And Then There was Girls Camp

After our family vacation to Saint George, Daisy and I headed straight to our Young Women (church) camp. As in… we literally got dropped off on the way home. Everyone else got there Tuesday, but we came a day late. We had dropped off an extra car at the campground on our way to Saint George. We didn’t really need our own car there, but I kept feeling like I should have one available just in case. Then we ended up having a family emergency, and it was a huge blessing to have my car AND to be at a campground in Nephi, which is an hour closer to my parents’ house… where I was able to head straight from the campground (that is a story for another day, but I would just like to throw out there that the Lord gives us tender mercies in our time of need). 

Sunrise at camp

Let me tell you something… Girls Camp is a lot like childbirth. You remember some things and you forget others. Then when you’re going through it again, you recall all of the things that slipped your memory from the last time, and you’re like, “Holy crap! I forgot about this part!” It’s rewarding and beautiful one moment and emotional chaos the next. You feel such love for the girls, but they also drive you nuts. Then you hand them back to their mothers at the end of the week, and you’re so glad it’s over, and you’re like “Please! Take them back!” but then you can’t stop thinking about them, and you kind of miss them and look forward to seeing them again on Sunday. 

I hiked with a few of the girls to watch the sunset

This year I helped a lot with planning camp, and I realized I absolutely love planning Girls Camp! Executing camp… a whole other story. That part is exhausting! The part where I’m actually there and trying to make things happen? That is some hard stuff! But the planning and organizing part? Right up my alley! I will make grocery lists, sew 22 pillowcases and 25 mess kit bags, type up informative letters, organize supplies, accidentally bake 80 gluten free cookies, meticulously keep notes regarding every detail to help with future camps, and laminate and label anything you want!

Mess kits (mine is the classy Walmart bag, but I sewed drawstring bags for the girls with some fabric a ward member donated)

But getting girls to pack up their junk and put a tent away so we can go home and then listening to them fight over which car they get to ride home in nearly does me in! Herding them to the volleyball pit? Getting them to wear a helmet for the challenge course? Making them clean up after themselves? Keeping track of where they are at every moment of the day? For the love of Pete! I need to spend a week alone in a cave to recover from that stuff.

Looking down on the camp from the "Hill Cumorah"

But camp was good overall. At least I think it was. I find that things tend to appear positive, fine, and dandy for a few days after we come home, and then stuff starts to surface. We find out about conversations we didn’t hear and feelings that were hurt and behind-the-scenes drama. It’s impossible to please everyone, so there is always going to be some type of flack, but I know we did our best as leaders. 

The camp we went to was a new one for us, but we really liked it. They had a lot of fun activities - archery, axe throwing, a water slide, nine-square, a challenge course, and more. We also had a really nice spot with plenty of shade and trees to hang hammocks from. I really liked having camp in June and getting it done early in the summer. Last year we had stake girls camp in July, and it was so stinkin’ hot. This year, it was a little on the chilly side for the water activities, but I think it’s good for the girls' souls to freeze a little now and then. 

The water slide (we toured the camp about a month ago, and the slide was still being built)

The challenge course

On a personal level, camp was a bit brutal. Coming straight from vacation with no time in between is not ideal. I was already exhausted, and then I got to experience the added fatigue of camp. I think I got about six hours of sleep total while I was there. My air mattress gave up the ghost, so I slept laid on the ground for two nights. I arrived at camp with a headache that I still have, and my hips are bruised from my attempts at sleeping. There's a slight chance I have a double ear infection - I might have to look into that in the next day or so - as I have some pain in my ear/jaw area on both sides. I was also dealing with the emotions of my family's emergency and trying to keep it together. I spent a lot of time pacing and looking for phone service. But none of that is really related to the girls themselves - it was just my own circumstances. Now that I'm home, I'm wiped out in a different way than I have ever been wiped out from Girls Camp in the past. I need a really long sleep. 

On the way home, after going from vacation to camp to my parents' house, I broke and drank a Dr. Pepper. So I've done it, folks. I've abandoned my six month long streak of no soda. I don't know where I go from here, but I have to say... the sauce is good. My stomach instantly inflated by eight inches, but it was the most wonderful thing I've tasted. I was a little worried about driving home for two hours with as tired as I was, so I opted for caffeine. And after not really having any for six months, it worked mighty fine. I was awake and alert the whole drive home and stayed buzzed until 10:26 pm when I suddenly hit a wall and fell asleep instantly. 

As I continue to progress into the summer months, I'm happy to have Girls Camp checked off the list. Next year, believe it or not, Zoe gets to go to camp! That will bring a whole new adventure!

The Time We Kicked Tony Finau’s Family Out of Our Lounge Chairs at the Pool (and Other Saint Georgey Tales): For Real This Time

When I last left you, my family had just checked into a resort in Saint George. A resort! Who are we?

(Spoiled is what we are!)

Anyway, the guests, in addition to our family, included Scotty’s dad and step-mom and five of Scotty’s seven siblings (on that side) and their families (for informational purposes, Scotty has a total of 13 siblings, and I have 11. Our family stories often require a diagram). 

19 of the 25 grandkids

Instead of doing a full play by play of our vacation here are ten things we did once we arrived at our destination:

1. Hung out at the pool for hours and hours

2. Played games - contests and jacks for the kids, poker for some of the adults (myself included, though I’m still reeling from a big mistake I made that took me out of one of the games!)

The kids learning to play jacks

3. Ate 

4. Hiked the Red Reef trail (which had a lot less water than it did three months ago)

Grasping for tadpoles

Thank you for having shade, Mother Earth

5. Had a family golf tournament

6. Tried Pink Box Donuts

Blueberry croughnut on the bottom right was my favorite!

7. Stayed up way too late

8. Caught lizards and tadpoles

This one shed its tail

Lizard

Tadpole (ew)

9. Played in the club house

10. Hung out in the cabana 

Which brings me to the Tony Finau story. If you don’t know who Tony Finau is, it’s time you learn. He is a professional golfer - originally from Salt Lake, and we Utahns love our Tony! 

On Tuesday, our family had a cabana rental at the pool, and after dinner, we journeyed back to our cabana for the umpteenth time, and there was a family sitting in the chairs in front of our cabana. I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t think we had any claim on the chairs, but when my father-in-law came to the pool, he kicked them all out of the chairs and told them they were ours. The family got up and moved, and then not a single person from our family used the chairs for the rest of the night. My brother-in-law went over and chatted with the family and apologized and asked them how their vacation was going. They said they were there celebrating a birthday and that they were from Lehi (LEE-high), Utah.

After that family left the pool, Scotty came over to me and said, “I’m pretty sure that was Tony Finau’s family.” I was like “Nah! Tony Finau’s family could have rented their own cabana or had a house with a private pool.” But I started googling photos of his family just to see, and I couldn’t make a determination based on my research. For sure, the family didn’t have a father with them… and Scotty knew that Tony was at a tournament in Connecticut. One of the women looked (to me) a little like his wife, but since they were gone from the pool, I was limited by my memory and had no live samples to compare online photos to. 

Later that night, Scotty saw the family, who happened to be staying in a house right across the street from us. He said, “Hey! You’re the Finaus!” and the kids got all excited. Yes! They were the Finaus - Tony’s wife and kids and their aunt and grandma. The kids were excited to be recognized. They said “Wow! We’re famous!” and it was super cute that they don’t know. 

Nicky was excited because he was able to identify their van from watching the Tony Finau episode of Full Swing on Netflix. He came into our house saying, “Mom! I just found Tony Finau’s van!” And, as is indicative of living a very normal family life, the kids had written all over the dusty windows, “Finau.” 

So if the family of a famous golfer ever takes over your space at a pool, and you're not comfortable asking them to move, just call in my father-in-law. He's gotchu. 

The Time We Kicked Tony Finau’s Family Out of Our Lounge Chairs at the Pool (and Other Saint Georgey Tales)

Last weekend we headed to Saint George for a vacation with Scotty's dad's side of the family. This was our third year going together over Father's Day. 

We headed down a day early because we always enjoy an excuse to extend a vacation. On the way, we ventured to see a few new sights.

First, we stopped for lunch at Ashton's Burger Barn in Delta. Scotty attempted the "Meathead Challenge" - 2 lbs of burger with cheese and fixings on a bun, plus a pound of fries. He didn't really want to do the challenge, but he wanted the burger, so he asked it they would let him buy it to share with his son. They have a rule that you can only get it for the challenge, so he said, "Okay, I will try it and fail, then!" Now he has his photo on the Wall of Shame. But he got the burger he wanted, and even though he suffered a gracious round of the meat sweats and spent a good chunk of time on the toilet later, he has no regrets. 

Gosh it was a bummer to not get that “free” t-shirt though. 

 The Starting Line

The Challenge

The Leftovers

(about 1/4 lb of meat and a lot of cheese)

The Meathead Challenge 

Wall of Fame & Wall of Shame

From there we went to see some solar ruins. It's hard to find a good, informative article that explains what these are, but the short story is there was some type of fraud where people invested in these solar spinning thingies, and they never ended up producing any power across a ten-year span, and someone got in a whole lot of trouble. Now there's just this field of decrepit solar "trees" in the middle of nowhere, Utah. 

Whatever the story is, this field would make a fantastic set for some kind of sci-fi movie. 

After we saw the solar ruins, we went to the site of the Topaz Internment Camp. 

There isn't much to see there - just a few plaques and a lot of open land. The structures are all gone, and they just have signs that show what used to be where. You can drive around and look at things, but it’s really just dirt, sage brush, and ant hills. 

In the week prior to this trip, we picked up a nail in the van tire and a screw in the truck tire. We were able to salvage the van tire, but we had to get new tires on the truck. At Topaz, we saw a bunch of nails in the dirt, and we joked about how crappy it would be if we got a nail in our van tire again. 

It's hard to see in the photo, but this is a bunch of gravel and nails

Sure enough, we had a low tire by the time we got to Saint George! Scotty had to take it in to get repaired on Tuesday. The culprit? A nail.

BUT... before Saint George...

We also stopped at Cove Fort. This is one of those places we always talk about stopping at, but we'd never actually made it. Cove Fort has been striked from the itinerary a few times, so this time we made sure to stop! (This is where Scotty's epic post-food-challenge bathroom break took place).

Cove Fort is a boring bit of Utah history that I don't really care about. I mean, don't get me wrong... I don't mind seeing Cove Fort. I just don't want a lesson about it, nor do I want to tell you about it. 

Mormon history... Pioneers... Something to do with Brigham Young... bla bla bla...

(Sorry, ancestors and stuff).

After we left Cove Fort, we finished driving to Saint George. We stopped by a couple of parks, and our kids were pretty uninterested in playing (darn that Saint George heat), and then we checked into our hotel, ate sandwiches out of our cooler, and took the kids to the pool. 

Forced play for photo ops

The next day we went to Snow Canyon and did a hike. Even though it was on the cooler side temperature-wise for Saint George, it was still way too hot. I don't like hiking in the heat, especially when I'm fully exposed to the sun. So I was a good sport, but inside, I couldn't wait for it to be over!

Butterfly Rock

(I was not impressed)

Snow Canyon Scenery

Lava Tubes

I've been in Snow Canyon a few times, but this was the first hike I'd done there. The funny thing about Snow Canyon is that they have signs warning you to watch out for tortoises... as if they'll just come running out in front of your car any second! I feel like they are false advertisements. Where are these tortoises of which they speak? I've yet to see a tortoise anywhere in Utah! I think there's a tortoise scam!

After we hiked, we were lucky to find a picnic table in the shade, so we ate lunch and watched some birds - quail (two adults and lots of little babies!), Woodhouse's Scrub-Jays (tons of them - they wanted to steal our food), and a roadrunner (which is always fun to see, and we go "Meep, meep!" because we have to). 

Scotty and the kids walked to see a granite tortoise statue, and it was just as disappointing as the lack of actual tortoises in Snow Canyon. 

After Snow Canyon, we still had hours to burn before we could check into our lodging, so we went to a shaded park and slept on the ground. The park was right by a church, so we woke up to a bunch of families walking around us on their way home.

We stopped at a grocery store and picked up dinner from Cafe Rio, then checked into our resort. 

I never intended this story to span multiple posts, but for the sake of us all, I'll end this portion here and pick up tomorrow...

Which means... I leave you wondering about the Tony Finau thing. 

Dun... dun... dunnnnnn....

Seriously with the Eddies

As you’ve probably noticed, I really enjoy reading. It’s not unheard of for me to read about three books a week, but since my kids have been out of school, I haven’t read a single book! Time is not the issue, though.* It’s focus. My kids turn my mind to mush! 

Prior to summer break, however, I was keeping a log of common things I was finding in the books I read. You see, there are always things that carry over from one book to the next, and I’ve always thought it was a pretty funny phenomenon. I remember once I read three books in a row (unintentionally, of course) that had characters named Nina. I never would have thought a character named Nina would be a reason for me to not finish a book, but by the third one, I just couldn’t read another Nina book, so I quit and put it back on my “to read” list for another time.

Here are the last 8 books I’ve finished and some of the connections from book to book:

The Choice by Eva Eger: Auschwitz survivor, danced for Mengele

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jakur: Auschwitz survivor, mentions Mengele, author goes by Eddie in English

Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen: character named Tommy

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls: character named Tom, character named Eddie, character named Sallie, character named Nell

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh: character named Eddie, character named Tommy

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center: girl working with a bunch of men hasn’t hugged anyone in a long time, character with last name Callahan

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes: girl working with a bunch of men hasn’t hugged anyone in a long time

Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kegan: character named Sally, character named Nell, character named Eddie, and character with last name Callahan

Interesting, isn’t it? And what’s with the Eddies? Never in my life have I been exposed to so many Eddies in such a short amount of time. Eddie has far surpassed Nina! 

Does this happen to anyone else?

*Here’s a post I wrote about how I fit in reading time.

Sounds

It’s 9:50 on a Friday night, and these are the things I can hear:

Zoe is singing in the shower. 

There’s a really loud robin chirping right outside our living room window. Abnormally loud.

Eva is in our bedroom watching Disney+ and howling like a wolf.

There’s hammering coming from one of the 920 construction sites nearby.

And Scotty is tapping his leg with his hand.

Cue the screaming from the city carnival.

Now would be the perfect time for the guy with the loud, annoying car to drive past. 

(Everyone who lives within a mile of here knows about that guy. Can I get an amen?)

Update at 10:07… how about some fireworks?

20 things

1. A recent picture of you

Tuesday

Just keeping it real with my crazy summer hair and my Chinese food.

2. The meaning behind your blog name

My name is Britt, and I am fluent in Brittish. 

3. A picture of your animals

They don't appreciate the photo op. They're too busy indulging in kitchen scraps. 

4. Favorite super hero and why

Wolverine.

Because Hugh Jackman.

5. A picture of somewhere you’ve been

I hope you weren' expecting anywhere more exotic than Costco.

6. A habit that you wish you didn’t have

Donuts & Deli... my favorite! This batch was hot and fresh.

7. A picture of someone or something that has had an impact on you

8. Short term goals for the month

Survive girls’ camp.

9. Something you’re proud of from the past week

Keeping my wits about me while preparing a sacrament meeting talk, having kids home from school, prepping for girls’ camp, and getting ready to leave on vacation.

10. Songs you listen to when you need to get hyped up

11. A picture of you with friends

12. Why you started a blog

I was bored at work.

13. A nickname you have

Britt the Sh*t

14. A picture of something that makes you happy

15. What makes you different from everyone else

I don’t like swimming. 

16. Something you crave a lot

Coke. But I haven’t had any since New Year’s Eve. 

17. Three books from your bookshelf

How about five instead? Despite what you may think, I don't actually own a lot of books. 

18. Something you’ve learned in the past month

I can handle a lot if I stay ahead of the game and get things done early. I can’t function if I wait until the last minute.

19. Something you love doing

20. One of your character strengths

Maybe I'm creative?

Of Tattoos and Backpacks

I don't know a lot about tattoos. I don't have any. But I'm often curious, when I see people's tattoos, why they picked the one(s) that they did. Sometimes it's obvious - it's their child's name or the image of something their fanatical about (Star Wars or something). Other times it's a giant tiger or a naked lady, and I'm like, "Why that?" 

One thing I learned recently is that sometimes it's not about the image, it's about the artist. Some people just want to be inked by a specific tattooist, and they don't care so much about what the actual tattoo is. They're just like, "I am honored to be your canvas!" That was kind of surprising to me because in any tattoo-related daydreams I've had, I've always had the pressure of choosing my imaginary tattoo. It never occurred to me to turn it over to the artist. I'm such a control freak that I'd never let another person choose my tattoo, and I'd probably take over the tattoo gun anyway. 

As I go around society and see tattoos all over the place, I always want to ask people about them. Especially the weird ones. But I never do. 

I also want to ask everyone about their Loungefly backpacks. Because, like tattoos, everyone sports a unique Loungefly backpack that's part of their identity. Sometimes it's obvious, "Oh that person must love The Little Mermaid or Star Wars," (always with the Star Wars). But other times, there's some weird one that makes me go, "Why that one?" The weirdest ones, to me, are things like Stitch dressed as Obi-Wan Kanobi or all the Winnie the Pooh characters, but their heads are balloons. I want to know what sort of round table discussions the designers are having:

"Who has an idea for another backpack?"

"I know! Let's take the characters from Toy Story but have them flying in front of Big Ben like Peter Pan. It will be the ultimate mash-up!"

"Yes! Genius! Make it happen!"

And somehow there's a market for that... 

So just like with the tattoos, I want to go around asking everyone about their Loungefly backpacks. What made you invest $60-90 for that particular piece? And... how many of these backpacks do you own? Because some people own one - it is thee backpack. But others own a collection, and after spending a really long time hunting for my Loungefly backpack, I can see how ownership can get out of hand. They are expensive and silly, but they are also a whole lot of fun. 

Behold... my backpack:*

So why this backpack?

First of all, Robin Hood is my guy. I've loved Robin Hood since I was a toddler. "Maid Marian, will you marry me?" is my favorite romantic line from a movie. 

But secondly, this backpack was one of the most inexpensive ones I could find. 

As we prepared for our Disney World trip last fall, I spent the better part of the year looking at Loungefly backpacks and considering buying some for my girls and me. I went back and forth for months. I watched the sales at Hot Topic and filled my cart a number of times and then didn't buy any. Then a few weeks before our trip, I filled another cart and actually hit submit! I let each of my girls pick a backpack from the ones on sale (I think the cheapest one I bought was $22 and the most expensive one was $35, which actually isn't too bad, plus we got "Hot Cash" back on our purchase which allowed us to buy Daisy another Loungefly backpack a few weeks later for her birthday) (Daisy owns three - Steamboat Willie, Lion King, and Chip 'n Dale. Eva picked Bambi and Zoe picked Meeko and Flit from Pocohontas). 

So what does my backpack say about me? I like Robin Hood, and I'm cautious with my money. So if I ever get a tattoo, perhaps it should be an arrow that I draw myself with a tattoo gun I purchased from the DI.

*Technically I own two, but one was gifted to me, and Daisy took it over as her own and absolutely loves it, so I've surrendered it.