Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Apple Camp

Oh Apple, I love you.  Why?  FREE CAMP!  That's why!

Every summer the Apple Stores host a series of mini camps for kids - they're really just three days, an hour and half each time, and the parent has to stay.  That's ok!  It is a great summer activity, and actually kind of hard to get into since the classes fill up within a couple of hours of them being posted on the site.

The camp is fabulous not only because it's free, and the kids get free booty like a pair of ear-buds (yes, awesome, right?) and a free thumb drive, but because it's a class about how to use the Garage Band and iMovie apps and setting the kids free to make movies of their own.  It really encourages creativity and exploration.

Day one involved, first of all, some very cute counselors who were great at getting the kids involved and energized.  Bitty especially enjoyed "The Banana Song." (See video below.)  Cap was slightly more reserved and reluctant but did participate minimally, which was all I ask of him when it comes to singing obnoxious camp songs.  Then the kids learned about story boarding, and spent some time thinking of a story line they could make into a movie.  Then they got a basic lesson in Garage Band and composed some pieces of music to use as a soundtrack.

That afternoon we were sent home with instructions to film a movie.  Here's where I need to totally come clean.  I really did my best to let the kids drive the bus but I'm not going to lie - I probably helped out more than I should have.  I promise though, I really truly tried to follow my kids' lead and help make their ideas come to life.  I probably should have just walked away and left it entirely up to them but.....I totally didn't.  We had a great afternoon filming movies.  We had the help of some friends of Bitty and Cap who were very good sports. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  So I guess that can't be a bad thing, right?

Day two we brought in our footage and the kids learned how to use iMovie to edit their movie clips, add music and sound, transitions and titles.  Bitty and I worked on it together quite closely and Cap was completely on his own.  He put together a really fun little movie.

Friday was our viewing party where we got to enjoy all the kids' movies.  I think the kids really felt a sense of accomplishment and I'm hoping I can encourage them to do that again as an activity at home with friends rather than just sitting around vegging out.

Stephen, Ofa, Daniel and Rae




And here are the final projects!





Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Teeth: Lost, not yet Found

Skippidy has been spitting out teeth at a fairly steady rate these past couple of months.  It's been impressive.  So far she's lost four and has not yet shown any sign of growing replacements, so at the moment she's just got a gaping hole in her mouth.  It's perfectly suited for slipping in a straw.  Her lisp has become rather pronounced.  In fact, her speech has been affected enough that she kind of seems like a different kid to me.  She's taller, her hair is longer, she's missing teeth, she's a little thinner.... Skippidy seems to not be my baby anymore.  That doesn't mean I'm never allowed to rock her to sleep. At least, it'd better not mean that, because sometimes I still do.




Funny side note - Skippidy lost this most recent tooth on Sunday afternoon, with much exclaiming, a few tears and actually quite a lot of blood, resulting from her attempt to extract the tooth via apple-biting. It was a big deal.  That night we got her all tucked into bed with her tooth carefully hidden under her pillow.  I then moved on to work on her big sister.  Bitty finally got all tucked in as well, which always seems to take extra time.  Finally I headed off to the kitchen to start on the dishes.  I heard a big sneeze come from the girls' room, and shortly after Bitty came tiptoeing out.  Little did I know, she had a loose tooth too, and her big sneeze was enough to knock the tooth clean out of her mouth.  She handed me my second bloody tooth of the day, much to my astonishment.  Good thing the tooth fairy keeps an extra stock of golden dollars on hand for just such a situation.  It was tooth-losing day, I guess.  I didn't take a photo.  I was too tired!  Sorry, Bitty!

Spontaneous Vacation

My sweet husband has spent a LOT of time on the road this summer.  He had two weeks away which were both vacations, planned months ago.  One of course was the week we spent in San Diego.  He also spent a week with Cap in Yellowstone - his assignment is to do the blogging on that one.  I'm excited for Troy to write his first ever blog post.  But the week before he went to Yellowstone, he got a last minute assignment from his company to go to Virginia.  So the week before he went on a major canoe trip he was across the country for six days.  He had less than 24 hours to prepare for a week in the woods.  It was a hectic 24 hours, trust me.  Now he's been home from that for a few days and low and behold....work is sending him back to Virginia next week.  Poor guy, his poor kids and....poor me!  We miss each other being apart this much!

During the week Cap and Troy were away on their adventure, I was feeling like I needed a little something to break up the week without the boys, since we had already had so many days without daddy.  I looked at our calendar and realized that we had just enough time to squeeze in a quick trip to St. George for a girls-only trip.  I'm so glad we went.  Yes, sometimes I'm hesitant to visit St. George in the dead of summer, but we had such a good time.

We took off on Monday evening after a full day of running errands and spending some time with my mom. We arrived late in the evening, but not so late that my nieces were already asleep.  They were in bed, but not asleep, and best of all, they were totally not expecting us.  Peter and Sheri were sneaky and didn't tell them we were coming - it was so fun to tip toe in there and surprise them. I wish I had filmed their faces as they lit up in happy surprise.

On Tuesday we had an extremely pleasant trip to the city pool where Skippidy learned that she really and truly hates the hydrotube.  I'm not sure I'll be able to get her to go down again for at least another summer or two.  Bitty, however,  threw herself down the tube time after time for our entire visit.

On Wednesday Sheri took us to the Pinecreek Swimming Hole in Zion National Park.  What a treat that was!  I'm sure from now on that my kids will be begging to go there.  I'm not sure if they enjoyed the mossy rock slide or the tadpole catching more, but either way, I have a feeling we have many visits to this magical spot awaiting us.  My little niece Sienna even got me to jump off a little wall with her - enjoy my very dignified video below.

The visit was short but full of great things like long conversations with my brother, a movie date with my brother and the girls to see Minions (okay, I confess, that was not my favorite movie ever), lots of treat-runs with Sheri, late night conversations, a quick visit to my friend Marsha, hours of happy cousin time and just enough heat to chase us back to Salt Lake in the nick of time.  Just kidding.  It wasn't actually that hot.








Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Summer Reunions

The past few weeks have brought some very happy reunions my way.  As happens every single summer, things begin to race by in a a flash by about mid-July, and the thing that makes the summer fly is how the calendar fills up day by day.  We've been so happy to fill in the cracks in the schedule as friends have called while passing through town.

For starters, my dear friend April and her family came through.  April was one of my first friends in this neighborhood.  Before our circle of friends really started to swell, April and TerriLyn and Emily and I went for many walks, took a couple of little vacations together, and of course fit in a girls night or two.  I'll always remember the night we went to a movie together - TerriLyn and April and I both giggling and marveling at how Emily daintily ate her popcorn one salty kernel at a time while the three of us munched by the handful instead.  After the movie we drove up Emigration Canyon, pulled over to the side of the road and got out and just looked up at the stars and talked until the wee hours.  April has a frank honesty about her that I have deeply missed since her family moved to Arkansas maybe 4 years ago.  And since neither she nor her husband have family in Utah, she hasn't really had the chance to visit. When she said she was going to be driving through I jumped at the chance to pull friends together and we did indeed have an absolutely lovely evening together.  You always know a true friend by the way you fall right back into comfortable conversation no matter how many months or years have passed.  The only problem was that it made me miss her even more.




Speaking of true friends, another dear one came to town and made me feel loved because she made time to come and see me even though her schedule was quite compact. Marsha is a cute mom who has a daughter Bitty's age - we met when our daughters were in the same preschool class and we quickly became friends.  Of course the friendship started when our girls were asking for playdates together, and Marsha and I started talking more and more as we picked up or dropped off our daughters. Soon we were scheduling lunch together and talking for hours.  What's funny is that Marsha and I have no other friends in common, no circle of girls we gather with; we just really enjoy each other's company. Marsha and her family moved to St. George two years ago and we don't really even call or text each other much, but when she comes to town she always stops by.  And happily, I found myself with a couple of free days with just my girls last week - we decided to take a quick jaunt to Dixie and made time to visit Marsha in her new home for the first time. Like all kindred friends, we never run out of things to say.


Both of these darling friends have daughters who are Bitty's age, and it's been sad to see Bitty lose two dear friends to moves.  What a delight it has been to see Bitty get a chance to spend a few hours with her girl friends.  I was afraid there would be an awkward "I don't know what to talk about" distance between them, but with both of these girls Bitty just took off and had extremely pleasant alone time.  It filled my heart to see, and broke it a little again when people had to be on their way.


Last of all, my good friends Dave and Steph came into town from California.  Dave is one of my old high school Yalecrest II ward friends with whom I spent many happy hours both in high school and in college.  They gathered together a very large group of old friends and we met at the park for an evening picnic.  I can't deny it, I just did not get enough time to talk and reconnect with all the many many people who were there.  I needed hours more.  (Kid-free hours would have been nice.) There were so many dear people there, especially one old friend whom I didn't know very well in high school but became very attached to after a couple of years of college.  She stayed my loyal friend even as I bumbled through my worst dating years before my mission.  We don't get together much, but I feel joy every time I get to see her.  I tried to tell her how much it meant to me that she was my friend through the worst of times for me, and of course she brushed it off like it was no big deal; friends are friends, she said.  But it was a big deal to me, and I love her.  I should write her a note.  She's not a blog follower and will not know that I am proclaiming her wonderfulness right here.

My cup is overflowing at the moment, just relishing the friends this good life has brought me.  And thank you, summer, for sending a few of them my way.










Monday, July 20, 2015

Yellowstone Lake, Year 1

Yellowstone Lake - Guest Post by Troy

Way back in April, Rick mentioned to me a desire to have a Preslar Family man trip to Yellowstone where we all canoe from campsite to campsite in the backcountry. The idea is that eventually all four Preslar boys with their kids could go on the trip and we all have a wonderful time together in the spectacular place that is Yellowstone national park. 
Even though my brother has done this in the past with a friend and scouts, he wanted this first year to be a bit of a trial run, so we decided to just try and do this with the two of us and our boys. 
Preparation for the trip was significant to say the least. Rick did a lot of work to create the itinerary of campsites and days and reservations and all that needed to happen for us to go.  I had a couple of hurdles to get over as well. First of all, I did not own a canoe. I wanted a decent one, but did not want to pay for a decent one, so this meant lots of time on KSL.com looking for just the right used canoe. I eventually found the right one for us, but only after buying and returning another. I also had to add skid plates to the keel as the boat was very well used and had lots of deep gouges in the keel.  I also really wanted to take my land cruiser on the trip.  This meant getting a rack that would hold the canoe. I again did not want to pay for a new Yakima rack so back to KS.com classified ads. After too much time on KSL again, I found some used mounts that would work and did have to purchase some new crossbars, but found those on sale. I had already purchased lifejackets with REI dividend money and picked up a couple of paddles, so as to the boat we were about ready.
There was still plenty to do to get ready though. We needed additional dry bags, and chase needed some basic back country camping gear. Chase never seemed excited to go on the trip, but he did really like shopping for new stuff for himself. 
As per usual for me, with all of the preparation required for the trip, I was still trying to get loose ends tied up at the very hour we were to depart. It was chaotic and always makes me nervous for what was being left behind. It turns out that the most significant thing we left behind was fishing equipment. 
After a stressful hour or two trying to get everything we needed loaded up into the Land Cruiser, we hit the road. We drove up to Rick’s house where we met Rick and his 3 boys. They were not quite ready to head out so we waited why they completed their packing. When they were done we said the first of many prayers and headed out. There were still more stops to be made. Rick and the boys stopped at Ty’s place to get some stuff he forgot, then we met at a sporting goods store in Logan so they could get some last minute items. 
We headed out together north from Logan and followed for a time the route I had ridden during some Lotaja races. Eventually we strayed from that path as we blindly followed Rick toward Jackson. We did stop in Alpine Junction and grabbed some food at a subway restaurant. I was fun to be together with all of us and enjoy listening to the 3 big Preslar boys joke and tease each other. I asked Rick and he told me that they had talked and laughed non-stop from the time they left Logan. I hope that someday my children will do the same when they come together for family trips. 
We drove for about an hour to reach Jackson stopping to get fuel in Hoback junction. It was here that I figured out that the Cruiser had got 27 mpg to this point in the trip. I will confess this made me really happy. Fuel economy was one of the driving factors in getting diesel cruiser. The first night we camped at Grosse Venture campground north of Jackson. Chase and I decided to just sleep in the back of the Cruiser. It worked well for him. Turns out I am about 2 inches too tall to sleep comfortably in the back of an 87 Land Cruiser. By the end of the night I had gone diagonal to be able to fit. Chase seemed to not be bothered by me pushing his legs to the side so I could almost fit. 
The next day brought about an hour of driving to Yellowstone. We did have to go through Teton National Park to get into Yellowstone which would have been fine if we did not have to pay separate Park fees for each park.  Most expensive toll road ever. $25 to drive through Teton National Park. We did stop at the Visitor center for a few minutes to check it out and use indoor plumbing. 
From Teton we drove into Yellowstone. Where we needed to get our boats inspected before we could pick up permits. We missed the inspector at the south entrance by 2 minutes so we drove up to Grant Village to get our inspections and pick up our permits. Getting permits and inspections took us 30-45 minutes and from there we needed to find a place to camp that night. We had reserved campsites for every night on the lake, but did not have one for our first night in the park. As we were at the ranger station, the ranger told us that the wind comes up every day about 10:00 or 11:00 am and you do not want to be on the water when it does. 
We had to check a couple of camp grounds before we found a site, but even after we had set up camp there was still a lot of day left. Rather than just hang out at camp, Rick, Ty, Chase and I decided to head up to Old Faithful check out the geyser area. Old faithful was 20 minutes late. Not so faithful, but we walked around the area and had a nice time. I was proud of my boy for jumping out of the Ice Cream line when he remembered that it was Sunday. We had eaten lunch at a restaurant, but he said he didn’t need ice cream. 
That night was rather uneventful. We cooked and ate dinner at camp. We tried to get our collective mountain of camping crap organized (I never felt like I was organized even by the end of the trip). We decided when we wanted to be off the lake for the day and worked back from there to when we needed to set alarms. 5:00AM. 
Turns out that it get light very early in Yellowstone in summer. At 5:00AM there was already significant light on the horizon.  There was not much to do in camp to leave; we broke down tents and stuffed sleeping bags, and stuffed our faces with bagels.  
We left camp trying to be as quiet as possible since most of our neighbors were still asleep when we pulled out of camp. Out of the camp ground, we drove about 30 minutes to Grant’s Village where we would launch the boats and leave the trucks. We were quick to get out of camp, we were not so quick to get our gear in boats and get on the water. I do not remember exactly how long it took, it but seemed to take much longer that it should have. 
We did receive a visit from a rather tame seeming cow elk who wandered up the beach to within 20 or 30 feet of where we were loading gear. I also noticed that there was a sign on the beach noting that it was closed because of bear activity in the area. I did not show the sign to Chase but did mention it to Rick and perhaps his boys as well. 
With our gear loaded in the boats and the trucks taken to their parking places for the next 6 days, we said a fervent prayer and launched into the water. Chase and I took off first, but it did not take long for the others to pass us up. We paddled through swarms of bugs and no doubt obtained our daily supply of protein from the bugs we inhaled in the first hour or so of paddling. 
I must confess that in that first hour or so I became quite frustrated with Chase’s apparent inability/unwillingness to paddle effectively. I had fears that every day of the trip was going to be me telling Chase to pull his weight for 4 hours every day and him hating me for always bugging him about paddling. 
Our first hour and a half of paddling got us out of the west thumb (which we cut more that we should have, but the water was really smooth at that time). Not too long after we rounded the corner out of the west thumb, Rick and his boys had beached their boats and were wandering the beach bit. Chase and I did the same and quickly the group found a small thermal puddle that supplied a trickle that ran about 20-30 feet down the beach into the lake. Everyone (except for me I think) took off their shoes and soaked their feet in the warm water. We hung out at the thermal for a short time before Rick and I got too nervous that we would not make it to camp before the daily wind if we stayed any longer. 
When we left the thermal, Rick and I traded boat partners. He got Chase and I got Ty. The idea was that we would change up the paddling partners regularly, but it turned out that this was the only time we ever varied from the original boat arrangements. Changing from Chase to Ty was like taking a trolling motor off the boat and installing  200 HP Merc outboard. Ty can really paddle. We also spoke at length about some the things he really likes: EVOs and car stereos.  I of all people should understand the ability to talk about cars for hours. Ty can do that with no effort at all. From the thermal we paddled another 2 hours or so to camp. This first day was our longest day on the water, 14 shore miles I believe. 
Our first camp was nothing short of luxurious; by back country standards anyway.  There was an enclosed pit toilet, a pair of picnic tables, and a dock. There was also a steel bear box for the food. Bear boxes are much nicer than a bear pole for keeping food safe from the locals. Bear poles certainly perform the function for which they are designed, but they are so much more difficult to use vs a box. 
Rick and his boys set up their tents down closer to the picnic tables and the bear box. I would have done the same if there had been a good spot for the tent down lower on the hill. The best place that I could find to set up the tent was up the hill from everyone else by about one hundred yards or so. 
As the sun dropped and evening came on, we all began to gather our gear to get it put away for the night. Chase was in the tent and I could not find our bear spray in the bear box or anywhere else. I wanted to have the bear spray with us in the tent for the night. I asked Chase if the bear spray was with him in the tent. He looked for a minute and answered no. I looked more in the drybags could not find it. I didn’t worry too much about it. I knew it was there somewhere and we could find it in the morning. Chase was more worried about the spray than I was, but with it now dark, I figured it best to not look any more until morning. Once we were bedded down for the night, Chase began to cry and ask to go home. I explained that it was impossible to go home right now. He was super worried about a bear coming and was shaking with fear as he was crying. At one point in the night he woke me up to let know that he had heard a noise outside the tent. I assured him that it was a deer. There had been so very tame deer wandering around camp earlier and I was sure it was one of them. I grabbed a headlamp and told him that I would just unzip the tent door and take a peek so we would know for sure. Through his tears he begged me to not look out the door. I looked anyway because I was certain it was one of our deer. Indeed, when I shined my headlamp out of tent door, I saw a doe bedded down about 15-20 feet from our tent. I let Chase know that the presence of a deer was also an assurance that there were no bears in the area. 
My assurance did not help Chase feel any better. He continued to sob and beg to go home while his little body literally shook with fear. I put my arms around his sleeping bag and held him close and continued to comfort him as best I could. For me emotionally it was an odd moment. On one hand, I felt terrible for my boy. I knew that he was terrified and miserable. On the other hand, I felt closer to him than I ever have in my life. So intense were my emotions that I began to cry as well, but I was able to hide from Chase since I didn’t want him to interpret my tears as being fearful. I was not afraid for our safety, I was just overflowing with love and empathy for my son.
The next morning, he was feeling much better as it seems (and normally so) that he was much more afraid at night. It did not take long for me to find the bear spray in the tent in the morning. Just where Chase said it wasn’t. 
We awoke to a different world from the one we went to sleep to. There was a thick fog that brought visibility to very low levels. This was the only morning that we did not get on the water early. We broke camp, ate, took pictures, and waited for the fog to lift. Didn’t want to get out on a big lake and not be able to see from boat to shore or boat to boat . In many ways this was the most beautiful morning of the trip, and the pictures I took this morning are among my favorites of the trip. 
We got on the water in a reasonable amount of time considering the fog we had early in the morning. We were all in the same boats we were in at the end of day one on the lake. There was one difference: Ty was in the driver seat of his boat with Rick up front.  It seems that even though Ty is by many accounts an adult, he seemed completely unable to keep a canoe going straight. We paddled to the far side of the bay by which we camped and then waited for Rick and Ty to catch up. We waited for what seemed like long time and then we all took off towards our next camp. 
Our camp for day two on the lake was affectionately named the bug camp. In some ways it was the best camp site of the week. There were perfect tent sites, a sit-down toilet, and it huge swamp near camp for Chase to hunt frogs in. If I had one complaint about the camp site, it would be the bugs. At this camp, Chase spent most of his time hunting for frogs at the near-by swamp. I followed him on the hunt and took some pictures, but he was unable to capture the one frog of significant size that he found. In the evening, Garrett and Jake took their boat into the bay by our camp so Garrett could fish. He caught and released a fish or two that evening. As at every camp, Rick’s boys got a fire started quickly, and kept it going the entire evening, even though this day was sunny and warm. 
Insert story of night time GI distress here?
We woke the next morning to grey skies and unsettled weather. As usual, alarm goes off at 5:00am, eat some breakfast, and break camp. All of this to try and get on the water by about 6:00am. We were on the water by our usual time and started toward our next camp which is the camp farthest from civilization. The water was smooth which is a huge plus, but it also rained for part of the time we were on the water. The rain was not heavy, just enough to keep us all cool and convince Chase that his suffering was on par with the Lewis and Clark expedition. This camp was 30 or so miles from Grant’s Village, and also well into the south arm which does not allow motorized travel, so this camp seemed very seldom visited. In fact, it seemed that we may have been the first visitors to this camp site this season. It continued to rain after we arrived at camp. In spite of the rain, the Preslar boys were able to get a fire going in no time. Firewood was easy to come by in this camp since we were the first ones there this year. 
At this time I was very worried about Chase. It was cold, grey, and raining. We were a 3-day paddle from civilization and he was cold, tired, and miserable. He had spent significant time at our two previous camps looking for anything amphibious or reptilian to catch and had only moderate success to this point. Now, at our third camp I was most worried about weather, keeping a fire going, and the mental health of my son. I an effort to help with the fire, I headed down the beach to look for driftwood. Underneath the very first log I lifted, I found a sizable (for Yellowstone anyway) toad/frog.  I called to Chase and he quickly came over. I showed him the frog (named froggy of course) and that literally kept him entertained for the rest of the day. He no longer complained about the rain, or the cold, or anything. He just played with froggy. I had been praying quite earnestly for Chase up to this point, I had no idea that my prayer would be answered in the form of a small frog, but indeed it was. I never would have thought to pray for a frog to cross his path, but in hind sight, I cannot think of anything else that could have helped his spirits as much as that frog did on that cool grey afternoon. 
The biggest issue with this camp was a good place for tents. There wasn’t one. We checked the hill above camp and found no level ground with a lot of rodent holes to make it not only uneven, but bumpy as well. I decided in my infinite wisdom that a spot down the beach would be a good place to put of the tents. Perhaps not my best idea of the trip. We all set up our tents down the beach, which was about 100-150 yards from camp. We threw our pads and sleeping bags in to give the tents some weight, staked them down as best we could and headed back to camp to eat and fiddle fart around (as Rick would put it). Later in the evening the wind came up in a big way. To be honest, I did not think it would have been enough to  blow our tents into a swamp, but it was. Were it not for Jake and Garrett who were in their tent down on the beach, it could have been a very bad night for us. By the time we all figured out what was going on, Jake and Garrett were just hanging on to the tents to keep them from blowing away. Rick decided just get his tent taken down without losing it or anything else, I still wanted to keep my tent there for the night. 
I grabbed Chase and we ran down to where the tents were. I had Chase get it to make sure the tent would not blow away, and then set about securing for the night. Since we were on sand, there was not a way for the stakes to hold. I gathered up the largest driftwood I could carry and tied guy lines to them, I then buried them as deep as was reasonable in the sand. By the time I was done, the tent was going nowhere. In the end, wind died down not too long after we got our tent secure. Rick moved his up to the hill side which he was very happy about. He reported no wind at all on the hill.  
After our first night where Chase was so scared about bears we decided to put on white noise or music on my phone to try and help him fall asleep. That night, he asked for the wave sounds on the white noise app on my phone. I reminded him that we were on a beach and that there were real waves on a beach no more than 20 feet away. I believe we chose music that night to help with the night sounds of the forest from being a problem for him. Chase still did not do well after dark, but some music white noise on my phone made a big difference for him. 
The next morning my alarm went off at 5:00am as it did every day. By this time we had a bit of a routine. Alarm goes off, AC/DC goes on. I hoped that the music would help Chase get up and get moving. I got up before anyone else. The noise from me trying to get my gear put away would wake everyone else. Jake and Garrett were always the last ones to get up. They were also the first to be ready to go every day. I was packing as fast as I could and still have no idea how they were so fast. 
When we hit the water, it was smooth, easy going. The smooth water did not last very long and by the time we reached our next camp, the wind was blowing pretty hard with white caps and whitecap waves and white knuckles on my hands. We were all quite grateful to get off of the water.  
This day may have been my hardest one. Camp was nice, and the sun was out, but the wind blew so hard all day long. The lake was white capping and I could not imagine going out on it. Most days the wind came up in the late morning and then died down later on. This day the wind blew really hard until well after we all went to bed. I offered many prayers that day that the wind would die down before we had to hit the water in the morning. 
This day may have been the low point for Chase as well. This camp site also had a small swampy area where Chase searched for hours for frogs. He was able to catch some really small ones, but nothing like that one he played with the day before. After some time in the swamp, I saw him looking rather sad and asked about it and he started to cry and explained that he had accidentally killed a very small frog he had caught. He was really upset about the death of the frog. After we got home, he confessed to Rachel that he killed it on purpose but was really not able to explain why he did. Asking him about brought more tears than words, so I gave up trying to get to the bottom of his thinking or lack thereof. 
Sometime in the afternoon, Chase and I retreated to our tent to get out of the wind and lie down and talk about the frog. Chase had a good cry and asked again if we could go home. I let him know that we were on our way home at this point and that we were too far from the cars to make it in one day. 
In all, we spent 30—45 minutes in the tent together. When we got out, Rick informed me rather casually that I owed Jake and Garrett a big milkshake when we got back to civilization. Rick then proceeded to tell me why and when I did I had a bit of a panic attack and had to take some time by myself to go and be alone and just cry a bit and say some prayers of thanks.  Rick explained that while eating lunch, Jake and Garrett noticed my canoe floating away rather quickly on the lake. They dropped what they had in their hands and ran to the beach. They jumped in their boat, paddled out to my boat, and rescued it. At this point you might be thinking that I am an idiot for leaving my boat in the water. You would be correct, but my boat was upside down on the beach and 100% out of the water. The wind picked it up off of the beach and blew it into the water. From then on we all tied our boats to a tree when we got to a new camp.  I still owe them for saving my canoe. 
We went to bed with the wind still howling; But not before offering some very sincere prayers that the wind would die down in the night so we could get on the water in the morning. When we woke in the morning, the wind was calm and the lake reasonably smooth. As with every other morning of the trip Tyrell got up and built a fire. Every day I would say to him, “we are going to be gone in 10 minutes, why are you building a fire?”  He would always come back with: “If we are going to be here for 10 minutes, then I want a fire for those 10 minutes.”  Rick’s boys are master fire builders, they could get one going in just a couple of minutes (even in a rain storm) and keep it going for as long as they wanted. I am confident that this is the result of Rick always providing exactly one match when a fire is to be built for the lives of his boys. 
This day started with average water, but by the time we arrived at our last camp, the water was smooth as glass. Paddling was a pleasure on that water. This stretch of paddling also brought us what I think was my favorite moments on the water. As we paddled along, a pair of otters popped up and seemed to be rather curious about what we were, so they followed us along in the water for a hundred yards or so. Also at that moment we spotted a bald eagle in a tree along the shore. We really felt like we were in a wild place and suppose we were. 
Our last camp had a lovely beach with lush green grass for us to beach our boats. We also had a steep little hill to climb to arrive at the fire pit and bear pole. The site was nice and flat with a good fire pit and good tent sites.   The weather for our last full day on the lake was perfect. Sunny with light breeze. My spirits were up and Chase had his first tear free day and over the best day for him. We had super tame deer in camp and lots of time by the fire sharing stories. Chase spent significant time carving wood with his knife and his creations still sit in his room.  Rick’s boys tried to make a chair out of logs and rope for some time.  In the end, the chair needed two people to hold it up while one person sat in it. And then it still fell apart, but we had fun trying to build it anyway. 
This day felt more relaxed to me than others. Perhaps it was because we were close to the parking lot and our cars, or perhaps it was the nice weather, I do not know but the day had a different feel about it for me. Both Rick I got our cameras out and used them (something we did not do the day before). 
The best part of the day came toward the end in the evening by the fire. Rick wisely began to ask the group probing questions that quickly led to what would be best described as a testimony meeting. Everyone participated and it seemed that it was a wonderful bonding moment for Rick and his boys.  It was the perfect way to spend the last night on the lake.  
The last day as always began early with a 5:00am alarm, we were on the water early and the paddling went well for the first…200 yards. Once we left the protection of our bay, the water was rough and scary. The waves were headed parallel with the shore. We stayed close to shore but had to zig zag toward shore and away from shore to keep the waves from either tipping us over or coming into our boats. This stressful and frantic paddling continued until we rounded a couple of corners and were completely back into the west thumb of the lake. Only wave made it into the boat, but we were both quite nervous and many sincere prayers were offered during a short period of time as we made our way back to Grant Village. As we crossed the west thumb, which takes about an hour or so, the water was getting more and more calm. By the time we reached our final beach of the week and got our gear loaded up, the water was as smooth as glass. We all complained about how if we had just slept in and taken a lazy morning we could have enjoyed great water on our last day. 
We loaded up and headed for Jackson to enjoy a hot and greasy meal at Dairy Queen which is about a one hour drive from Grant Village. Chase lasted about 5 minutes before he was out cold. He slept his way to Jackson remarked about how short the drive felt and then we ate to our hearts content at the DQ. 
After DQ we piled in the trucks and headed out. We stopped in Montpelier to get fuel and snacks and I followed Rick and his boys into the Cache Valley until our paths needed to part as he went to his home and Chase and myself to our home. 
Time will tell how this trip will be remembered by Chase, but I think that it is a certainty that it will be remembered by Chase. Even though there were many difficult aspects to the trip, it brought myself and Chase closer to Rick and his boys then a hundred family Christmas parties or thanksgiving dinners could have done. For this reason alone, it was well worth every sore muscle and difficult time spent.