Fire 'n dirt 'n girls

Fire and dirt and girls. What a great combination, right? When all these combine, it equal Girl's Camp! Woot! Okay, you really have to add in a few other things too like braiding hair, and makin' crafty things, and spiritual upliftment, and lots of laughing. I had the opportunity to go and spend 3 days with the young women in our church group last week. I left Ellie and Brad home alone overnight for the first time, but they came up the second night to keep me company. Actually, they really needed priesthood brethern to be there, so Brad offered to help out last minute. And of course, if Brad is there, Ellie had to come along too. There was no objections from the young women with this arrangement, so it worked out well. Ellie did really well with her first camping experience, if you even want to call her experience camping. We really got pampered. They let us have the room in the cabin while everyone else slept in tents. Brad had fun chopping wood (and has a big blister to show for it) and just enjoyed being away from the pharmacy for a day. I also thought it was nice to get away from work for a couple days, and I also had fun getting to know my girls on at a different level. I was really impressed by all of our young women. There were 17 girls at camp for 4 days, and there wasn't a single quarrel, everyone got along, and everyone was included-no cliques. Impressive? Yes. Although it was fun, it was still nice to get home and sleep in my own bed.

Ellie chillin' by the campfire

Dad and Ellie exploring the campground

About a month ago on one of Brad's days off during the week, he decided to surprise me by picking up a children's bike trailer that he found on KSL. It was the weekend of Memorial Day, so he thought a bike ride would be a great family activity over the holiday weekend. Well, he got it home and started setting it up so it would be all ready to go when I got got home. This is when he realized that the hitch was not included with everything else. So we didn't get to hook it up over Memorial day. Instead we had to wait a couple days to get the hitch from the previous owners. But about 2 weeks ago, we decided to take it on its maiden voyage, so on a beautiful Sunday evening we rode it out to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I don't know how Ellie felt about the whole experience, I think she tolerated it-at best, but I realized that I have really missed riding my bike. It was just lovely. I hope we can get out a lot more this summer and use this trailer quite a bit as a family.

gearing up for the ride

All buckled in

Daddy and Ellie lookin' good