Jewels of June Part II

Elk Ridge City Celebration,Visitors from Minneapolis and Our Family Camp Out

With Tricia on the City Council now, she was asked to be in charge of the city celebration.  Jessica arrived just in time to help her with this huge assignment.  You can see all of the events listed above!!  Somehow, I missed getting pictures of the parade, Mayor's dinner, Family Dance etc.  However, I did take some cute photos of the grandkids at the Carnival.  They had fun in the "Bouncy House" and playing all the games for little prizes.

During Jessica's visit, we also went to lunch at one of our favorite places: Ginger's where we enjoyed salads, Falafels, cookies and Kyra ordered a yummy, vegan, lemonade cake!

Family Campout

When Hal and I visited Minneapolis in May, shortly before we left to return home, Gigi said: "Grandma, I have never been camping - can we go camping when I come to Utah?  And, can we have s'mores?"  As a family, we are not big campers, but we do go ocassionally and the grandkids love it.  So when we returned home, Hal reserved three spots at Payson Lake campground for June 30th.  The lake is only a 30 - 40 minute drive from our home and it really is a lovely place.

We set up camp, built a fire and the kids and dogs (yes, we had 3 little dogs in our group - Cocoa, Shadow and Minnie) began exploring the area.

Dorothy, "Minnie" and Lillian

Gigi and Liam - first time campers!

Cute grandaughters - I love Evie and Ella's "Minnie" shirts!

Gigi, Ella and "Cocoa"

Liam loves marshmellows and he found the bag full of them and helped himself!

Ruby and Gigi loved the fresh cherries!

Sam and Preston always have fun together!

How many boy scouts does it take to build a fire?

After camp was set up, we began cooking our foil dinners.

Liam loved to tease his Uncle Jon and Jon loved to tease Liam!

After dinner stories were shared - some scary, some funny.

And then we sang silly camp songs.  Tricia was our leader and she knew all the words and actions!

Then, it was time to make s'mores!

Gigi and Liam enjoying their first s'mores
The next morning, after a mostly peaceful night, we woke up to the smell of bacon and sausage cooking!

With scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, scones, strawberries, hot chocolate and juice, it was a yummy breakfast!

 After breakfast, we packed up our camping gear and headed for a hike around the lake.

 

With kids and dogs, our pace was slow and relaxed.

I brought nets and jars so the kids could catch butterflies, minnows, dragonflies or whatever they found worth catching. 

Of course we stopped to explore the water and the beach.

It was a beautiful day and the kids took their shoes off and waded in the lake.

They loved catching bugs!

Gigi was thrilled when she captured some bright blue dragonflies.

The scenery was beautiful and everyone enjoyed the walk!

Preston found this log with a branch that was perfect for "sailing" on the lake!

Ruby had to give it try also!
It was a wonderful campout and lots of happy family memories were made!  Now Gigi can say: "Yes, I have been camping and yes!  I have eaten smores!"
Next year we plan to go for two nights minimum!