long time no see: part 2: summer fun

Well, we had a lot of fun this summer! It was a busy one!

We finished school the first Friday in June. We had a week of enjoying the freedom of no school, no homework, more relaxed bedtimes and just doing what we wanted. Then I headed off to a week of Girls Camp at Aspencrest which is in the very, very (and did I say VERY?) general area of Heber City. We were originally scheduled to go to Timberlane which is between Duchesne and Price. Our stake is part of the Timberlane camp organization. However, a cold, late spring and cool start to summer meant that the campground was still under snow. It’s at over 9,000 feet. So the week before camp, our stake leaders scrambled and found us Aspencrest. We had a great time there.

I came home from camp on Friday and 24 hours later we all headed to Southern California for a week long family vacation with the Allen family. When Mom and Dad were on their mission last year, they mentioned wanting to do a vacation with all of us (meaning me, my three siblings and our families). Unfortunately, their return date kept getting changed until by the time we had a firm return date , it was too late to do anything in 2009. So the trip was postponed to this year. We went to San Diego and stayed in the La Jolla area. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach—all we had to do was walk across the courtyard and down some steps and we were at the beach! We had a fabulous time playing on the beach, going to Sea World, visiting the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, a Catholic mission, and the Birch Aquarium, as well as hanging out with the family.

Steven’s parents are serving a Church service mission at Heber Valley Camp. Their assignment is a 6-month one. They started in April and will finish in October. During the summer, we went up three times—once for a Dean family reunion, once for a Swain family reunion, and then once to stay overnight. Young Women groups have camp from Monday morning to Friday morning. They have to be checked out by 10 a.m. Then ward groups; father/sons groups and other groups can use the camp Friday through Saturday. Non-YW groups can use any campsites not used by the YW during the week. Missionary families can use the camp Saturday through Sunday.

Mom and Dad Swain were originally assigned to the waterfront. Their responsibilities included setting up and taking down boating equipment, and helping camp groups with their boating activities. The lake has two types of boats: paddle boats and canoes. No swimming is allowed. There’s a beach with a big sandbox for children and a sand volleyball court. Then in June Dad Swain got an infection in his leg that made a transfer to service projects necessary. Missionaries are required to have their own RVs to live in and to provide their own ATVs for getting around camp. Each campsite has a camp host so you see the RVs at each campsite but there are also areas were there are “villages” of RVs for the missionaries who have other responsibilities. It’s fun to see the 60- and 70-year old senior missionaries tooling around on their ATVs like they’re 30 years younger. Mom and Dad Swain have been having a great time on this mission and made a lot of new friends.

While at HVC for the various family get togethers, we had the opportunity to go on the boats (we’ve all done the canoes and paddle boats); go through a challenge course; hike, camp, and enjoy being outside.

Other summer fun: we went swimming a lot! I bought 3 month passes to the West Jordan Rec Center and we used the pool several times a week. We also enjoyed spending time with our friends and other family members.

The last big activity for me was youth conference. We started off with doing baptisms for the dead at the Mt. Timpanogos temple. Then we drove up to Heber City. Our YM president's brother owns a cabin in the Heber City area and that's where we stayed. It's a beautiful cabin in the mountains. We had a great time--we laughed, talked, told stories and jokes, had awesome workshops with great speakers, good food, and two of the YW pranked all the girls. We had a fabulous time! The conference was Friday and Saturday--and the next Monday school started!