Mirror Lake (again:)

Last week we took another camping trip to Mirror Lake.

This time it was with a few of the Phelps siblings.  There was Rick and Me, Darla and Larry, Karen and Dennis, and then Trent and Kathy came up a day later.

We left on Wednesday, August 21st.  I had awakened that morning with some vertigo.  I did not know where it came from, but in the morning I could not lay on my right side.  I was able to work through it that morning and got everything packed up....well my portion anyway.  Rick got all of the heavy stuff loaded into the truck while I took care of inside of the trailer stuff, ie.. food, clothes, games and linens.  

Skylar stopped by and hooked up to our little boat and met us up at the campsite later that day.  He wanted to do a little hiking and fishing at Kamas Lake, so it worked out well with him pulling the boat up.

  

We left about an hour later than we wanted to but made it in plenty of time to set up and get ready for dinner.  Darla and Larry arrived about an hour and a half after we did.

Dennis and Karen arrived at about 7:00, and we were able to have a yummy dinner of Navajo Tacos.  Rick and I hosted at our camp that evening.  I thought it was funny that Dennis wasn't sure what to do with his scone.  He said he had never had Navajo Tacos before!  Imagine that!  Anyway, I showed him what to do, and then I think others maybe just had the chili with the scone on the side.  I made mine into a yummy salad!  

Luckily, Darla had brought some delicious honey butter.  So that worked well:)

We had watermelon to accompany our meal.  

We noticed right off that it got chilly pretty quickly!

Even though it was the middle of August we got some REALLY chilly temperatures throughout our stay those three days.  We had plenty of sunshine but there seemed to always be a chilly breeze blowing.  

I couldn't believe how cold I felt pretty much the whole time!

Here are a couple of candid shots....

Me and my sweetie

Karen putting on her shoes.

Larry reading an iBook.

The first night after our Navajo Taco dinner we enjoyed sitting around Larry's propane fire pit.

Honestly, it was no where near keeping me warm enough, but I didn't want to be the party pooper and not stay.  We enjoyed the evening talking about ways to "invite" people to the gospel. Dennis was preparing a talk for Sunday and wanted some ideas of experiences we have had.  It was fun to think about and hear the good experiences that we have all had with inviting people to Jesus.

That night I could feel a bit of the vertigo coming back.  The next morning I woke up early, before it got light and was so dizzy and nauseous.  By the time the sun came up I was feeling better.

Rick had to go to Kamas to make some phone calls, and I went with him.  While there I decided to look for a chiropractor to see if he could help with my dizziness.  (Karen suggested that's how she was made better with her vertigo)  The chiropractor couldn't fit me in but told me to look up BPPV. (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Pertigo)  I did and saw exactly what to do to fix it. 

 After we got finished we headed back to the campground.  I told Rick I wanted to try it.  He helped me, but the first time I got a little sick as the procedure was finishing.  Remember,  the whole world was spinning during it.  As I sat up I could still feel things spinning and felt very disappointed that it didn't work.  I decided to try it one more time.  After the first ten seconds I lost my whole lunch!  It was awful and I still wasn't better, or so I thought.  Rick had Larry come over to help him give me a Priesthood blessing.  

I then rested and fell asleep while Rick went fishing.  When I woke up I felt a lot better and felt like I was mostly healed.  There were (and still are) a few times where I feel a little off balance but only for a few seconds so I call that good!

On to the camping....

We were so thankful that Skylar pulled the boat up for us.  We had such a fun time on the water with Trent and Kathy.  Boy, they sure are die-hards when it comes to fishing!  The cold didn't seem to bother them too much.  But honestly, it was super fun to be out on the water with them.  I even caught a fish.  This time I got it clear into the boat.  Last time the two that got hooked got off the hook before I could get them into the boat.  So I think it's official now.  I AM a fisherman (woman) HAHA!  (Of course I did not want to touch that slimy thing at all....that was Rick's job!  Plus driving the boat, unknotting the line, baiting the hook, casting it out ....I was just there for the holding the pole part. 

 So come to think of it, maybe I am NOT a fisherwoman.😏

Both Kathy and Trent caught quite a few.

We were mostly catching and releasing but Trent did take six fish out and cleaned them, then Darla cooked them up to accompany dinner.  Rick said he really liked the fish! I had a bite....not so much for me.

I mean, if I had no other food to eat then I don't think I'd have a problem eating it.

Rick and Dennis getting ready for dinner.

Darla and Larry prepared stew and cornbread for us one of the nights.  

It was super tasty and we enjoyed sitting around the table chatting about the day.

couple photos...

After dinner this night we sat around the camp fire (a real campfire - with smoke and all - this time:)

and looked at the constellations and talked.  I wish I had brought all of my fun information to share with everyone about the night sky, but I didn't, and so we just had a good time looking and talking.

The next day was more of the same...eating, fishing, playing games, talking and eating some more!  Trent and Kathy provided dinner that night.  She prepared Cafe Rio tacos and the food was superb!  Even though it was cold outside!  That evening we got to watch The Three Amigos in Darla and Larry's trailer.  I would have preferred playing games and interacting but the movie had already started so.....

The last morning we joined together for one last breakfast at Larry and Darla's camp.  I don't think I mentioned that we ate breakfast the day before at their camp, but this last morning Karen prepared pancakes while I cooked up some ham and eggs, and we ate up our leftover fruit.  It was a good spread.

We enjoyed a little bit more time at the lake before we all packed up and headed home.

We made some good memories and very much enjoyed the company in such a beautiful location!

 

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The kids started school on August 13th just after our Cherry Hill day.

Rafe is in the 6th grade.  His last year in elementary school.

His hair is still blondish from his summer baseball days....cutie!

Scout started 4th grade and is just cute as a button!

Brady started 1st grade and is in full day school this year!

He's adorable!

Chloe started kindergarten and is in school for the FULL DAY!  

She has had a hard time with that but is finally getting used to the long hours away form home and Mom.

She's still so little.  I wish she could just go a half day instead....but that's not Grandma's call!

She is such a pretty little thing!

Henry started 4th grade this year and loves school!

Isn't his little curl on top so fun!   I think the girls must really like him because he's such a doll! 

Charles is in 2nd grade this year and is also loving school!

I think he must be the life of the party because he's that way at home!  He's so fun!

How about that signature Charlie mohawk?!

Daisy girl started kindergarten and is doing very well with the full day schedule!

She likes her teacher and I am sure she is making lots of friends because she's such a friendly little thing!

Isn't she lovely?

Eric is still too young for school, but he has been enjoying time with his mama at home and is excited when the kids come home from school....especially his buddy, Daisy!

Haven and Merik recently moved to Tooele, so they are starting a new year at Northlake Elementary.

Haivyn is in the 5th grade, and Merik in 1st.

Haivyn got her haircut for the occasion and is really cute with shorter hair.

Merik got some brand new clothes (as all the kids did) and was sporting his long hair for his first day.  He got it cut shortly after school started.

They are both getting used to their new school and making new friends in their classes.

Sweet kids!

Another school year begins and I can't believe how much my grandkids are growing!

Honestly, I feel like time is flying by!

 

SUMMER BIRTHDAYS

I haven't kept up on our summer birthdays so here is a special post just for that!

Brady turned SIX on June 20th.  He is growing so big and we just love his big, fun personality.

It is such a delight having him in our big family!  We love him so much!

Sarah turned THIRTY FOUR on July 22nd.  She and Skylar had a fun two day overnighter and enjoyed some time together without the kids.  Isn't she beautiful?! 

Kendra Dee turned THIRTY THREE on July 30th.

Rick and I watched the kids while she and Brach had an overnighter with pizza, Mexican food and a temple trip for their plans!

Skylar turned THIRTY FOUR on the tenth of August.  Rick and I watched the kids for him and Sarah as they went off on a fun date to Park City.  They went on a hike and had some good food and then went to a concert that night.  They said it was an awesome time!!

After their big date we were able to take them out for a fun dinner at Tsunami Restaurant.

The food was delicious and we enjoyed good conversation that night.

After dinner they hopped over to Hansen's ice cream for Skylar's favorite,  

Graham Central Station!

                                

Henry turned TEN on August 8th.  He is such an awesome boy!  He is so smart and loves school!

He is super affectionate and is such a good oldest brother to his siblings.

We love him so much!

The last of the summer birthdays came on August 21st when Merik turned SEVEN!

We all met together a few days before his birthday and celebrated.

He wanted a Pokemon birthday cake so I looked online to find the easiest one to make.  He was super excited about his Pokeball cake!

Merik is going into the first grade and learning to communicate better.  He loves everything pokemon and is really good at building Legos!  We sure do love him a lot!

CRAZY FACES!!

We have had a great summer doing a lot of fun things and in the midst of it all we celebrated a lot of birthdays!  Next up will be Charles in just a few more days!

Cherry Hill

Yesterday was our last hurrah for summer fun!  We missed our Cherry Hill overnighter in July because of my knee surgery, but since we had one more day until school started, we planned to do it that day!  

The younger kids had a good time playing at the pirate ship and lazy river while the older ones ran around getting on the different slides in the park.  We got rained out by the time we had to leave.  I mean it REALLY started coming down hard!  Everyone was rushing to their cars!

It was a fun couple of hours, though!

 

San Diego, California

For Kaitlyn's birthday this year Rick and I told her that we would take her and the kids to San Diego for a summer vacation.  We left on Wednesday, July 31st flying with Delta for two hours to get into San Diego.  It was about a fifteen minute drive to the beach.

We arrived early around 9AM, got our car and then and stopped for some breakfast at Denny's.  

We drove to our hotel, The Courtyard at Sorrento Hills, and unpacked and got ready to swim.

We swam for a couple of hours and then decided it was time for dinner.  We went across the street at the suggestion of the desk clerk to a place called Karl Strauss.  We had an hour wait but decided the food was worth it.  We were all quite hungry and enjoyed our time there.

The next morning we drove thirty minutes to the north to get to Oceanside Beach. 

 It's one of our favorites!

We enjoyed the day! The kids enjoyed playing in the water with grandpa and their mom and I enjoyed reading on the sand.  The kids also had fun collecting seashells and catching sand crabs.

Toward the end of the day Kaitlyn wanted to do some fishing off of the pier, so she and Rick rented some poles and shrimp for about an hour.  They only brought up snails.

That evening we knew we wanted to get over to the Oceanside Sunset Market.  It has been a fun place for us each time we go to Oceanside, so we went over to peruse the shops and to get some good street food.

Kaitlyn found a new t-shirt with an octopus on it, and the kids got some cute beanie type animal hats.

We all got some amazing food, as well:)

The next day was Friday, and that was our Sea World day.  It was a lot of walking, and I slowed everyone down a lot, but we got to see everything we wanted to.  We saw the sea lion, dolphin, and the Shamu shows as well as lots of exhibits throughout the day!  We even went on a couple of rides!

By the end of our Sea World day, Merik was complaining that his toe was hurting him.

Come to find out he had an ingrown toenail that had gotten infected.  After an amazing Mexican dinner we dropped Kaitlyn and Merik off at the ER that was close to our hotel.  Unfortunately they didn't do much for him, and by the next morning it was even worse.  We took them to the Children's Hospital where they had a traumatic experience getting the infection out.  Even though it was so painful and traumatic for Merik, it helped in the long run because it started to get better.  

While they were at the ER that morning, Rick, Haivyn and I stopped to get them some breakfast and took it back to them, and then we went to a Denny's for us!

This is a cute picture of Haivyn and Mark Twain.  I thought it was Albert Einstein but she corrected me on that!  Don't you think it looks like smart old Albert?

We had planned to go to the beach that day, but we had strict instructions from the doctor that the beach was out of the question for Merik's toe.  Lots of bacteria in the sand and water!  So we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool.  We weren't sure if Merik could get into the pool, so he stayed out until we got word from the doctor that it was ok to swim as long as he soaked in epsom salts afterward.  It was nice weather and the kids enjoyed swimming while Kaitlyn napped.

That evening we went over to Seaport Village, which is a fun shopping and eating mall right on the water.  We ate at Edgewater Grill and had some really good food!  Then we enjoyed a little shopping in some of the tourist shops in the mall.  It was a fun evening!

The next day was church.  We found a church not too far from our hotel and enjoyed both meetings there.  Afterward we thought we'd go take a look at the San Diego Temple.  It is closed down for renovations, so we couldn't get onto the grounds, but we did get a picture just outside the gate.

It is a beautiful temple.  Kaitlyn felt bad that she could not touch it!

After that, we drove over the big bridge to Coronado Island.  Being Sunday it was super packed with people, and we had a hard time finding a parking place for the park where we had decided to have our picnic.  Anyhoo...it worked out fine.  We spent about an hour and a half there eating sandwiches and veggies and chips.  The kids ate some oreos for dessert!

We had purchased a kite the first day we arrived and were hopeful to get it up.

We didn't have too much luck but we had a good time trying.

Later that afternoon we went back to the hotel to rest (after all, Sunday IS the day of rest:)

Then later that night we found a restaurant not too far from our hotel and had a nice dinner.  I think the name was JR"s.

The next day was another down day at the pool.  I stayed with the kids while Rick and Kaitlyn spent the morning fishing at the Shelter Island Fishing Pier.  They were hopeful to catch a fish, and Rick did catch one.  Kaitlyn was disappointed that she didn't get one but I told her since they were together that it was a group effort;)  Afterwards they joined us in the pool for a bit, and then we decided to just get packed up and go over to the Seaport village for lunch and some last minute souvenir shopping.

We had lunch at Margarita's Kitchen and Cantina.  It was just a food stand, and we had to clean a table in the courtyard to even eat.  It was just ok.  Rick bought some beignets for Kaitlyn to try, and she thought they were just ok.  So I guess you can say our lunch experience was, "just ok."

The kids took a ride on the Ferris Wheel with Grandpa and made a memory!

We wandered around the ocean walk and ended up at the park where people were flying their kites.  

We were amazed at how good these people were at flying kites!  They were making their kites do loop de loops and it was really cool!  Seeing how we had such a poor experience the day before when we tried it, we thought we'd ask the expert how it's done.  He just said you need a good kite and LOTS of practice.  

I should say so.

After that, we got in the car and headed over to the airport.  Our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, and we didn't get home until after midnight, but we made some fun memories and enjoyed our time together!

Hooray for summer vacations!!