Island Park 2009!

Another year of the annual Schenck camping trip to Island Park has come and gone! We have went to Island Park camping almost every year since Trevor and I have been married. It is a trip that their whole family looks forward to all year long. As soon as one year has come and gone, everyone starts planning for the next year! Our kids love it! It is such a fun get away and such a great time for the kids to make memories and get to know all their cousins even better. Trevor has 9 siblings and most of them have between 3 and 6 kids, so we have a huge group who goes up with us each year. We stay at the Coffee Pot campground right in Island Park! We float the river(usually multiple times), play water games in the river, go four-wheeling, go boating/ wake boarding, jump off the bridge into the freezing cold water, go in to Yellowstone, go to West Yellowstone and see a play at the Playmill, sight see all of the beautiful sights around Island Park, go hiking,eat and eat some more, have a huge camp fire every night, and have so much fun and make so many memories with the entire family! It is truly the best trip ever!

This year we went up 2 nights early and did some sight seeing through Yellowstone before meeting up with the rest of the family in Island Park for the next week. So we were away for 10 days and it was wonderful! This year it was a little colder than normal, but that didn't stop us at all, we had a wonderful trip!

the kids eating lunch before going home on the last day

one night at the camp fire

Trevor and I love to go on a canoe ride at sunset-beautiful!

Ridger jumping off the bridge, he did it twice-two different days!

Ryker jumping off the bridge- he did it tons of times! I love how he puts his right

arm out when he jumps, he always does that!

Rylee jumping off the bridge- she only did it once! I love how she plugs her nose!

River jumped so many times I kept missing taking his picture because he would go so quick!

Rylee and Ridger in West Yellowstone

one of the many trips down the river

some people don't know how to obey rules!! No, they didn't see this sign because they actually got in the river at a different location and walked up to that spot to sit! They didn't know the sign was there, but Rylee, Kelly and I did and we were trying to tell them, but they couldn't here us!! It was soooooo funny!!!

a better picture of the law breaking Schenck crew!!- still not knowing they were doing anything wrong! hahahaha!!

Mesa Falls- so beautiful!

Ridger was so done looking at the geysers!

swimming in the river in Yellowstone- legally- no signs posted

around here about not swimming!!

we stopped in Lava on the way up and floated down the riverRyker taking a break from floating

Ridger and Trevor all ready to float it again

Ready to have some fun!!!

Lighthouses in the Night...

Wow!! I can't believe that girls camp has come and gone again. It really feels like we just got home from camp last year. I was called to be Girls Camp director in my ward again this year and had so much fun planning it, and going up and spending time with the great young women of our ward.
The theme for this year was "Lighthouses in the Night!" It was such a fun theme and we did so many great activities. The first day we met at the church and then carpooled up to Beaver Mountain and went horse back riding. It was so beautiful and the girls had so much fun! After horse back riding we went to the Logan Temple for lunch and pictures! It was beautiful! Then we were off to Mantua to set up camp and get settled! We had an awesome week and I felt the girls grew so much spiritually!! One of my favorite things we did was had a "Tree of Light". This was a tree in the middle of our camp that we had decorated with lights. I had a bucket with paper and markers and told the girls to write little notes to each other through out the week.Then we hung each of the little notes on the tree decorated with lights. I wasn't sure how this would go over or if the girls would even do it, but they had so much fun writing kind notes to each other. It was so fun to read all the sweet notes that they wrote to each other and so neat to see how much they enjoyed this!
One other good idea I did kind of last minute was making water bottles for each of the girls. I just bought water bottels from Sams that had the lid that pops up and down. I printed each girls name on a piece of paper and they put their name on their water bottle and then put contact paper over top of it. Then they put a small washer around the top of the water bottle and a tied a ribbon through the washer to make a lanyard. They turned out so cute. It was soooooo hot the week of camp so these were used so much.
I loved going to Girls Camp as a youth and have really enjoyed going as a leader these past few years. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful memories Pioneer Ward Young Women and leaders!!!

Celebrating freedom!

For the fourth of July this year we went to the Layton parade because Rylee had to be in it! "I'm not sure if I've ever been to the Layton parade, and not really sure if I ever want to go again. It was one of the most boring parades I've ever been to, but the kids enjoyed it and Rylee's cheer team looked great! After the parade we stopped and got some lunch to bring home and eat. We just hung out at home most the afternoon and then we went to our neighbor's house for a barbecue and to do fireworks!! It was so much fun!! Happy 4th of July!!