aspen lakes

Last week we spent with 180 kids up in the Heber mountains.

It was awesome. 

But we were so tired. 

Here's how it went down...

Besides hours and hours of planning meetings, 

we also spent time prepping the activity we were in charge of---> building boats. 

We had so many ideas that just didn't seem feasible, 

but after I brought home some cardboard and the guy had put an old pallet on top so it wouldn't fly out of the truck- Adam got the idea to use pallets!

I was very thankful for his help!

This was two nights before we left- Adam had to test it out on Utah Lake.

It was getting dark and I thought for sure he would float away.

But he didn't and it worked!

Here we are the day before camp putting 250 sandwiches together.

This was supposed to happen at my neighbor's house, but it turned out she had to get her appendix out late the night before (and wouldn't be joining us at camp- boo!) so we had it at mine.

This was only half of the people who graciously donated their time- the other half are behind me.

I asked Elliott to write a note for the door- I told him to write something like, 

"please come in" and this is what he came up with- I love it.

Here is our amazing big ward and leaders! 

Most wards had one chaperone couple and our ward had four couples. 

Such good kids. 

I loved hanging out with them!

Adam and I drove up in his Dad's truck since we had so much gear, 

and during the drive we got a call from his friend on the bus saying they had gotten pulled over.

What the?

I told him that Petter was kidding him, but no, as we drove on 800 N. in Orem we saw three buses and a few police cars on the side of the road. Two of the buses didn't get pulled over and continued up the canyon.

It turns out that the buses from this company have a "history" with the Highway Patrol.

One wasn't registered, one was registered as a Ford truck and the 3rd was fine since the company had borrowed a bus from another company.

The highway patrol inspector came to inspect the buses and decided that it was in our best interest that the kids get off the buses and find another ride. 

The buses were impounded on the spot, and when the other two came back down the canyon, they were impounded as well.

We have since heard that this company has closed it's doors for good.

This threw off our whole morning schedule since we were supposed to get to Aspen Lakes at 8:00 AM instead of closer to noon when the last replacement bus finally dropped off the last of the kids.

We skipped all of our morning activities which is too bad.

We were glad everyone made it up safely!

When Adam and I pulled into Aspen Lakes we took the wrong fork in the road for a minute and came across the sheep roadblock above.

The place was beautiful- with 4 different lakes we could use. 

Adam and I were stationed on Beaver Lake which is a little walk from most of the camp.

There was a little beaver dam on it and we even saw some deer.

We were glad to have our truck to haul our stuff up and down with.

I don't know what I would have done without Adam- he did sooo much!

Plus it was fun to have a tent to ourselves with no boys!

I don't remember the last time we camped alone- maybe 8 1/2 years ago...

Here are some of the cute groups that came through our activity.

We talked about Nephi building the boat and how we can do hard things with the help of Heavenly Father too.

And how Nephi's brothers were "past feeling" and couldn't hear the still small voice anymore.

We talked about how we can make sure we never get in the "past feeling" mode with the kids.

I really learned to love this lesson as we got to teach it nine different times.

Then we had each tribe/team build a boat and then race across the lake.

It was fun to see all the different ways they built the boats and what worked and didn't.

We also had them carry two noodles across as their family members and carry a milk carton for food supply. 

And every boat had to have a flag.

the lake!

the race!

Pretty ironic that there were canoes right by us- haha!

This was the cutest boat I think.

Sinking! They learned quickly that the boats didn't carry two people.

Quinn and Katelyn

This group won the most activities and somehow had a lot of people from our ward on it...

Our friends the Whitings

Hailee, Karly, Aubrey and Sabrina

The Olsens and The Whitings

So nice to finally sit down!

My man.

Me and Mare might have laughed so hard we peed during these three days.

I LOVED it. 

So glad we could be a part of this amazing group of people/ neighborhood!