Camp Loll

On the morning of Saturday, the 10th of August, Ross and I left with Nigel to Camp Loll. My youngest brother Daniel works at this Boy Scout camp during the summer. It took us a long time to get up there, and although Nigel was fussy occasionally, he did really well in the car ride. It is always fun to drive by the Grand Tetons. They are such beautiful mountains!

This boy is so precious when he is asleep!

Tetons!

On Saturday evening we were able to try out archery. This is something I have always wanted to do, and it was really great to try it. It was super fun, but the arm guard only covered my forearm and the bowstring hit my elbow a few times. I got a pretty sweet bruise from it. 

Daniel, Nigel, and Ross in front of the tent Daniel has lived in all summer.

Hey, it's the Lake of the Woods! (Yes, that is what it is called.)

Nigel loves to ride on Ross's shoulders.

Let's use the Puma camp! Looks good to Nigel!

Are you dirty enough, Nigel?

Nigel was so cute following Ross all over in the lodge. He had fun walking as much as he could.

I'm like Legolas! But not quite as talented...

My boys! I sure love those guys!

Sunday morning we had Sacrament Meeting, which was beautiful in the middle of the forest. That afternoon Ross and I passed our swim test so that we could to out on a canoe. It was super fun. Daniel and Ross did the rowing and I did the Nigel wrestling. That boy did not like having to sit still in the canoe. He was really wiggly and fussy. Crazy kid. Later in the evening, Daniel and Ross went kayaking and Nigel and I hung out on the shore of the lake. It was really beautiful.

Good morning, Nigel! Time for breakfast!

We thought it was cool they had a keyboard there.

Nigel all dirty again.

That boy is such an explorer!

Hanging out.

Nigel loved to give Uncle Daniel rocks and sticks that he found.

Daniel in the canoe!

Nigel wasn't thrilled to be in his life jacket. Ross was rowing in the back and I was just having fun soaking in the wilderness.

The water was pretty choppy because of the wind, but off yonder are the cliffs the scouts call the Cliffs of Insanity.

Such a cute boy! Too bad he didn't have fun.

Ross on the left and Daniel on the right heading off to kayak.

There were these darn roots poking up all over the place to trip Nigel. He got pretty good at climbing over them by the end of the trip.

In the evening, the lake was so smooth and beautiful. 

Nigel discovered how much fun it is to throw rocks and dirt into the lake. It was fun to watch him making discoveries.

This is the chart to tell who has what boats out. Nigel loved the little hooks on it.

I put Nigel up there and he had so much fun drumming on the bottom of the canoes!

Monday morning we had breakfast then packed up and left. It was a really great weekend and Nigel had so much fun with his Uncle Daniel. Nigel did so good camping, too. He loved to play in the dirt and get all dusty. Crazy kid. 

I just love this picture of Ross and Nigel walking down the path.

"Hey, you! We're going home!"

Two Fun Fairs

On August 8th, I took Nigel to the Cache County Fair. Ross met up with us after he got off work. It was a lot of fun. Nigel liked looking at the vehicles and the animals. 

Nigel checking out some quilts.

Nigel checking out some lawn mowers.

Nigel found a stick! More like a branch, I guess. 

There were pony rides. We didn't have money for it, but Nigel got to pet a pony. 

Pigeons! Pretty exciting to Nigel.

Nigel liked the sheep that were baa-ing at us. He thought they were funny.

Nigel always gets to happy to see his dad! 

On the 9th, we headed up to Afton, Wyoming. We got to go to the Lincoln county fair with my in-laws. It was a lot of fun. We went to watch a comedian juggler first, looked at a bunch of animals, then went to a rodeo. Nigel had so much fun with so much going on!

Waiting for the juggling to start!

Me and Nigel with the juggler, Michael Dubois. He was pretty hilarious and loved that I was so loud cheering and stuff. I'm pretty good at that.

Nigel was a little concerned with the cows.

That turkey was pretty entertaining to Nigel. I thought it was awesome that it had fluffed up its tail.

Nigel at his first rodeo! He didn't care much for it, mostly because he hates holding still.

Nigel did love the barrel racing. He was waving his arm all over the place following the horses. It was great.

Lake Wagner

I've been a little lazy about blogging about this one, mostly because I took so many freaking pictures. But now I will finally do it.
On July 5th, me and a bunch of my in-laws went backpacking up to Lake Wagner in Wyoming. It is way up in the mountains. I had never been backpacking before, and I was pretty worried. I did pretty well. I was exhausted and sore.
Here is a link to look at where we were:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=wagner+lake,+WY&hl=en&ll=42.61198,-110.799866&spn=0.076938,0.128574&sll=41.745074,-111.840804&sspn=0.156,0.257149&t=p&hnear=Wagner+Lake&z=13
The trail began at Cottonwood Lake and it took us about 5 hours to get up to Wagner. We traveled 4.6 miles and went up 2400 feet to get there. Going down is always faster and we made it down in 3 hours. Woo hoo!
And now here's a whole bunch of pictures with some explanations about the trip. Enjoy.

All ready to get going!

Me and Lark. Very smiley since it's the beginning of the hike.

Sheri, Maggie, Eli, Jason, and Lark

Some pretty pink flowers

Hiked from those trees yonder over to here.

Ross by Slide Lake. What a handsome husband.

Whenever we stopped, Todd took off his backpack and laid back to rest. I think he may have even fallen asleep a few times.

Slide Lake was created by a landslide that blocked the river. 

More flowers.

If you look very closely, you can see everyone in our party in this photo. 

Hello, rocky river.

I thought that rock was cool.

This is the half-way point. Holy cow we were all so exhausted.

Eli was so happy that Ross gave him a Starburst. He sure is an awesome 6-year-old to come with us!

Getting ready to go again with only one person turning back. The trail had been really steep, and according to Ross and Jason, who had done the hike before, that wasn't even the bad part.

Todd, Eli, Jason, and Maggie. Ross and Lark left us behind, they were so fast and didn't seem to get tired as easily as the rest of us.

This was the really bad part. And the picture doesn't even do it justice. You can see the trail in the back, then you get to this freaking mountain and just go strait up it. Here Ross is helping Eli. He was so nice to come back and help us.

And all the way over in those far trees is where we're headed. I felt like the trail kept going and going. 

We made it! Wagner Lake!

Ross just had to bring the crappiest tent for us to stay in.

Getting our tin foil dinners going when suddenly, it began pouring hail and rain from the sky.

It rained and hailed for about two hours then stopped. We ate half-cooked tin foil dinners and hung out in our crappy, leaky tent.

Ross was quite excited taht it stopped raining.

We were lucky that Lark brought the small tarp. Otherwise, we would have been quite soaked instead of just damp.

We were all excited to get going the next morning. 

Those freaking cliffs. The clouds can't get over so the dump everything out right onto the lake. And that is why it always rains or snows or hails when someone travels to Lake Wagner. Here's the upper lake.

And here's the lower lake. It sure was beautiful.

The mountains of Wyoming sure are beautiful.

Eli, Jason, Lark, Maggie, Me, Ross, and Todd. We survived!