August 2012: by Becky

Last month we wrote while Auriana was on a trip to the Quickwater Ranch, where she attended a two-week girl’s camp. She survived and had a great time. She even hiked Table Rock, with a pack! I was impressed! When Bjorn picked her up on a Saturday, they informed him that a family had dropped out of the family session that would start the following Monday and invited him to bring our family.

Incidentally, the highlight of the past month for us was our trip to the Sky Mountain Ranch in Victor, Idaho (also known as the Bennion Ranch). Every summer they hold a week-long family camp for 12 families to apply to and attend, six families stay at Sky Mountain in bunkhouses, and six stay at Quickwater in tents. Auriana was especially glad we got to stay in a bunkhouse.

We had a wonderful time, there were kids of all ages and we all made new friends and learned new things. The girls taught Irish dance and Folk music to other kids and we all took some fun classes taught by others in the group. I took Yoga and Nature classes. Bjorn took ASL. The four girls took watercolor and card making. The boys took wood-working, and Enoch took drawing.

Every morning started out with scripture study. Bjorn led the adult group and each of the kids met with other kids their age, with an adult leading each group. We each had our own assignments to do morning chores around the ranch, have breakfast, attend the class of our choice, then have lunch and do mid-day chores. The chores included cooking, cleaning up meals, taking care of the animals (goat, pig, and chickens), moving pipe, weeding the garden, and cleaning the lodge. There is a huge kitchen, but no microwave. Each meal was prepared from scratch and was supposed to feed 40 people; and there were no paper plates.

Every afternoon we were scheduled to have an activity with just our family. Horseback riding, canoeing, hiking, doing a work project, and doing a service project were how we spent our five afternoons together. For the work project, we were asked to create a “chapel in the pines” for gatherings in the woods. We cleared an area and helped move logs into place for benches. We also helped clear the trail to get there. For the service project, Bjorn’s uncle took us down into Victor to two different widow’s houses where we painted a deck and loaded up a trailer with junk. The kids played their instruments for both of them and they seemed to really appreciate it. They showed us some of the things they made and collected and the kids enjoyed that.

Every evening, we had more chores and dinner. The kids would play games out on the lawn, play ping-pong, play card games, and make music. There was a “live music only” policy, which turned out to be really fun. The younger girls that were there formed a group called the “Flexibles” and they spent time preparing a gymnastics routine for the talent show on the last day.

The week was phenomenal to me because our kids and all of the kids were so happy! There was a lot of work, but it seemed to be valuable and meaningful work and I didn’t hear one complaint from anyone. There was a lot of time for fun, a lot of time for friends, and a lot of time for family. We didn’t miss our computers and other electronics one single bit and we didn’t even realize until we were on our way home that we had all gone an entire week without candy!

Now at home, the kids keep accusing me of trying to turn our home into “family camp”, but it’s because everything seemed to be in such good order and it truly created a very happy family.

We also enjoyed a Pendleton Reunion! Bjorn and I were in charge and we centered it on Family History and spent most of our time in Bountiful. The family indexed 7,500 names prior to the reunion and then together we did an Endowment session and baptisms with family names. We learned a lot about some of our Pendleton ancestors through the family jeopardy game that Bjorn created and we spent some time doing service around the ward where Bjorn and his siblings grew up. A few highlights of the reunion were the skits that the different age groups put together and also the “bedtime” stories that each of the adults told about their own childhood.

Auriana, Natalie, and I just returned from Girls Camp. It was a great experience and I was amazed at how well the Youth leaders taught. I was grateful to Jenny for watching Enoch, Miriam, and Ellie while I was gone.