Lutes Family Camping Trip Day 2

Day two was Sunday and our family plus some others went to church in Bear Lake. After sacrament meeting Kefford felt the girls should go to Young Womens and so he Avynlea and Rylee stayed for second hour but the rest of us left to go back to camp. Heather asked me if I would French braid her hair and her hair was short enough that I finished the braid with a flip up and it looked pretty cute.

Because it was Sunday we stayed around camp and played games and had fun being with each other. Heather brought the game she just bought called 'marrying Mr Darcy" and that was pretty fun to play. I thought I knew a lot about Pride and Prejudice but I couldn't answer a lot of the trivia questions in the game. We drew cards to see which young lady we would portray and I ended up with Elizabeth Bennett. The point of the game is to end up getting married and I ended up marrying Mr Darcy so it was a good win. 

Life around camp consisted of Joshuas kids playing in the dirt and me delighting in every minute of it. I love when parents just let their kids be and don't get all worked up by a little dirt. Plus dirty faced kids are just too cute.

Joshua and Andrew helped Mom with her daily crossword puzzle, and by help I think it really means they watched her solve the daily crossword.

Later I was sitting by the campfire visiting with my family when Kefford came back from one of his many daily hikes and had me come with him. More family ended up coming along to see a small waterfall that Kefford found.

Kefford and Elizabeth 

Elizabeth and Leona

Kefford doing one of his many poses. I like how the water in the second picture looks more foggy.

Kenedy walked Leona back to camp and they looked pretty cute holding hands along the trail.

Mallory did a good job cleaning her kids up at night by bathing them with wet wipes.

Cute little Fredrick is just a delight to be around. I love his squishy little face.

Every night around the campfire Andrew would lead us in a rousing game of Werewolves. 

 

Lutes Family Camping Trip Day 1

 Our family decided that maybe it might be a good idea to switch off our family camping trips every year and do it closer to some of us some years. I love the Beach trips but it is nice to do something different and to have to not drive so far for a change. Emily and Joshua found a spot by Bear Lake that Emily has camped at before,  it was in Southern Idaho and it is called Paris Springs. Kefford borrowed a camper from his cousin Coby that he and I could use as well as Mom and Heather and to pull it he borrowed a pickup from his cousin Lance. It was about a 6 hour drive for us to the campground which is so much better then the 13+ hours drive to the beach. We were the first ones there and when we got there we were a little shell shocked, it was not what we were used to nor was it what we were expecting. Well, except for Kefford he was pretty happy with the scenery and mountains around us. It gave him something to climb and do every day when he was bored. The girls brought our tent and they started setting it up while Kefford got the camper parked.

After a while every one started arriving and setting up their things and it started to feel little bit more like a Lutes family camp. Matt and Emily came with their kids, Joshua and Mallory and their kids, Andrew, Mom, Heather, Erin, us and Alec with his girlfriend Pink were also able to be there. It was fun to see Joshua's kids again and I love being with my sisters. I have a tradition of getting a Costco cake for my kids when they graduate and I asked Emily if she would get one for Kenedy and bring it up. I was using it for dessert for our night but wanted it to be a surprise for Kenedy so I had Emily get it and then I paid her back for it. She brought the leftover grad decorations she had for Isabelle and Heather kept Kenedy distracted and out of the way while we decorated and got the cake out.

It was a fun surprise and Kenedy was really happy with the makeshift graduation celebration.

Fredrick picked her a flower which was super sweet.

Fredrick wanted to hold hands with me during the prayer and so we did, After the prayer we reinacted our handling so we could get a picture of us.

Blueberry Picking

 On Friday we got to go blueberry picking with some of our family. Not everyone could make it this year so I was a smaller group but still fun and fruitful. I started in the back bushes away from everyone and found some really big blueberries on these bishes. Soon my area was taken over by some family trying to get in on my amazing find, darn it, hahaha. We had fun visiting with everyone who were there. Kenedy drove in the day before but she was too tired to get up this morning to go with us. It was a bummer because her cousins would have loved to have seen her. Avynlea, Rylee and I had a good time and were able to get a lot of Blueberries.

back bunch l-r: Rylee, Garrett, Brielle, Asher, Caleb, Qiana, Avynlea and Joshua

front bunch I-r: Xander. Madison, Dillon, Tayvia, Hazel, Sadie and Kinsley 

Later I washed the blueberries and put them into baggies. Some I left out to take on our camping trip and the others I stuck in the freezer to preserve them for future use. My girls were not thrilled with me sticking them in the freezer, they like to eat them fresh and not frozen, but we had so many they had to be put in the freezer or else they would go bad. 

We also spent a lot of the day getting food prep done for our camping trip. We were leaving the next day and we were doing dinner the first night so I wanted to have a lot of it done beforehand. We cooked a lot of meat for tacos, chopped lettuce, tomatoes and olives an basically got everything beforehand done possible for taco salad.

Kenedy's College Graduation

On Tuesday after Kefford got off work we headed off to Rexburg for Kenedy's graduation. We were staying the night with Danny Ricks and his family and it was a fun reunion to see our friends again. Kenedy met us there with her boyfriend Tyler whom Kefford and I got to meet for the first time. We led Kenedy to believe that Avynlea wasn't coming so when we knew Kenedy was almost there we had Avynlea hide in the pantry and we got Kenedy to go in there for the surprise. She wasn't too surprised because she thought Avynlea not being there was just a prank. Later we gathered around their fire pit and roasted marshmallows for s'mores, visiting with each other and getting to know Tyler a little bit more. My first impressions were 1: that he was tall and that made me happy for Kenedy and 2: I liked how polite he was and he wasn't addicted to being on his phone, as we talked to him he looked us in the eyes and was able to hold a conversation.

The next morning Kefford and Danny went golfing while us girls hung around the house. Angela took her kids to their horse back riding lessons and Rylee and Avynlea occupied themselves by playing with Cutlers swords made from pool noodles.

Bob and Alison flew in to attend the graduation which was pretty awesome of them. Bailey and his wife are going to school in Rexburg and they picked the grandparents up at the airport and we went over to their apartment to visit with them until it was time to leave for the ceremony.

It was pretty exciting to watch Kenedy graduate. She has worked hard the past 4 years to get to this point and it was not without a lot of tears along the way. She is the first one in our immediate family to graduate with a bachelors, Kefford and I only have Associates, and I think that is pretty cool. She is a trailblazer and setting a good example for her siblings to follow. 

Hailey and Ben are Kenedy's cousins from the Peterson side and Kenedy got to know them really well this past year which has been fun for all of them as they finished up their last year of college in Rexburg. It was especially beneficial for Kenedy as Tyler was Ben's roommate and that is how she got to know him.

They are all now going to be living in Utah working and/or going to more school. Kenedy still needs to do her student teaching which she will be doing in Salt Lake beginning in September. I am glad that she will be surrounded by family on both sides as she continues her adult journey in Utah.

 

Elder Peterson Week 45

  I've been living in Kingwood, Texas for a week now. WOW, it is different. There are a ridiculous amount of trees here, it's literally nicknamed the livable forest. It is really cool though, there are a lot of green paths through out our area (our tiny tiny area, 5 square miles) that we ride on to get places. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it is a bike area, but if not now you know. Oh, and that's another thing. This is the worst time of the year to be biking. 100 degree heat and ridiculous humidity, we sweat A LOT. But I don't want to sound too complacent, I really enjoy this area. 

     Then there's the office job. As Technology Specialists (basically the I.T. of the mission) Elder Simpson and I spend a lot of time in the Mission Office solving technology related issues and keeping our mission's information updated. It's a lot of sitting down on a computer, but it beats biking in the heat all afternoon! Sometimes it gets a little boring, but if it gets too bad I'll put someone's stapler in jello or something, I'm not too worried. 

     As for the teaching in this area, it's pretty dismal. But that just means more work to do!! We currently have two people who we teach, Samantha and Tawana. They are interesting women...

     We've taught one lesson with Tawana and then on Saturday we washed Samantha's car (she is living alone and is currently on crutches, so we helped out). We've been biking around the area and I've seen a lot of cool things, again this place is just a forest with houses in it. Not exactly what I picture when I think of Texas. 

     That's pretty much all there is to write about for now... Oh yeah, I got asked to speak next Sunday.  New ward and I'm already giving a talk, pretty funny. I'll let you know how it goes next week. Until then, stay cool!

-Elder Peterson

There was a mini festival thing going on yesterday and they left behind some snow. I don't understand how or why, but I got to stand on snow for the first time in over a year, so that was great.