Picking peas in the garden.
"Fixing" his gate with his power drill like Daddy.
Painting his toes like Mommy.
The fort we built together.
Our water park of a backyard.
Jeremy's new tent with customized side entrance tube!
Sock on the arm, Daddy's plaid shoes, and his elephant hat... Word.
sure does love it up there. I also installed Dad's new flat screen TV and we loaded the old big screen into our truck. We got into the hot tub that night and we were enjoying the hot water when Tim and I decided it would be quite the rush to jump off the bridge into the river! It took about 20 minutes of pep talk, motivation, and stupidity to get ready, but we made up our minds and went for it! We both took a couple steps back, ran, and jumped off the bridge into the river! That water was... COLD! But as we came out gasping for breath, it felt like such a rush! It was amazing... So amazing, in fact, that we decided to do it again! We should have stopped at one plunge because that second one was even more cold. Like as in making your lungs hurt to breathe and giving you a headache. Haha. Here's a couple of pictures: 
Sunday morning, we got ready for church and took our truck with the big TV down to Jackson. So another topic that came up in the hot tub was about some of our memories growing up on the ranch and we started talking about how cool it would be for Tay and Amber to see a beaver dam getting blown up with dynamite. I remembered that Dad had said that Grandpa had mentioned having a beaver dam backing up the river and wanting to blow it up... So obviously I had to try to make it happen! So Dad and I sat down behind Grandpa and I said, as manner of factly and as loud as possible, "HEY, DAD, DIDN'T GRANDPA WANT TO BLOW UP A BEAVER DAM? WE SHOULD DO IT THIS WEEKEND SINCE I'M UP HERE TO HELP..." Grandpa turned around and it couldn't have been more perfect. "You know, Scott, we could try to get rid of that beaver dam after Church. We just need to find the fuses." A sly grin crossed my face and I immediately started praying for those fuses to become found! I couldn't wait to get back up to the ranch. But first... we had to dump that TV! We took it to the dumpsters and found 3 gophers living fat and happy inside on the trash. That was weird. So we figured they better have a big screen TV to watch with the buffet!
Back up at the ranch, we changed our clothes, loaded up the picnic basket, and picked up
Grandpa and Grandma. We also found... the fuses!!! Oh man... it was like Christmas had come early. Like we'd won the lottery. Like we had a whole stick of dynamite and were about to blow up a beaver dam!!! We had an awesome picnic out in the forest next to a stream with hamburgers, fruit, jello, and all the trimmings. It was great. We even had a boat race down the stream. Only one of the boats made it all the way, but it was a blast. And then, it was time... It took a couple tries to get the fuse to light, but when it did, it was like pure magic:
So we finished off our 4th with some great fireworks, the last of the Wyoming stash, and made our way back home on Monday afternoon. Great trip!
Day 2 was pretty chill. Woke up early and got breakfast ready and chilled around camp while the girls did their thing. We made sack lunches and went on a hike later that morning in search of Rosie's Mine. It was an enjoyable hike without much incident. We got to cross the river several times on the way up and some of the girls somehow got wet... really weird. ;) Anyway, we made our way up the trail until we found an old abandoned building with an arrow on a sign pointing up the trail to the mine. While everyone else sat down for lunch, I hiked up the trail behind the shack for over a mile before turning back without finding anything. When I got back down to the girls, we found another less distinct trail leading through the bushes the other direction... right to the mouth of the mine! Yeah, it was right there. Haha. It was a pretty sick mine. We went quite a ways back into the mine until our light started to die. Definitely worth going back some day to explore a little more.
We saw a couple more snakes on the way back and spent the rest of the day around camp playing games and stuff. That was another cool thing about camp, I learned some fun new games. Also on day 2, one of the girls found and snake on the edge of camp and wanted to kill it. So I gave her the shovel and all the other girls gathered around. She snuck up behind it, took a deep breath and... Stab! Followed by all the girls screaming. She pulled back the shovel and... Stab--SCREAM! Stab--SCREAM! It was hilarious. The dead snake would later end up in front of some of the other girls' tent and even the bathroom... neither of which were my doing. No really, it wasn't me!
Day 3 was another beautiful sunny day, warmer than the others. One of the girls had really bad allergies and her eyes got so bad from rubbing them that they got swollen shut. We had the opportunity to give her a priesthood blessing and it was one of those times that you want so badly for it to work quickly so that she might be able to gain a testimony of its power. It wasn't immediate, but sure enough her eyes were healed and she spent the rest of camp without any other serious issues. Just awesome... It wasn't long before the girls were asking about getting in the water. We all climbed into cars and drove back out to the reservoir, saw a couple more snakes (I think we saw over 10 by the end of the week), and spent the next couple of hours swimming. We found a nice little rope swing as well. That pretty much wore me out! In fact, I fell asleep at the table when we got back to camp. Right as I was drifting off to sleep, I had that thought that I should just go to sleep in my shelter... But I ignored it. And when I woke up, my shelter was knocked down, covered in sticks and logs, and my sleeping bag and pad up in a tree. Haha. That's what happens when you let down your guard. I have to admit, it would've been a great prank... that is if they wouldn't have just left to shower right after! So I just went over and took all their stuff out of their tent and threw it into the willows. Shortly thereafter, rocks and sticks were found under the leaders' tents and their air mattresses deflated. (Again, not my doing!) Yep, the pranking spirit was alive and well. Amber planned an awesome dinner that night and the bishop came up to spend the evening as well. It was awards night as well and yours truly took home the "Best Camp Prankster" award. Needless to say, I was stoked. Don't worry, I framed it and put it in my shop!
The testimony that night was really great. I realized this weekend that I've been pretty scared about having a baby girl some day. Not that I don't want a girl, quite the contrary in fact. But I didn't have any sisters. I don't know anything about girls. And I would just die if anything happened to her... But this week, I saw how strong and good girls can be. And somehow, I just know that everything will be ok. And that's really cool to feel.
Day 4, cleanup and go home day. Everybody got their stuff taken down and packed up and gathered for breakfast before we were to leave. Let's back up to the day before for a minute. After joining forces with the girls, one of them came up to me and said, "Jake, I did something..." "Ok, what did you do?" I asked. "I found some water balloons... and I took them. What should I do?" I looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear. "Save them for tomorrow!" So during breakfast, we launched a surprise water balloon attack! It was the perfect way to end the week. So anyway, I really enjoyed myself. But most importantly, the girls had a great time and that was because Amber did an amazing job. So I guess that if she's still Camp Director next year, I might drag myself back again for another round...
. :) We came back home and Jeremy was very happy to see me. You can tell when he isn't feeling good because then he's in the mood to snuggle. All he wanted was his sippy cup, his shi-shi (blanket), and his daddy. We went downstairs on the couch and he fell asleep in my arms watching the World Cup. (It was even better still because we got to watch Brazil beat up on the Ivory Coast!) After a great nap together, we had Mom, Rob and Aerielle, and Tim and his new girlfriend Tay over for dinner. Amber made chicken parmigiana and it was freaking awesome! Everyone had a great time and it was really cool having Tay there. She's actually from Joao Pessoa where I served my mission so I pulled out my mission pics and we got a kick looking at them and talking about the city. It really brought back some great memories. After, we went outside and pulled out one of my Father's Day presents, a new basketball, and played P-I-G and enjoyed a beautiful evening. We finished the night by watching my other Father's Day present, Ghostbusters, and playing games. Today was just one of those good days that make all of the struggles and sacrifices worth it. I'm so lucky...
