May I preface my introduction by saying that as wonderful as this campout was, I would have gladly missed it if I hadn't been in charge because today we missed my niece, Isabelle's baptism down in Lehi, Utah. Belle, we love you and are so proud of you! We hope your special day is PERFECT! Can't wait to see pictures! XOXOXOX
Let me introduce this little photo essay by telling you that Pine Creek campground is the coolest campground I have ever been to, anywhere in the US of A. It's clean, it's gorgeous, it's got creeks of various sizes and a gorgeous one-mile hike to a fabulous water fall (and you can go 4 more miles up to a breath-taking glacial lake). Richard asked me to marry him at a look out along Pine Creek road (so how could I resist?), and I LOVE the place. So when they made me the activities chairperson for our ward, where else could I plan the Ward Campout? The big activity was Friday night, but we went up Thursday night and had a day to enjoy the area and get ready...
James, Heidi, and Addie on the trail in front of our campsite.
Bikin' in the forest is so fun!
This bright pink fungus was growing all around our campsite.
***
Friday morning, I took my kids halfway up to the waterfall on the trail and we played in the creek and built stick boats.
Ahoy, mateys! (leaf sail and all--Addie's idea)
Heidi's ready to set sail!
James liked finding branches and "planting trees" in the sand in the creek.
Heidi moving her boat along
Michaela Claar taught Addie how to whistle with a blade of grass, so Addie did it all weekend!
James "planting trees" in the creek
(I love his toes in this pic)
Addie on the trail
Heidi and James near the creek
Little cuties!
Addie making her boat
We hiked back down to camp around 11am...
James, Heidi, and Addie on the trail in front of our campsite.
Bikin' in the forest is so fun!
This bright pink fungus was growing all around our campsite.***
Friday morning, I took my kids halfway up to the waterfall on the trail and we played in the creek and built stick boats.
Ahoy, mateys! (leaf sail and all--Addie's idea)
Heidi's ready to set sail!
James liked finding branches and "planting trees" in the sand in the creek.
Heidi moving her boat along
Michaela Claar taught Addie how to whistle with a blade of grass, so Addie did it all weekend!
James "planting trees" in the creek(I love his toes in this pic)
Addie on the trail
Heidi and James near the creek
Little cuties!
Addie making her boat***
We hiked back down to camp around 11am...
Later that night our ward gathered at the pavilion for an amazing barbecue
[luckily, I am not hard to miss in my ginormous orange shirt]
The pavilion is a gorgeous place to eat!
That's our bbq master on the left there, Steve McCann (owner of the local DQ and an amazing cook). He worked all day to smoke and grill an amazing selection of ribs, brisket, burgers, and Nathan's hot dogs. I heard several people say he made the best ribs they have ever eaten (I was partial to the brisket with raspberry-chipotle sauce, myself). THANKS, McCANNS!!!!
We played some Norwegian Golf while we hung out
Brother Jones served up ice cream and dutch oven cobblers for dessert
Libby and Michaela brought flowers from their hike to Jewel Lake
Heidi hung out with Aunt Debbie and tried out all her new naughty words on the Holm family.
Boys of all ages let out their inner pyromaniacs
[luckily, I am not hard to miss in my ginormous orange shirt]
The pavilion is a gorgeous place to eat!
That's our bbq master on the left there, Steve McCann (owner of the local DQ and an amazing cook). He worked all day to smoke and grill an amazing selection of ribs, brisket, burgers, and Nathan's hot dogs. I heard several people say he made the best ribs they have ever eaten (I was partial to the brisket with raspberry-chipotle sauce, myself). THANKS, McCANNS!!!!
We played some Norwegian Golf while we hung out(especially the Jeffrey boys and the Young boys, pictured here)
Brother Jones served up ice cream and dutch oven cobblers for dessert
Libby and Michaela brought flowers from their hike to Jewel Lake
Heidi hung out with Aunt Debbie and tried out all her new naughty words on the Holm family.
Boys of all ages let out their inner pyromaniacs(Zane, Danny, and Orrin pictured here)
My wonderful sisterfriend, Debbie, planned and executed a fun treasure hunt for the children, which ended with a treasure of candy! (Debbie is passing out the candy in this picture)
YUM!
My wonderful sisterfriend, Debbie, planned and executed a fun treasure hunt for the children, which ended with a treasure of candy! (Debbie is passing out the candy in this picture)
YUM!Debbie is the Pied Piper of Livingston!
At the end of the night, the Young Women sang their camp song for the group and it was lovely. They head up to camp at Hyalite (amazing--google it--gorgeous and cushy!) all next week.
At the end of the night, the Young Women sang their camp song for the group and it was lovely. They head up to camp at Hyalite (amazing--google it--gorgeous and cushy!) all next week.After the girls sang, we listened to some Roy Rogers and Gene Autry campfire songs while we all cleaned up and headed for our own campsites.
As far as I know the ten or eleven families that stayed over had a great time--it was a beautiful night and there were no bear sightings (or attacks ;)). The Elders Quorum cooked pancakes and sausage and hashbrowns and eggs and bacon and cinnamon rolls for breakfast around 8am. We broke camp and got home around noon, but I know some other families stayed to enjoy Pine Creek one more day. I had a blast and would love to spend more time with all the fun people we were with last night.
One last plug for Montana Summers--you really ought to come up and enjoy it. The next few weeks are our only "hot" time and the river gets lower and slower and it's so fun to raft and camp and hike. Fantastic! Just sayin'.
7 comments:
Nice Photos. Pine Creek is an awesome place. We also got engaged up there.
Can I tell you how jealous I am? Looks like you had SO MUCH FUN!! It was bittersweet, though--we had some friends staying with us that we haven't seen for three years. So it was really fun to see them. We would've brought them along, but they are moving from Alaska and DRIVING to Utah. Crazy. It took five full days of driving (with their four young kids) to get to our house, so we didn't spring the camping on them.
Anyway, enough novel--looks like you did awesome. And I wish I were there to enjoy it, too!
THANK YOU Jamie (and Rich) for a FUN time!!! We are so BLESSED that you are our ward activities chairman. Thank you so much for your time and effort and SELFLESS service so that we could enjoy the beautiful mountains and our ward family. YOU ROCK SISTERFRIEND!!!!!
Love - Debbie
P.S. - Strupp's - you were missed!!
Jamie: we share a name, our husbands are bffs, we rock out to fleetwood mac we got engaged in the same spot...geez! now if I only had beautiful red hair like I always wanted...;) you guys should come up and play with us!
Kim: You were SOOOO missed. Last night while we were hanging out by the campfire with Debbie and Kurt listenign to Def Leppard, I was thinking how fun it would be if you and Trevor were with us. *sigh* I totally get why you weren't there, but let's do it again before winter ok? We float the Yellowstone Labor Day weekend and I want to have a ranch bonfire for my birthday 9/24, so mark your calendars and let's live it up, amiga!
DEBBIE: OMHeck, everytime we have a little hang-out sesh like this, I think to myself, "WHY AREN'T WE DOING THIS MORE OFTEN, DANG IT???" you guys are hilarious (so are Eric and Haylee)--I had fun with you the whole time! Let's do it again after the dust settles!
aww! I can't believe you guys braved the woods after the recent bear attacks. I'm freaked out of camping for a good while unless it's in a straight up hard-shell RV. Course looks like you did have a ton of people and there are some safety in numbers. Looks like a great time!
Priesthood trumps bear ANY DAY! ;)
[besides, as Rich pointed out, there were abunch of drunken hooligans between us and the bears anyway...]
Thanks, girlfriend, although that was me, Jeff who left the comment, and not my beloved wife.
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