Fun Weekend

I spent most of the weekend with the girls. Friday night was our ward campout. Kylee didn't go because she's 7 months pregnant so the girls and I wondered over to the campout around 6:00. We picked a nice spot away from everyone to try and avoid all the noise from the many families that stayed over night. Then we ate with the ward and then the girls and I went down to the river to get their feet wet.

We camped at a members place along the Molalla River. It's fantastic for this sort of thing. Their house is up above the river and down below, where we camped, is a vary large area with mowed grass, running water and even a flushing toilet. There's a spot in the river that provides a large swimming hole that is out of the current or you can wade through the current next to the pool where it's very shallow where the water flows over the rocks.

The girls stayed up late running around with their friends. Kinzley started complaining about being tired around 9:15 so we started heading off to bed. On the way to the tent Audrey showed up and was ready for bed too. After I had those two in the tent and in their PJ's, I started tracking down Laila and Alyson. I had told them around 9:45 that they had 15 minutes left to play but by 10:00 they still weren't happy about having to stop. Apparently it's not fair that "all the other kids get to keep playing". Ironically however, as we were waiting for each other to go potty all the other families started heading off to bed and the camp started to get quite. Back at the tent I had to take Audrey potty again and then Kinzley again. Then we laid in bed and the girls talked for 30 or 40 minutes. It was nice to just lay there and have quite conversations with my girls. It was mostly yes or no questions from Audrey and Alyson but it was still nice to let them talk.

The next day we were up early. At 6:30 Alyson started asking if she could get up but the other three were still sleeping so I only let her go potty and then come right back. But she laid there the rest of the morning asking if she could get up because she was bored. Once everyone was up we had a wonderful camp breakfast prepared by the young men. Then the girls were back down at the water. We played there for a little while and then I took Audrey and Kinzley with me up to pack up the tent. It takes a while to role up five sleeping bags and pads by yourself. The only other family to camp next to us just threw all of their gear in the back of their truck and left. I don't know how long it took them to sort it out when they got home but it only took me a couple of minutes to unload the van put everything away when we got home.

I was planning on doing some yard work in the afternoon. I have a couple of fence posts to finish putting in around the garden. But it was really hot and Kylee easily talked me out of that. She had bought me a shirt for Father's Day that was too small for me and needed to be exchanged. So we cleaned up Kinzley and took her with us to take care of that and meander through the air conditioned mall. We left the other three at home. It's kind of fun to run around with just one child every now and then. When we got home it was time for dinner and bed.

On Sunday we packed a lunch and went to the temple after church. Sadly our girls had never been before. That's mainly my fault. The only day that really works is Sunday but I thought the grounds were completely locked down on Sunday's and Monday's. Apparently it's just the parking lot. We went down there because the church is offering tours of the temple grounds on Sunday's for the next couple of months. I don't think they start until 4:00 however. We were there at 3:00 and there were just a few sight seers.

We parked in the shade in the overflow parking lot and ate our lunch. Then we walked around the temple grounds and took pictures and talked. As we were getting ready to leave, some people started setting up a table with fliers and Books of Mormon on it. I talked to them briefly (mostly because we needed somebody to take a family picture of us) and found out that they were setting up for the tours. It's mainly a question and answer forum for those that have questions about the temple.

At home we relaxed in our cool home and let the girls play in there room while Kylee and I laid on the couch and talked. Well, for a little while anyway. Kylee called her mom after a while and I tried to sleep. That's not an easy task while Kylee is on the phone and little girls keep coming in and asking questions. We snacked for dinner and then watched Spirited Away. That was my choice. I've been trying to watch it for a couple of weeks now. We had ice cream halfway through. When it was over the girls and I went outside and laid on blankets so we could look at the stars. They only lasted 20 minutes or so and then it was off to bed.

It's weekends like this that I really don't like going back to work. I spent a week at girls camp and it was really hard to go back to work after that too. I need to figure out some method to support my family financially but allow me to be at home most of the time. It drives me nuts when people say that it must be nice that I get to go to work everyday and not have to deal with the kids. That I'm fortunate to be able to get out of the house and be around other people. I have no bonding relationship with anyone at work. I work for a very good company and since I have to work I don't mind working for Benson but I would much rather be at home, with my family, with the people I love. I wonder how much money I could make farming Christmas trees. That's very popular out by us.