A day at the lake...

Marie and I were supposed to go wake boarding the week we got back from Cambodia and Mozambique, but as you recall the weather didn't exactly cooperate and then I left for Girl's Camp and Marie left for Mexico with her family and we never got to go. However, on Wednesday (maybe Thursday, I don't really know) I got a phone call from Ose saying that he was taking to boat out this Saturday and wanted to know if I wanted to come along... YAY! (Note to Marie: Sorry you didn't get to go friend, you would have loved it... we'll have to do it again when we get back from Mexico City.)

Today we went out to Utah Lake over by Saratoga Springs... Ose said he would have preferred Echo but the water had been really cold last time he was there and the water at Utah Lake was warmer. He knows I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to cold and I'm glad we went with the Utah Lake alternative because the water was a bit cold and I'm not sure I could have done colder... the water did warm up throughout the day though. So, here are our tales from our day out at the lake.... Debbie, Dani, and I met up with Ose, Brett (Ose's roommate) and Shanlee (Brett's girlfriend) at the marina a little after 10:00 am - Ose was late but we forgive you Ose :). Here we are waiting for Ose to arrive ... he really wasn't that late I'm just messing with him because he kept apologizing for being late.
Debbie and Dani on the boat waiting for our turn to get the boat into the lake.
Ose getting things set up... he did a fabulous job!
And finally in the water ...
Brett was the first to get in the water and did a wonderful job wake boarding... apparently the water was a bit choppy initially but he still managed to get a few jumps and stuff. There are better shots of him doing tricks but they are in Ose's camera. but there he is...
Then, it was my turn. Did I mention I had never gone wake boarding before... So we got me all set up (wet suit and everything so that I wouldn't freeze to death) and Ose guided me through the process and theory of wake boarding and then I got in the water... and there I stayed... :)
This is how I looked most of the time ...
And this was about as close as I got to getting up...
Not a naturally gifted wake boarder... clearly... but next time... maybe...

Here's a shot of Ose wake boarding. Again, better pictures in his camera (I know because I took some of those and got a couple of good shots of him up in the air) but I'll post this one in the meantime and replace it when I get his.
Debbie didn't try wake boarding this time so I have no shots of her but she has done it in the past and, unlike me, she has managed to get up.
Ose also got a tube out so Dani could get in the water... she was hesitant at first but finally got in with me and loved it.
We also went on some wild rides in the tube without Dani (did I say wild mom? what I really meant was "com emoção" :) but completely safe!) and I did a fine job hanging on, if I might say so myself. Of course, my fine job at hanging on did lead to a few battle wounds ... but honestly, my escalator incident injury at Dulles International Airport hurt more than this - this didn't hurt at all.

Really, I know it looks bad but I don't even feel it... in fact, if Debbie hadn't pointed it out I probably wouldn't even know it was there.

So here are a few last shots of our day out at the lake. Our captain ... yes, we actually trusted this guy to handle the boat all day - makes you question our sanity a bit.
Brett... the guy in charge of the boat when the other captain was in the water... further evidence of our questionable sanity.
Shanlee...Los hermanos Cabral... (Note to Sam: We decided you need to come visit us in July or August that way you can experience Utah when it's hot. We'll all go out on the boat and we think you'll have a blast - we could all imagine you laughing like crazy on the tube.) And of course, the cutest little thing on the boat...
As always, hope you enjoyed the pictures! I'll be meeting up with Marie on Tuesday in Mexico City for more adventures so stay tuned. Hope you're all having a great summer!

Adventures from Girl's Camp...

So, I spent the last 5 days at Camp MIA Shalom with the Young Women from our ward. I currently work as a Mia Maid advisor in my ward and attending Girl's Camp is one of the many activities I get to participate in because of my calling. This was my first time attending Girl’s Camp - we don't do Girl's Camp in South America. So, I’m not much of a camper. I occasionally enjoy camping when we are camping at a resort with showers and a pool but my favorite type of camping is RV camping. So, I was not exactly looking forward to Girl’s Camp. It actually turned out to be a good experience but to be completely honest camp is still not very high on my list of preferred summer activities.

We were the first stake to attend camp this year, and although the weather has been nice in Provo (even though I was complaining about the lack of sunshine last week) the weather up in the Fairview Canyon area (I don't really know where this Camp MIA Shalom is to be completely honest with you guys but I was told that it was in that area) and at 9500 feet was not so warm. In fact, the first night it was there it snowed and it was so cold that the water was frozen so we didn't have running water the whole time we were up there. By Friday the weather was looking better and on Saturday (the day we left) there was a huge improvement in the weather - oh the irony! So, here are a few pictures of camp to help tell the stories. Hope you enjoy!

These are the cabins we stayed in. For you avid campers, I'm sure you think this is like staying at the Marriot but this was my idea of roughing it. They are just like wooden tents... there was nothing in them, no heat, no electricity, nothing. We did set up cots as you can see in the picture below but by the time we got all the cots in the room there was no space to walk which means I ended up with a number of bruises on my knees from running into cots. I did move to a different cabin on Thursday because a couple of other leaders arrived at camp and there was no room for them in the cabins that were already set up so they put us in a new cabin where I had a lot more space and got a lot less bruises.

It was so cold up there that we were constantly layered (it was not uncommon for me to wear 5 or 6 layers on clothes) to try to stay warm. In the picture below I'm sitting on the edge of the fire pit with Natalie (one of the Laurels) and Amy (she was one of my Mia Maids last year). Most people sit next to the fire pit but sitting right on the edge of the fire pit was much nicer and warmer :).
I did learn at camp that I actually do a dang good job at building camp fires... if I have some help. Sometimes we'd have to get a fire started 3 or 4 times in a row because the young women would get so excited about it that they would add too many logs and smother the fire. This fire that we are standing next to was actually the 3rd fire we started that evening. I also learned that I am quite the expert at roasting marshmallows... my marshmallows were famous!

Thursday was the day we went on hikes. I went on the first year hike, not because I'm a wimp (I actually thought the hike was pretty lame and would have enjoyed a little more of a challenge) but because I needed to go on the first year hike to get my first year camp certification. Which I will have you all know I did earn by the end of camp. :)

In the picture below I'm standing next to the first years who just barely entered Young Women's getting ready to leave on our hike. The girls in the picture are Rachel, Audrey, and Emily... and of course, I'm the shortest. Emily is a about 6 feet tall and just towers over me :).

The next picture is with Jaime, one of the other adult leaders who also went on the first year hike. She's hilarious and was a total blast!
Anyone for some lemonade? We were each handed a lemon and candy stick at the beginning of the hike.We were supposed to play with our lemon through out the hike, then at the end of it we stuck the candy stick inside the lemon and sucked the juice out of it... I guess that's one way to mix the lemon juice with the sugar to make lemonade.

We also had Ukelele lessons while at camp. We learned 4 chords which meant we could actually play about 10 different songs. Some of them sounded like a bit of stretch either because the Ukelele's were out of tune or because we weren't playing the chords correctly... my guess is that the Ukelele's were out of tune :).
We went down to the waterfront on Friday. We were supposed to go earlier in the week but it was way too cold and if anyone had fallen into the lake we would have had to life flight them out of camp to a hospital because of hypothermia... although really, the water was just as cold on Friday and we would still have ended up with hypothermia had we fallen into the lake but at least it wasn't as cold while we were on the canoes. So, I sat in a canoe with one of the Beehives and one of my Mia Maids... they each had a paddle but I didn't get one because there weren't enough... SCARY... but they actually did a fine job.

Those of us who went down to the waterfront decided that it would be fun to do some of the activities on the ropes course they had set up by the waterfront. It was probably one of my favorite things at Girl's Camp. The first thing we did was have everyone stand up on this pipe and we had to get everyone to the other end of the pipe without falling off the pipe... so several of the girls fell off but we kept going anyway ... I did make it across without falling though :).

They had a name for this other ropes course challenge but I can't remember what it was. But the general idea is that you have three tress in a triangle and a thick wire that goes around the trees and you have two people balance while walking across the wire from the narrow end to the wider end. When we went to Clear Creek as a cohort with Lane our first year of grad school this was one of the hardest challenges for me... if I remember correctly I was finally able to make it across with Lisa. This time getting across was really easy and I did it several times... clearly evidence of growth since starting grad school :).

On this next challenge the girls had to walk around stumps of different heights that were in a semicircle with their eyes closed while we guided them across the stumps. We were probably not allowed to touch them but it was either that or have them kill themselves as they got a little too anxious to step forward and completely missed the next log.
On this last challenge we had to get all the girls from one side of the "spider web" to the other without sending anyone through the same "hole in the web." We also weren't supposed to touch the web at all or we would have to start over but we gave up on that rule and just decided that it was good enough to get everyone across :).

And finally, the last day of camp... These were all the girls from the Stake (the ones who hadn't left earlier that day or the night before in cars) waiting for the buses that were an hour late! We were all so anxious to get out of there and get home where we could shower that having to wait longer than planned for the buses was really frustrating to everyone...


But anyway, we survived!!! We all still have a little bit of camp fire smoke smell in our hair despite the multiple showers and washings... it'll probably take about a week to get rid of the "smoked sausage smell." I'll also have to wash all of my clothes multiple times to get rid of the same smell... but at least the fire kept us warm. :)

The heavens smiled upon us ...

We FINALLY got our day at the pool! The forecast for today wasn’t great but we tried to keep hope alive in our little beating hearts and we are glad we did! We spent the morning soaking up the sun on Quel’s patio and in the afternoon headed to the pool where we met up with Marie’s ward for a little pool party. Lucky for us, Marie’s brother, Sam, also graced us with his presence and his newly transformed body – the workouts are paying off Sam, nicely done! So, anyway, not too many stories but we just thought we’d let you know that we did get our day at the pool and we thought you might enjoy some pictures!

We’ll start by explaining that we are writing this blog together and are going to use both 1^st and 3^rd person – no, we don’t normally talk like that but it’ll just help you keep track of who is saying or doing what. Marie and Quel got back from Cambodia and Mozambique last Thursday and Friday respectively. We are home safe and sound… thanks for following our adventures. We decided that the fact that we are home doesn’t mean our adventures are ending. Next week, Quel has Girl’s Camp and Marie is heading to Mexico for a family trip. A few weeks after that Quel and Marie are heading to Mexico City to visit Quel’s parents who currently live there… so stay tuned for more summer adventures!

Today, however, we want to tell you about our “week in the sun.” So, Quel came back from Mozambique with a lovely farmer’s tan and she decided she needed to fix that and so our solution was to spend the whole week at the pool and wake boarding with Quel’s brother. We both love the beach but there is no beach to be seen here in happy valley so we decided that the pool, a thoroughly inadequate substitute for the beach, would have to do for now. Well, it would have been a lovely week … except for the fact that there was NO SUN and IT’S FREEZING! We both got back from really hot places and Quel is chronically cold anyway so we spent the whole week cooped up indoors with sweatshirts! How sad! To make matters even worse we both purchased new bathing suits, shorts, and sunglasses in anticipation but never got to use any of them!

So, today we decided that we would go to the park. A little bit of sun and no water but at least it was outdoors. We also decided to take a camera along with us and decided that it’s a good thing we don’t normally carry a camera around to record all the ridiculous things we do. But here are a few pictures of our day at the park. We played catch – Marie did very well, Quel not so much (but Marie told Quel she did very well). There were a couple of times when you could tell Marie thought Quel was going to end up in the emergency room. The ball was heading for Quel dangerously fast and stopping frighteningly close to Quel’s face, and Quel seemed a bit unsure which way was the best direction to move her glove to protect herself. But after many close calls and sighs of relief we managed to leave the park without casualty.

In addition to our exciting game of catch, we gave the merry-go-round swings a shot, but failed miserably at making it spin around. Marie managed to entertain herself by swinging sideways and taking on the challenge of swinging fast and far enough to be able to touch the middle pole.

After swinging Quel found out that Marie didn’t know how to do cartwheels so we had a few cartwheel lessons. Anyway, not the pool and definitely not the beach but we entertained ourselves.

For dinner we made hummus – our favorite meal to make together – and had a blast trying to figure out the camera’s timer so that we could get a picture of the two of us eating our pitas together. Hope you enjoy the pictures!