory and family.
Kathee with her can of sardines. Kathee and Laurie bunked together and cooked together. Laurie said she wasn't a pickyeater so Kathee brought sardines. We gave Kathee a hard time about this but decided she needed to carry a can to the top so we could have a real celebration.
Here I am braving the sardine on a trisket cracker. Look at Laurie's face...I'm not sure she liked the sardines.
What goes up, must come down so down I went.
This is looking up toward King's peak. See the little dots of the ridge line to the right of the picture? Those are people.
Here is our little tent. The sheep slept all around us that night. We enjoyed watching the sheep dogs and the sheperds herd the sheep.By morning they were blanketed in a heavy frost. Burrrr, it was cold!
Our little camp fire area.
We made it out on day three. We really had a great time and lots of laughs. Wish you all could have been there. Last week we were off to Lake Tahoe. I'll post that next time.

Time in the ER

If Eli were here, I would take a picture and post it of his feet and ankles bandaged up. We spent 3 hours in the ER this morning. Eli biffed it yesterday while wake boarding with his friends in Utah Lake. He officially has a right spained ankle and strained muscle, contusion, and bone spur on his left foot. We are glad he will recover. In the meantime, he is hobbling around so I guess he won't be hiking King's Peak with us. (He was staying home to go to his friend's wedding anyway.)

I hope you all are enjoying the olympics. We have been staying up wayyyyy to late watching all we can. Go Americans!

Girl's camp

I didn't get any Halloween garlands finished today so I thought I'd post some pictures of girl's camp. Here is a picture of our little group in front of our A frame cabin. We had so much fun together hiking, eating, hiking some more, canoeing on the lake, doing crafts, singing, certifying with each age level, and bonding. Friday night the Bishopric came to camp and we made dinner for them. Doesn't it look great? Dutch oven cooking at its best. This is Wendy the camp leader for our ward. Steve Strong is carving the meat.

Sitting around the campfire eating and relaxing.

Here is my husband, the bishop, playing "Dippity, dippity, dip." It is a pretty fun game have you played it?

The bishopric brought dessert. Brownies and ice cream. Yummmmmm!

We camp at Mia Shalom which is owned by our church. It is down by Fairview. It's pretty isolated and somewhat primative...no electricity but they do have running water and flush toilets. We were the farthest cabin from the bathrooms so we did a lot of hiking. Not fun in the middle of the night except the stars were incredible!!! I mean, the night sky was something to behold. The girls loved to lay out on the picnic tables and watch for shooting stars.

I came home tired and dirty but was so glad I went. I added the experience to my list of summer adventures.