Camping....the HARD way!

All of us Gals, our Bishop and Counselor Brother Ward!

My Bishop and his AMAZING wife, who came on this adventure and survived!

These are hazardous rocks if your not careful! Don't believe me, read below!

Hanging out in the tent, before going to the waterfalls to swim
My huge backpack!!!
Ending the two mile hike completely up a mountain with my pack! Those muscles were tired!

My story...
I got time off work to go into the wilderness and become one with nature! I originally thought that we were going to pull up, set up camp and then go on a hike. I was completely wrong! This turned into a high adventure backpacking trip! I originally packed my regular backpack and Brother Ward was trying to help me attach my sleeping bag and then offered me a real hiking backpack. I changed everything out, we took pictures as a group and we were on our way.

Some of you may be aware that my stomach is a bit touchy and about half way down the mountain my stomach started to REALLY bother me! I tried to ignore it and after awhile, I knew something had to be done. So luckily I was one of the people in the front, I walked quickly and separated a bit from the group, and I wandered down a hill a little and hid myself and relieved my stomach. This was a big relief! I instantly felt a lot better (If this is too much information, I am sorry; I just figured you might want to get the whole picture of my experience).

After about another thirty minutes, my stomach was again acting up terribly and fortunately we had arrived in camp. I quickly set down my pack and found the outhouse that had a toilet, but was basically a hole. There were ants crawling everywhere and spider webs all over the walls. I kept trying to keep the toilet paper on the seat so I could sit and the wind kept making it fall off. I came up with a plan to keep it on and it worked. …. Finally! So then we set up camp and decided to go swimming. So I put my swimsuit on and my shoes, because I found out we would be hiking about thirty minutes to get to the waterfalls.

The beginning was not that bad, Brother Ward was guiding us and it was then we realized we were missing many of the people. So he went back to check on them and told us to follow the stream and just keep going and eventually we would see it.

So I went somewhat ahead of some of them and was trying to carefully walk over the rocks and at one point to catch my balance I grabbed this plant. It had sticker like things on it and got lodged into my palm. I carefully got it all off and instructed the girls behind me not to go down where I was at. As I was trying to go back up, I lost my footing and trying not to fall into the plant again, I positioned away from it and ended up hitting my ankle hard against a rock on my bone. Tears filled my eyes and the pain stung until I was able to look down and see the extent of the damage. My ankle was swelling and bleeding, some of the skin had come off. The girls assisted me in getting up the hill and we continued on up to the waterholes. The whole time, I was limping and sniffling over my injury! We finally got there and we basically had to go rock climbing to reach these water holes. It was quite the challenge with an injury.

Finally I was able to put my foot into the freezing water and it burned! I only lasted so long and climbed up onto a big rock and observed the other girls diving into a large hole with the waterfall off to the side coming from the water hole where I was at. Eventually we decided it was time to go and Brother Ward said, “Okay we have two options, we can come back the way we came or we can hike up this hill and get back to the trail we came up on. We all opted for the hill, which turned into a mountain! My ankle got wrapped and we went on our way. It was literally straight up a mountain and it was painful on a bad ankle! Finally we got back to the trail and headed back to camp. Dinner was really good! I don’t know when the last time pasta tasted as good as it did that night. I then slept in the tent for awhile. After a time, I joined everyone and due to the exhausting day everyone decided it was time to go to bed. I proceeded to spray myself down with bug spray to the point that Brother Ward jokingly said, “You smell good!”

The next morning, I woke up to ash covering my sleeping bag and body from the trees above the tent. I also had several bug bites on my back, face and arms. Not to mention large bruises on my arms (Makes me wonder what they put in those bug sprays!). We quickly packed up everything, I ate a little beef jerky and an orange and Rita and I decided to leave early after the Bishop and a few others had already left. We wanted a head start. That was one of the best decisions we made! The hike up was so much worse than the day before.

It was straight up for a good mile at the end. I was unsure how I was going to do it, but I did it! Sister Kinney said up the trial when we caught up to them that she was surprised at how well I was doing. Puzzled I asked, “Why?” She said, “Well you’re such a girly girl, I did not know if you could handle all this!” I laughed and in all fairness, I did wear makeup the day before! Luckily I proved myself to be strong and able to handle such a mountain. Would I do it again, probably not, someone would really have to convince me! But, I am glad I did it and I am proud of my moment of triumph when I saw the end of the hike and chugged my cold Gatorade that was waiting for me. This was my trip and after taking a long shower I did spend all of that Saturday, lying in bed and only getting up to go to the store to get food, Benadryl, anti-itch cream and three movie rentals. Yes it felt good to be home!

Church with Family

The Sunday Before

The Taylors at Church, the following week!

I love going to church with family! I got the giggles during Sacrament meeting literally and had a hard time keeping it in. Nothing really particular made me laugh, just in a silly mood! During Sunday school, Katie and I spent the time talking, in all fairness we always go, but we hardly get enough alone time together and so I don't feel particularly guilty! Relief Society was great! What would life be like without a loving family and friends to spend time with! Kaitlyn was so cute with her little purse and snuggling with her Mom!

Katie is always so sweet; she put Kaitlyn in the dress I gave her for her birthday so I could see her in it! She looked so cute. Children truly are a blessing from the Lord. After church I spent time with my Aunt Kath. We had the best time laughing hysterically over the silliest things and I did a couple of impressions for her. Reflecting back; it makes me laugh just writing it!

Wendy and Tammy's Baby Shower!

Our sweet little angel! I remember when she was just crawling!

The Mother's Club! (Mother, Mother-in-law's and daughters who are with child)
Me and Katie! She is my pal!

Wendy, My Aunt Kath and Tammy
Wendy, Katie and Tammy

You can get skinny really fast, just stand by two pregnant women! They don't mind!

Just some of the presents!
The beautifully decorated table!

The carriage cake
The cousins
Take notice the cute little ribbons indicating what they are carrying!

Wendy is married to my cousin Bryan and is currently pregnant with their third girl. Her sister Tammy is also pregnant with a little boy. What else is unique is the fact that their due dates are within 2 days of each other. These little cousins must be best friends to want to come together! So what is to be done when two sisters are both pregnant? Throw a double shower of course! We had fun playing a game where you had to guess who was bigger and by how much! I choose Tammy by two inches and I was right and so was Katie! We won prizes :) Then we watched them open up all the cute clothes and gifts they received. Katie was such a thoughtful Aunt, she got Wendy's other daughters gifts too for becoming sister's! We are so exited to welcome to our family another little girl! She is coming this month or next month (We think she will be early!)

The Taylor's are Moving!

The cute Taylor Family at Red Robin!

The chair she loved!

The kitchen
The cute little girl wanting the camera

She is so fun! Kaityln was helping give us the tour!

Dale giving us moose ears in the living room!
The outside of their new house!

Katie and Dale have bought a house about 45 minutes from Corona, we will still see them, but will miss the proximity of 5 minutes to a longer trip. The house they are moving into is beautiful and amazing so I can't say I blame them! They are so excited and I got to see the house when it was being constructed and then when it was finished and they just moved in! I love the kitchen and Master Bedroom. If only I had the closest space they have :)

After we took a look at their house, we headed over to Red Robin for some grub and had fun watching and participating in the coloring of Kaitlyn's coloring picture. I don't see why they don't give something to the Adults to entertain us! The kids even get a balloon! We then went to Babies R Us and had fun checking out all the cool children selection of toys. Kaityln loved this princess phone and so I had to get it because she was so cute with it! She also loved this princess chair. Those rocker chairs are awesome! We had fun exploring this huge store! Thanks Katie, Dale and Kaitlyn for a great night and letting me in on all the fun!

Phone Fun!

This is before we watched an Elmo DVD about sharing and being nice. They visited Grouchland! Scary place if you ask me :)

My Aunt was watching Kaityln on a Friday night back in July and I had come down for the weekend. So we were in the upstairs family room and Kaityln loves phones and talking into one. So she picked up the phone and talked with her Mom, Dad and anyone else she could think of! She is so ready to have her first cell phone!

Newport Beach Here I Come!!

This picture represents my new upcoming experience, yes it has finally happened and I am moving! No one except the Lord truly understands how exquisitely happy I am to be moving. For the past year and a half I have desired to move into the Newport Beach ward. I have experienced so many different emotions in the last year and to have this HUGE of a blessing in my life shows me the Lord is aware and is guiding me. Heavenly Father never leaves us alone and he always is there if we call upon him. At church today, I was really overcome with love for the people I have served with the past two years and who have become dear friends.

I have loved my missionary calling and getting to teach every Sunday for over a year. I came to see people accept the Savior into their life and change and it was exciting to play a small part in their progress. I am thankful for all the people who made a difference in my life while I was here in the ward. The girls in my ward were awesome and such great friends. I am excited for my new adventure and whatever might await me in a new place, good or bad. It really is what you make of it in this life. We can choose how to react in new situations, I am excited to have a new calling and the challenge of making new friends and having new roommates. I am excited to redecorate my room and literally I think about this way to much!

I love my Father in Heaven and I know that even if nothing is what I expect it to be; it does not matter because he is always by my side. I also love knowing I am not moving too far because I will have access to my friends that I have made for the past two years. Life is beautiful and I am thankful to know that the Lord loves each and every one of us!

PS My move in date is August 9, this Saturday!