General Womens Meeting

I just got back from attending Womens Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake with my daughters. We had a wonderful day together.

We went to Olive Garden for a late lunch, which was nice. Then on to the Conference Center. Alisha got tickets through her ward which was very nice. 5 years ago I was able to get tickets for all of us to go together for our first time. Since then we have tried to take turns attending at each others Stake Centers. While we were waiting for the meeting to start we visited with some ladies who live in the Salt Lake area but are originally from Venezuela.

I loved the meeting, but especially President Monson's talk. It was a good reminder for me to not be judgmental. It is something I struggle with, but hope that I am getting better at. I loved the story about the neighbor and her dirty laundry. To paraphrase: There was this young couple that would sit down to breakfast together and about once a week the neighbor would hang out her laundry and the young woman would comment to her husband, "There goes our neighbor again hanging out dirty laundry, you would think she knew better". One week as the young couple sat down to breakfast and the neighbor hung out her laundry, the young woman commented, "Wow, she is hanging out clean laundry, she finally got it figured out". The husband said, "No, I just got up early this morning and cleaned our windows." What a good visualization lesson that will be for me. I also loved President Monson's sense of humor. He is adorable. I LOVE OUR PROPHET!!!

I am really looking forward to General Conference next week. To "feast" at the feet (so to speak) of our leaders. It is such an awesome experience.

Thanks girls for a wonderful time.

Labor Day Memories - MOON LAKE

The one thing we love doing most in the summer but don't get enough of is CAMPING. This year we only got 3 trips in....Memorial Day to Yuba Lake, the Lava Tubes, and Hot Springs. July 4th up Spanish Fork canyon to one of our favorite places "Tucker" and this past weekend for Labor Day we went to Moon Lake above Duchesne. We had never been there before and found it a beautiful place. It was disappointing that the lake was very low and that made for bad fishing. Saturday we decided to take a hike to the North East side of the lake to where the river comes in. We had read that the fishing is better there. It was a beautiful hike, but the end result was not what we had anticipated. All those that had their licenses carried their fishing poles and gear with them, but when we could see the edge of the lake, due to it being so low, it would still be quite a hike to the river and then another mile or more back down to the lake and it looked muddy and not deep enough to fish in. That was disappointing, so we sat down, took a snack break, then turned around and headed back out. You could see that if the lake was at it's normal high depth, the fishing would be better and the view would be spectacular. Truly a lake among the forest. Anyway, I loved the hike...the trail wound through the woods, over muddy spots with glimpses of the lake along the way, and the best part of all is I was doing it with my family. Even if the 4 year old had a major melt down and his 3 year old sister traded places with him in the carrier and all this made the going slow, it was still absolutely wonderful.

Our family prefers to camp outside of paid campgrounds. That means no running water, electricity nor picnic tables. We provide all our own via trailers with bathrooms (which we share with those that are tenting it), water storage in the trailers plus 4 or 5 - 5 gallon water containers, and generators. We love it this way, we can be as loud and obnoxious as we want and can run our generators way into the night.

Alisha and Randy found this beautiful, secluded spot

Hiking around Moon Lake

The North East end of the lake which was supposed to have the best fishing

What would camping be without one of Dennis' dutch oven cobblers

Oh, how the kids played and had so much fun.

Playing card games

Nightly trailer baths

The best part of camping....SITTING AROUND THE CAMPFIRE!

It is always sad when we have to clean up and say goodbye to another great weekend outdoors. The trip home was an adventurous one as not quite half way, Steve and Amanda's truck had a serpentine belt break and they were stranded on the side of the road for over 4 hours while we drove home, dropped off the kids, picked up a new belt and took it back to them. I am so glad we carpooled together and were there to help them out. But after the little delay we all made it home safe and sound. I'm afraid our camping trips for the year are over and that makes me more than a little sad.