Well, I survived my one night of girl's camp. It was cold and rainy, just like the rest of the week. The sun did come out as we were leaving, though. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the ice cream cone. As I drove in to where I get it, I saw 2 or 3 tour buses, and the tourists were lined up out the door and accross the parking lot. I quickly decided that the ice cream would have to wait until another day as I was not willing to wait THAT long! I can always drive up and get it another day. And don't think I won't! However, I do have a picture of this ice cream cone, but it's from last year and it's with my nephew, Blaine instead of me. Girl's camp was a lot of fun, though. We sang songs, ate food, did skits, and the girls received their certification. When I arrived, one of my Beehives ran up and gave me a great big hug. When she asked what I was doing there, I found myself saying "Because I wanted to see you guys. I've missed you this week!" The smile on her face was AWESOME!!! And the thing that shocked me was that I meant what I said! I really did miss them this week! So it was a lot of fun to hang out with them at camp. They were very excited to show me their cabin. There were 5 young women in this cabin, and let me tell you...it STUNK!!! After swimming in a slimy, leech-infested lake all week, they really got to be pretty rank! But they had a lot of fun, and I'm really glad that I was able to share part of their week with them. When I got home, the sun was out. So, of course, I took my dining room chair, stuck it out in the middle of my yard, and read a book. When I got tired of the book, I stretched out and closed my eyes. After a week of rain, highs in the low to mid 50's, and lows in the high 40's, I just needed to bask in the heat. It was great!!! I've also just discovered exactly how many mosquito bites I've received this weekend. It take me back to the times that we went to Alturus (sp?) Lake in Idaho when I was younger. When we got back, we all counted our mosquito bites to see who had the most. All I remember is that we always counted more than 20 of them. Good times! Good times! Anyway, I hope everyone had a great weekend and you were all able to get out and enjoy your weather. I know everyone outside of Alaska had hot temperatures and sun! All I can say is enjoy it!!!

Since I posted last, I have watched my friend's neighbor chase a moose down the street with a rake (now THAT'S entertainment!), I've discovered that birds are eating my strawberries (BLAST!), and now I'm getting ready for Girls' camp. I actually have to work this week, and Girl's camp started 2 days ago. But I get to go up tomorrow and spend the last night. I'm really excited to go up, not to be at Girl's camp, but because I get to stop at Miller's Market and get the biggest ice cream cone I've ever seen. Seriously...it is HUGE! I'll have to get a picture of it. I'm taking someone up with me, so this shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, I get this ice cream once a year, and tomorrow is the day. YEAH!!! More to come on that... I talked to my friend who is already up there as a stake leader. She has a cold, the stake YW President has a cold, and a couple girls have already almost drowned in the leach-infested lake (yeah...I'm not a lake swimmer). It's raining and cold. BUT, it sounds like everyone is having a blast. I'm a fair weather camper, myself, so I'm not really looking forward to the cold and wet. But it's just for 1 night, right? I can do it! It's at a church-owned camp called LaDaSa. Cute, huh? They have cabins, a lodge, an amphitheater, a lake, and railroad tracks running right through the middle. So, the train runs through camp a couple times a day. Sometimes it's a train full of tourists, other times it's cargo. It separates the lake from the rest of the camp. Overall, though, it really is a nice place, and it's always fun to be there. It is used a lot and has been the victim of vandals more than once. So there are MANY service projects there to clean it up and repair some of the damage from vandals and over-use. I'll post pictures so you can see what I'm talking about. Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will write again sooner than later. I have to keep you posted about camp, right?

So last night, my 4 year old friend, Lilli, slept over. As we were saying bedtime prayers, I asked her to ask Heavenly Father for a nice day "tomorrow" (meaning today). I did this thinking that He couldn't say "no" to Lilli because she is so dang sweet! Well, it worked. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and perfect for hiking. It started to get "hot", meaning 70's, towards the end of the hike. See? Prayers ARE answered!!! Anyway, the hike was a KILLER!!! Oh, my gosh! It was brutal!!! The thing about hiking in Alaska is that the people who blazed the trails were apparently in a hurry. I say this because there is no going back and forth, gradually going up the mountain. No round-about way. Nope, not here! It's straight...and I mean STRAIGHT up! It is the shortest distance after all, right? Don't get me wrong, though...it was AWESOME!!!! So on this killer hike, you have to actually hike a couple miles to the actual trailhead. Then it's a couple more to the top. Then you come back down, and hike back a couple miles to the car. The peak is called "Near Point", but it is anything BUT "near"!!!! And to give you an idea of exactly how steep this trail was, I put some duck tape on my heels because I have a tendency to get blisters. Duck tape is the best blister prevention because it REALLY sticks to your skin and generally doesn't come off. Anyway, my hiking boots actually wore the duck tape down and I still got blisters on BOTH heels. When I took the duck tape off, there were my blisters and the duck tape was worn REALLY thin. Well...that has NEVER happened before! Next time I'll have to put on 2 or 3 layers!!! Anyway, while we were hiking to the killer trailhead, we came upon a black bear. He was just lounging in the middle of the trail. So, of course, I took out my camera. As soon as he saw the camera, he got up and started to walk away. So I only got his body...his head is in the bushes. After he got off the trail, we made some noise and kept going. I'm telling you...I LOVE THIS PLACE! Anyway, there were some really pretty wild flowers on the way up, too. So I took some pictures of those because they were such cute little wild flowers. One of them is called a "Chocolate Lilli". Sounds good, right? It is a really pretty flower, and it looks almost black. However, it truly amazes me that something so pretty can smell soooooooooo bad!!!! Seriously, I would like to not have to ever smell that smell again!! It was AWEFUL!!!!! My friend Marjory mentioned that she couldn't smell it above her own body odor (we were sweating pretty dang good!), but then she realized that the smell she was smelling was actually the lilli! It was pretty funny! We finally had to pull out the mint balm just to get the lilli smell out of our sinuses. It wasn't pleasant at all. The irony of it all!!! There were some other really pretty flowers that I don't know the names of that we didn't smell. Why would we after the unpleasantness of the first one! On our way up, we saw another black bear, but it was across a small gully and on another hill. We could see it walking our way, so I got a bit nervous. Then some people started walking down from the peak towards the bear (2 different trails to the peak). So I stood there, resting, completely enthralled by what was going on. They were walking right to the bear, and the bear was walking right towards them. Then they came to an abrupt stop, and the bear wandered off back up the hill. I still there thinking "Bear...bear..bear!!!!" We FINALLY made it to the top of the peak (I'm a rather slow hiker when it's that steep), and there were so many different flies and bees swarming the top. We had to back track a few feet just so we could relax for a bit. Then we hiked back down, made it back to the car, and talked about how tired we were, but how good it felt. All in all...not a bad day! I love spending holidays doing stuff like this, you know? I really do love to hike, even though I'm not in the best shape. I may feel like I'm dying on the way up, but I'm always grateful to be able to get to the top. It's such a sense of accomplishment, and the view is unsurpassed! Enjoy the pictures!!!

ADDENDUM: My friend Marjory just called and said she found out the stats on Near Point. It's a 2 mile hike to the actual trailhead and 1.5 miles to the top for a total of 7 miles. We start at ABOUT 1500 feet from the parking long, ROUGHLY 2000 feet at the trail head, and 3300 feet at the top. OYE!!!!

So first of all, I must say that yesterday got up into the 70's. It was GORGEOUS all day long, and I kept looking at the mountains, longing to be in them. However, I couldn't go because I was watching Lilli and Brenna. Lilli would have been OK, but I couldn't figure out what to do with Brenna. So we went on a nice, long walk instead. I could still feel the heat from the sun at 9:00 last night. It was awesome. Then...the clouds rolled in. Cloudy all day and raining. Of course, it will be this way tomorrow, too. Great way to spend the 4th of July!!! Now that the weather report is done, I have to tell you about the excitement tonight. I was going to dinner with a couple of friends, and as we turned the corner from my house, we counted 8 cop cars. So I called my friend who lives in the house that they were parked around and asked her what was going on that she would have 8 cop cars at her house. She didn't know because they were walking down the street just to the north of mine. So we drove down there and saw some cops crouching behind cars and pointing their guns at a house. So, I called my friend again and told her NOT to walk down the street. We drove back up the street (it's a dead end, so we had to turn around to get out), and parked in her driveway. One of the cops was walking back to his car, so I said something along the lines of "I was going to ask how's it going, but with 8 cop cars it can't be good." So he told me what happened. Someone saw a man crawl through a window and called the police because they thought it was a robbery in progress. As it turns out, it was the owner of the house who locked himself out. I said "Well, that's a good ending to the situation then!" And we laughed. Anyway, it was pretty cool!!! That's the excitement for today! More to come tomorrow. I'm going on a hike with a couple of friends. It should be fun, especially if we DON'T come across the female bear that keep charging people and mauled a teenager earlier this week. We won't be hiking in the area that the bear has attacked, but bears do travel! Wish me luck!!!

Let it be known that today, the first day of July in the year two thousand and eight was the first full day of sun all summer long. It was the first day that I was able to go for a bike ride without a jacket AND wearing my biking shorts. You know...the ones that have a padded seat to protect certain parts of your (what my brother Connin calls) "Nether-regions". Anyway, tonight was a combined YM/YW activity and the Beehives were informed that they were in charge 2 weeks ago. It just so happens that this was a rather large activity...meaning more planning than usual. We had a bike ride and a BBQ. Next time, I'm going to vote for bike ride and ice cream. Not that I don't like BBQ's, because I do. But arrangements have to be made for a grill to be transported to the park, food to be transported, and cooked. Then everything needs to be transported back. Not that it's a problem, per se, but it's a lot of planning and most people want to ride their bikes. Thankfully, the YM's Pres had a brother visiting, so he was able to drive the car that had the grill. Anyway, back to the relevant part of my story. The weather the past couple of weeks has been (if you will excuse the expression) CRAPPY!!!! I've already mentioned the coolish temperatures that are killing my cucumbers and making the rest of my garden slow to grow. Anyway, today the heavens were smiling upon us. It was BEAUTIFUL and by far the hottest day so far this summer. It actually got up to 68!!! Anyway, I was able to ride my bike to the church, then we rode as a group to a park and had a BBQ, played Wiffle Ball, and then rode back to the church. I talked a YW who lives down the street from me into riding back home with me. (I don't have a way to get my bike anywhere unless I ride it). So she agreed and we took the bike trail home. Along the way we happened to run into a Mama moose and her 2 babies. They were new borns and were sooooooo cute! We sat there watching them for a minute or two to see what they were going to do. Along came some other bikers from the other way and almost ran into them...literally. So they started to walk our way, and we went off trail, into the brush, down a dirt path, and finally back onto the bike trail. It was sooooooooooo AWESOME! The new babies are so cute and look so cuddly. They look gangley and clumsy, but they are sooooo cute! Those of you who have seen them understand. Of course, I didn't have my camera because I'm an idiot, so I don't have pictures to post. Sorry! Regardless of my lack of camera, it was an awesome evening, and I am truly grateful. I was dreading this activity, but it turned out GREAT!!! I told Maisi...the girl who rode home with me...that next time there's a day like this, we'll have to ride down the Westchester Lagoon or even Point Woronzof. Some day, I'll even make it out to Kincaid again (30+ miles). Until them, I am grateful that I am able to go as far as I can. Well, thanks to all who read my blog and thanks to those who comment. It's nice to hear from you. It's almost 10:30, so it is time to go to bed. I will let you know of any more adventures. I'm going hiking on the 4th with a couple friends, and it's supposed to be raining all day. I'm sure I'll have something to tell about, and who knows...I might even remember my camera! Good night!