Pine Valley
Sam invited the girls and I to accompany her and her daughters to Pine Valley over Labor Day weekend. Sam loves Pine Valley, but she does not love the constant need to play or entertain Britta, so bringing friends was the perfect solution, and she was right. The girls played with one another the whole time, and Grandpa Gary also helped to entertain them too.
We traveled up Saturday morning in separate cars with me following Sam. Lilah was asking if we were there yet before we even hit Valley of Fire so I told her once we got through Mesquite we would be half-way there and I had her keep an eye out for it and color while we drove. It worked and the girls were very well behaved the whole drive.
Once at the cabin the girls immediately found the swings and began swinging. They also started looking at the apples on the ground to eat them. Once Sam’s in-laws were there they began helping to pick up the apples off the ground and for the whole weekend that would be their task. They would hear the apples fall, and then put them in the apple bucket that Gary was collecting them in.
Gary, Sam’s FIL, was very attentive to the girls. He had them helping with the apples, feeding the coy in the fish pond, helping to pick the blackberries, four wheeling around the yard, and just listening as he sat on the swing with Matilda. (Eden was talking his ear off has he held Matilda and was sitting on one swing and she was on the other one.)
Saturday night the girls wanted to sleep outside in a tent. Sam has found an unused kids pup-tent at a thrift store and Britta was dying to try it out. While Sam and I set that tent up Gary and Jackie set up a 4 man tent, about the size of our tent. Britta was so mad that Grandpa had done that. He also brought out an old box spring that was put under the the tent and used to sleep on.
The girls played in them, and Britta wanted all three of them to sleep in the pup tent, but they all three would not fit so Lilah decided to be in the big tent. Gary didn’t think any of them would go through with sleeping in a tent all night, least of all Britta, but since my girls have gone camping I thought they’d be fine. As night fell they still wanted to sleep outside and Gary set up his cot in between the tents so as to help the girls in the night. We got them settled in, with Eden and Britta in the pup tent and Lilah in the other. Later that night Jackie looked outside and said the girls were wandering the yard. I thought Gary had fallen asleep, so I went outside to wrangle them up and put them back into the tents, this was around 10 pm or later. I found out Gary was awake and just letting them wander the yard. I got them into the tents and Eden decided she was cold and wanted to sleep inside, I didn’t bring up our sleeping bags and the ones Gary got out weren’t the nice ones since he thought they would go inside for the night. With Eden out of the pup tent Britta joined Lilah in the “big” tent with the more comfortable than ground box spring and they went to sleep.
With the girls settled Sam and I stayed up part of the night talking. We had to get up at 6:30am Vegas time for church, but we still didn’t get to bed till around 12:30 or 1 am.
Around 2 am I was woken by Lilah. She had to go to the bathroom. I noticed that she still had her coat on and that she looked like she might have been sweating so I tried to ask if she was too hot. She said she was, then she said she was cold when we were outside. As I zipped her up in her jacket her skin got caught, something that sometime happens, and being the tired girl she was she decided to come up stairs to sleep. So my two daughters, who I thought would sleep outside, came inside and Britta, who we thought would not stay outside did for the whole night.
Sunday it was an overflowing house at church. I think nearly everyone with a cabin must have come up to enjoy the last three day weekend before it gets cold, and most who own cabins up there are Mormon. We stayed the whole block and ran into the wife of an old bishop and her DIL. Sam and I knew both of them because she was in the Vegas Manor ward before we moved in, and she was in a sorority with the DIL before either were married. I knew them because her husband was the bishop while we were in the ward and her DIL knew Jon before we were married and she got married to the son while we lived in that ward and they moved into the ward after they were married. ( I find it funny that Sam and I went to the same ward before we both moved to where we are now, but they moved out just a few months before we were put in that ward due to a redrawing of ward boundaries.)
After church we had lunch then Gary decided to take the girls on a short four-wheeler drive around the yard. When he proposed it I warned him that they may not ride because they’re afraid of loud noises. I then hear him yell my name from outside and I thought something was wrong, only to find Gary with Eden on the four-wheeler and him saying “What about you scaredy cat daughter now.” I got the camera and came out to find Lilah and Britta “pushing” the four-wheeler around the yard.
He took the girls up the mountain to visit his nephew’s cabin and we shortly followed in the car once we realized they were gone.
That evening we had the girls all in one room inside the cabin. Gary had been bitten by some mosquito’s so we didn’t want them attempting to sleep outside again. We had them in one room upstairs with Sam, Matilda and I in the other.
Sam and I stayed up talking till 1 am again. Their really is something so nice about being able to talk without little ears listening.
Monday was the day we traveled back home. The girls played outside while we packed things up. Lilah that morning said she was sad to leave the cabin and then about half an hour later decided she was homesick.
We stopped in St. George for lunch and to pick up scones at the Great Harvest there. I guess they’re made differently than what you get here in Vegas, and are a lot better. I ate like three out of the six, not in one day, but they are really good and I now want to find a good scone recipe.
We had so much fun at the cabin and Grandpa Gary did a lot of fun things with the girls. I hope were able to visit again next summer and let the girls enjoy the outdoors even more. I know if Jon had been there they would have gone hiking and exploring, where as I was just happy to be inside talking with Sam and letting the girls play outside.