Friday night to Saturday morning was our ward Father and kids camp out. While most wards probably have a Father's & Sons/Priesthood Commemoration camp out, we do not. If we were to have one of those camp outs, there wouldn't be many kids. Much of our ward has entered, or is well into, the geriatric stage of life, therefore they don't have kids running around, and may not be campers any longer. As it was, there were eight Dads and about 25-30 kids running around camp. We stayed at the church's Heber Valley Camp. I guess it is normally used as a girl's camp. It is really a nice, nice facility. We had three cabins with 8 (sleep 16) wood (no mattress) bunk beds. There was also this huge pavilion. It has electricity, running water, a room with refrigerators, showers, bathrooms, etc. The weather was VERY rainy, and if it wasn't rainy it was VERY overcast. It really didn't bother anyone though, and we all had a great time. Tinkerbell ended up coming into my bunk with me, and McQueen slept above us. He kept asking when he could "get beds like these." We also brought McQueen's remote control Hummer to share. It was a hit among all of the kids. Someone also brought a computer, a projector, and a sheet. The kids were able to watch a movie or two in one of the cabins. Okay, so it really wasn't ROUGHING it, but it was perfect for a handful of Dads to bring their little kids on a little retreat.Here, McQueen is demonstrating just how well his Hummer can fly off of logs on its way down a staircase. After letting a million kids do the same thing, Santa Clause should be very happy that the elves have made a very, very strong remote control vehicle.
We towed the boat up to the Heber Camp so that we could just hit the lake the following day. We planned for some friends to meet us and have a great time on the lake. I heard the report of "scattered showers" and focused more on the "scattered" and less on the showers. Everyone kept giving me a hard time that we would not be able to go. I kept the faith and held out hope that everyone except me would be wrong. The following morning came, and the clouds looked thicker. The rain descended and I started to lose faith. The time came to pack up and leave, but I was still holding on to the smallest chance that the boat would have water underneath it, as opposed to pounding the top of it that day. As some of the other guys were leaving, they mockingly said, "Have a good time waterskiing Kent." As I was driving through Heber, I saw my dream become a lost hope. I called the friends and cancelled. As we passed the lake I was cursing and condemning the gray demon clouds and the windy waves below. Had it not been for a fun camp before, I would have gone home a depressed and downtrodden man. As I started to ascend the back part of Parley's Canyon, a strange thing happened. The clouds broke apart to reveal a blue sky. The sunlight broke through, and what were once dark and gray, were now white and fluffy. Ahhh, what was this?!! I quickly called the lake. An Indian man (no, not a Native American, an Indian) answered the phone. In his sweet accent he said, "dark clouds and rain gone away, wind has died down some, might be a good day for you to bring yourself to lake after all." I have NEVER wanted to kiss an Indian man more in my life. I headed back to the lake as I quickly scrambled to call everyone. In thirty short minutes almost everyone found something else to do. It is like they had given up hope when they saw the dark, dark clouds and heavy rain or something. It's crazy, I know! I called around to other people, but they were all busy with one thing or another. If it was possible, the kids were more set on going boating then I was. McQueen kept reminding me that I promised we would go boating if it stopped raining and we could see blue sky. Indeed he was correct, that is EXACTLY what I promised! Luckily Ashley was still able to come up. She has become quite the wake boarder and boat driver as of late. We did a ton of tubing, some skiing, and some wake boarding. The kids have now learned all about the flag and the rules surrounding it. We really had a great time on perfect water, with blue skies, with just the four of us.
This video is great. Ashley has not spent much of her life on a boat, let alone behind one. This season is the first time she has even really attempted to wake board. She is progressing really well. After she had been up without falling for going on three minutes, I started recording as I drove (luckily there were almost no boats on the lake). She had the board turned sideways. That is almost ALWAYS an inevitable and guaranteed, HARD face plant! I was recording because I could not, and still cannot, figure out how she went so long before the face plant. Sadly, the face plant finally did pull her eyelids over her whole head (that is what a face plant on the water feels like). Listen for my reaction and sweet recording job in the moments immediately following the crash.
