Klondike Camping in Colorado

Jim went camping with the scouts this weekend. There is an annual Klondike Derby held for the Scout District. I guess they've been doing it for several years now. The campout went well. The boys had fun. They got to participate in various activities which inlcuded pulling sleds that resemble dog sleds. I guess this year was mild compared to past years. It only got down to the low teens. It warmed up into the 40's on Saturday. I guess last year it was at 5 below before the sun even went down, then never warmed up much more than 0 the next day. We got to camp out in a wall tent that included propane heat and a wood stove. It got a little chilly until I opened the flute on the stove, allowing the fire to properly breathe and heat up the tent.

This picture demonstrates the proper attire to wear when klondiking- a light jacket, basketball shorts and tennis shoes.

The boys attempted to build a couple of snow caves, but neither were big enough for them to sleep in. They had fun though digging around in the snow. It also kept them busy and wore them out for the night. On Saturday they spent about 4 hours running around the moutain side doing different activities, so they will sleep soundly tonight in their comfortable beds at home.

We only had four of our scouts go with us. I think it was a successful trip. No body got frostbite. I look forward to doing it again next Winter.

Dashing through the snow. . .

We took the girls to story time today. I'm glad that they started doing a session on Saturday mornings, because both girls at that was too much for me to handle by myself. Saree just isn't quite ready to sit through the 30-40 minutes, but Jaycie won't sit by herself. Then they have a craft time afterward. They both have fun with that. Today we modge podged some paper and tinfoil onto bottles to make candle holders.

Then we went geocaching again. I didn't think it would be too successful considering we have snow, but it was nice to get out and see some of the area. We went to Dolores, CO. It is a rustic, kind of quaint, little town about 10 miles North of Cortez. The first cache was a virtual cache, that just means you read something or see something and answer a question about it correctly and then you get credit for the "find". The second one was the one that turned out to be problematic. We had passed the cache and turned around in a parking area for the hiking and skiing trails in San Juan National Park when Jim decided he was going to pull of to the side of the road. It wasn't a good idea because he promptly got us stuck in a snow drift that took 5 men to get us out of.

I've also started potty training Saree. She was already pretty much trained except the wetting part. I have had a difficult time getting her to go in to the bathroom for that. I finally got her some M&Ms and that seems to be going well. Another chocoholic in the making. That's the first thing she says after "I'm done", "M&Ms"!!! She is also finally going into nursery by herself and not screaming and crying for Jim or I.

Jaycie is loving her new primary class. I can't believe she is a Star 5. She also has started on a jewelry thing. She wants to have jewelry on all the time, of course it doesn't stay on, but she still insists on it. I've gotten to the point of "forgetting" so that she won't be a disruption at church.

I have to talk again in church next Sunday as part of the Primary presidency, can't tell you how excited I am about that. Jim gets to go camping next weekend and can't wait. The girls and I are looking forward to our girls night. I get to watch a Barbie movie (again), eat popcorn and share my bed with the girls (not so fun). Anyway, I'm going to make Jim take the little camera camping so we can see how it was and I'll post the pictures next week.

Love to all.