Camping at Lac Philippe

We went camping for 3 nights and 4 days at Lac Philippe in Gatineau Park with the Wilde, Stiles, Clark, Montminy, Martin, and Albers families.  The first day was spent setting up our campsites, then that evening we took a stroll over to Parent Beach.  Len captured this shot at twilight.  Yes, it was just as tranquil as it looks.

 

There was a playground nearby and we were able to round up all the kids for a group shot.

 

It poured down rain that first night, but our tents kept us nice and dry.  This was our first year camping with both of our 10-man tents, and it was heavenly!

 

Saturday morning our group hiked up to Lusk Caves.  I sat out with Ali (who was just too little) and Gavin (who just had eye surgery 5 days before).  I thought Teague and Hiram would stay with me, but they opted to explore the caves with their Dad and oldest siblings.

 

 

 

 

 

Renée helped Teague at the end of the first caves.

Once the group returned from round one, Rebecca convinced me to leave the little ones with capable friends and go through.  She then said if we're in a penny we should just go in a pound and do both caves.  It was so fun!  I'm so glad I did it, even though it meant swimming in icy water up to my neck for the last stretch.  Thank goodness Jackie lent me her headlamp or it would have been pitch black too.

 

 That night we had all 7 families together for a potluck dinner.  We had all the ingredients for a Taco night- crunchy tacos, soft tacos, taco salad, yum!

 

 

 

Ruby wanted Kaleb's attention.

 

She loves her "donkey" because he always gives her piggy back, or donkey back rides, ha!

  

There are 3 beaches at Lac Philippe and Sunday we visited them all- Breton beach, Smith beach, and Parent beach.

 

 

 

That night we all gathered again to share our firewood, roast hotdogs, and marshmallows for s'mores.  We all sang primary songs around the campfire and there was such a sweet spirit.  We also had a beautiful prayer together.  I'm so grateful for such good friends!

 

 

 

 

 

The kids loved swinging in the hammocks!

 

WEE!

 

Monday morning the kids played together, while the folks packed everything up.

Len is always ready with a story if he has an audience.

 

Baseball anyone?

 

 

 

 

Gavin was so good and wore his sunglasses all weekend.  He only forgot once and swam with his head under the water.  The timing of his eye surgery wasn't the best with our camping trip, but he was a trooper!

 

Hiram says, "Ruby is my best friend!"

 

Hiram also dubbed this place, "The Rocky Mountain."  All the kids explored on these rocks whenever we were at the campsite.

 

At night, Jackie gave all the kids finger lights and then the rocky mountain became the fairy mountain with all the little light fairies flying around. 

(Hiram never wore his shoes when he was climbing here, ugh!)

 

Happy faces!

 

Adventurous faces!

  

And Isaac's face says it all, "We had a blast camping!"

*I didn't take hardly any pictures during this trip.  Thank you friends for sharing your lovely pictures with me!

Womanhood

For the past two weeks I have been purging my house top-to-bottom.  Every closet, cupboard, drawer, etc. has been organized.  While organizing my nightstand I found a couple of quotes that I have loved for years and wanted to share them on here.

"YOU are a daughter of a HEAVENLY KING who loves you and promises to give you ALL He possesses.  Being prepared and making right choices will bring you happiness in this life and enable you to make it back to your Heavenly Home where you will be rewarded, with nothing withheld." ~Unknown

"Woman is God's supreme creation.  Only after the earth had been formed, after the day had been separated from the night, after the waters had been divided from the land, after vegetation and animal life had been created, and after man had been placed on the earth, was woman created; and only then was the work pronounced complete and good.  Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more beautiful, none more inspiring than a lovely daughter of God who walks in virtue with an understanding of why she should do so, who honors and respects her body as a thing sacred and divine, who cultivates her mind and constantly enlarges the horizon of her understanding, who nurtures her spirit with everlasting truth." ~Gordon B. Hinckley

*On another note, my friend, Mary adopted a beautiful girl, also named Mary who was born in China back in 1995.  We knew their family during part of our time in Taiwan from 2006-2009.  I was little Mary's Primary teacher at church and I just loved her.  I was her mother's friend and I just loved her too!  This past spring little Mary passed away (on Kaleb and Noé's birthday) and her mother has felt impressed to share her life story with anyone who will read it.  Her blog is A Light from the East, and you can also follow along from my sidebar under "Daily Reads".  So far she has shared the first 3 chapters and it has been such a bittersweet experience for me to read.  Sweet in remembering Mary, sweet in being inspired to build my relationship with God to be even stronger, but bitter because I miss little Mary!  In today's reading, Mary asked this question, "Are we who live upon this earth, at this time, fully engaged in bringing to pass our part, perhaps ever small or even large, in this restoration of the truth, of all things?"  I sure want to!  I want to be like Esther in the Old Testament and fulfill the mission my Heavenly Father sent me here to earth at this time to accomplish.  I pray that line upon line and precept upon precept I will.

Living the Dream

The awesome Millward family was in town for a quick stop during their move from Brazil to Israel. 

We were so happy to spend time with them!

Our families both lived in Ottawa for the 2002-2003 school year and then again in Taiwan for the 2008-2009 school year.  Taiwan has been our one and only posting.  Israel will be the Millward family's 5th!!  Dave and Leonard are in different streams, and Dave is definitely the lucky one.  Their family left Ottawa in 2003 and has never been back.  Since that time they have lived in Korea, Ecuador, Taiwan, Brazil, and now Israel.  We are happy for them and wish them well on their next adventure!  We are also happy with our life in Ottawa, but we still hope for another posting soon.  We hope our paths will cross again Millward's!

The Family is of God

My friend Tanya asked our family to sing in Relief Society to introduce her lesson.  We are not a particularly musical family, but we told her we'd be happy to help.  We practiced at home and we also had a rehearsal with her.  The day of the lesson though, I didn't even make it through the first line before I was too emotional to sing. The song has 4 verses- we were all to sing verses 1 and 4, Len had a solo for verse 2, and I had a solo for verse 3.  I couldn't get any sound out, because I was just crying so hard.  My sweet Noé sang my solo for me.

 

We've sang once before in church and I didn't cry then, but this time the song just got to me. I know that "The Family is of God" and I am grateful everyday for my little family and for all of our extended families, our ward family, and for all of our friends that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with.

 

I've been thinking of the wonderful power of music in building my testimony.  I've had several hymns running through my mind lately-

Abide With Me!

Where Can I Turn for Peace?

If you Could Hie to Kolob

Be Still, My Soul

I Stand All Amazed

O My Father

 

Every Sunday as we drive to church we take turns choosing hymns and primary songs to sing.  The last song we always sing is "A Happy Family."

I love Daddy (Kaleb, Gavin, Hiram)

He loves me

We love Mommy (Noé, Teague, Ali)

Yes sirree

She loves us and so you see

We are a happy family!

*We sing the song 4 times so everyone's name is sung  :).

Once I was a Beehive

There's a new movie coming out in Utah about Girls Camp.  Oh, I wish I could take Noé to see it, it looks super funny!  Noé missed her first year of camp last year because of our big family road trip.  She was really excited to go this year!

 

Here's our ward group:  Brother Martin, Noé, Emma, Summer, Sister Albers, Kestrel, Sister Wilde, Sarah, Grace, Sister Beazer (Stake Camp Director); in front: Brooklyn, and Tasha.  Sister Gagnon was up at the beginning of the week too.

Noé had a blast with her ward and stake friends.

Lucy, Rebecca, Emma, and Noé.

Fancy flip flops- Rebecca, Lucy, Emily, Emma, Noé, and Grace.

Rain won't keep these girls down!

Lucy, Noé, Rebecca, Grace.

They won the golden plunger for the cleanest tent!

Grace, Emma, Lucy, Noé, and Emily were the original tent-mates.

Chapel Hill won second place in the annual cook-off.  Their menu consisted of:  sausage & pepper kababs, mashed potatoes, egg salad, pinwheels, baked apples, and citrus punch with wild raspberries.

Sister Wilde, Noé, Sarah, Brooklyn, Sister Albers, Kestrel, Grace, Emma, and Tasha.

Last night as tent-mates.

Emma, Lucy, Rebecca,

Noé, and Emma.

Grace, Emily, Brooklyn, and Melanie were also tent-mates with them different nights of the week.

Highlights of Girls camp:  Archery, rope bridge, swimming out to the water trampoline, color run, service project (making care packages for female soldiers), and testimony meeting. 

After camp, Sister Wilde had the girls make a candy-gram to thank Sister Albers for being such a great camp leader.

Emma, Noé, Brooklyn, and Meili.

Noé's already looking forward to girls camp next year!