Cedar Badge is over!

Cedar Badge (National Youth Leadership Training) is now over for another year. It was a bittersweet ending once again. I was so glad that it was over (because we were all just so tired after 2 1/2 weeks) but so sad that it was all over because I just love being with those boys!
This year, Heather and Holly were on the commissary staff the first week (along with Susan T. who is amazing!). I was up there on Thursday afternoon of staff week, then had to come home Monday night for class Tuesday morning. I stayed at home until Thursday afternoon, drove up to Driggs and stayed again until Monday night. Rest, repeat.....okay, light on the rest part. The sad thing was that they did such an awesome job, I don't think that they really needed me! :( The second week, Heather was there again with Julie T. and Tawna (both of whom were also amazing). They didn't really need me the second week either, but they were good enough to let me think so! :D
Jeff was on staff the first week, and Heath was a participant. Graduation day was pretty awesome! Kerry and little Jared went camping and came up to Treasure Mountain on Saturday (for graduation). The big surprise was that they also had Jessie with them! SO, we had all of our family except for Big Jared on the hill! Pretty cool....
Holly stayed on the hill the second week as well, but she wasn't in the commissary! She was on Venturing staff. Due to snow, their hike included trudging through snow, and sliding down the other side on their back packs! BRRRRRRR!
Big highlights this year would be: 1. walking into the commissary one morning to find a "gorilla" standing there waiting to scare us. It was really just one of the quartermasters in costume, but we screamed nonetheless....okay, Holly didn't scream as she was too tired. 2. putting "skankie" underwear on a drying rack in front of the quartermaster's tent (they didn't even seem phased...) 3. The quartermasters gave us flowers in a unique vase.....a toilet bowl in front of the commissary and 4. a little boy who didn't want to stand up for flag ceremony decided to make his point with a knife (he didn't hurt anyone, and was sent promptly home....)
Now, I just have two weeks of school left for the summer! I'm going to enjoy being home with my kids for the month break that I will have before the fall semester begins! Can't believe that in two weeks I will only have 2 semesters left before graduation! Yeah!

Spring has finally sprung!

Well, here we are in June....very near the END of June, but we finally have spring! Too bad that summer is just a week away, and we won't get to enjoy it for very long. :( We started up at Cedar Badge last week. The first day was Wednesday for the commissary staff. The Quartermasters (the great people who fix the camp and keep it running) were up there on Monday. They arrived to about 6 inches of snow. On Wednesday, it snowed another 8 inches. Needless to say, we were a little concerned about the boys coming up. It may be "warm" in the valley, but up in them there hills the snow is deep and cold! It's a good thing for space heaters, and warm sleeping bags! We stay in a cabin, so it's not as cold as tents. BUT, we get up at 5:30 or so to get the food out to the camp. It's also a mite chilly in the middle of the night when an old lady like me has to get up and pee! It's a long walk in the cold night air to the lodge! (and cold makes me have to pee even more! sheesh!)