Commercial kitchens

These pictures were taken to show what the large commercial kitchens in each of the big pavilions looks like. There are walk-in refrigerators and freezers. This place is really a beehive of activity with meal preparations for 300 or more young women. I know, right now it is kind of sterile looking and boring. I think they need to re-paint the floors but I won't mention it or next thing I know it will be my new assignment.

Backtracking to Pioneer Day

The Coles lent me these pictures they took on Pioneer Day. As I said before, holidays are not celebrated at camp. We had worked on the challenge course with a group of Young Women from Alpine, Utah. One of the priesthood brethren, Gary Dollar, sat on a bench and whittled a chunk of aspen wood into a bolo. He also carves walking sticks. He goes all over the world as a good-will ambassador for the Boy Scouts of America. He carves and gives away bolos wherever he goes. He personalizes his works. For instance, the cariacture on the bolo he made for President Uchtdorf is a pilot. President Eyring's bolo is a person in a graduation cap and gown. After he carves the cariacture his wife, Laura, paints them. He invited us to Camp Snow to see his works. He showed Reed how to work on a stick he found. He gave Reed some whittling knives and said he would be insulted to receive payment. Gary Dollar is a good friend and neighbor to Orrin Olsen.

While we were watching Brother Dollar work his magic on a piece of wood, a butterfly landed on the brim of Reed's hat and stayed a while.

Here is Gary Dollar in front of his bolo display and candy supply that he hands out as well. He gave a bolo to each of the Elders who came to see him. What a generous person! Reed's bolo is a mountain man. Can you believe how labor intensive these things must be? He had gathered and cut slices of Heber Valley Camp aspen trees and gave everyone his email address so they could email him and request a custom bolo made from wood from camp.

A close-up of the bolo display and treat table.

While Sister Cole and I were observing the carving lesson, we were invited to eat with the young women. Elder Mower is sitting next to me.

Pretty soon Sister Mower came and sat by me and someone told us to turn and smile for the camera. The girls in the background are painting some crafts. There were several tables set up with craft supplies for the young women to use.

More Fall Foliage

The aspen trees have finally started to turn yellow. We would really like to go into the back country to take some pictures of the brilliant fall colors but because of hunting clubs who pay big bucks to hunt big bucks on the property, we have to stay out of the undeveloped areas. We went through the Alpine Loop to see the fall foliage. We thought the many varieties of wildflowers and greenery earlier on in the season were more spectacular than the colored leaves. The narrow winding road had lots of traffic and every available turnout was full of camera-toting people. Oh well, here are a few pictures from camp.

Cabin refinishing--we're done!!

Today we finished up our slave labor on the cabin refinishing project. We worked hard and the cabins look great. It is a rather thankless job, however. At this late date we worried about the weather holding out so we worked straight through the week without taking a preparation day. We plan to take two days off next week! We are so glad to be done. Sister Cole handed us a piece of candy and a pink piece of paper when we completed the last cabin. It said, "Your job is now done, So let's have some fun, Your pink slip is here, So let's give a cheer! We celebrated by booking a Hawaiian cruise in February for the six of us. It is too bad we don't get paid for our labors...the funds would have come in handy for travel. Here is a pictorial of our work project:

The first step was clearing all the weeds. Here is Reed doing some heavy duty bush-whacking.

The next step was raking the weeds and grasses that were cut.

Then we loaded the grasses and hauled them off. After that we put a spray nozzle on a hose and thoroughly cleaned the cabin exteriors. When they were dry we started the prep work.

I masked the foundations. Here I am checking to make sure the tape stuck to the metal flashing.

We had cardboard templates for the windows. We taped them over the windows. The front and back doors and back door railings had to be masked as well.

Elders Cole, Felter and Conlin working on the backside of a cabin. Elder Cole did all the spraying with a backpack sprayer. The others did brush work.

I am following the sprayer and brushing up any runs or drips. And yes, we have a few light-hearted moments such as when Elder Felter stuck this tape on his wife's behind without her knowing.

Reed has a paintbrush taped to a pole to reach the high spots while I get the ones where I can reach. The other three just removed the cardboard from the windows, bagged the masking paper from the foundation and wiped up drips on the window frames.

The paint crew--Elder and Sister Conlin (Reed and Kathy), Elder and Sister Felter (Gary and Suzanne), Sister Cole (Deon) on the ladder and Elder Cole (Roger)

We went through 10-25 gallons of stain/sealer/waterproofer per day depending on the type of logs used in the cabin construction. I used a 60 yard roll of masking paper on each cabin. I'd hate to count the number of rolls of tape we used. We all have lots of slivers. We smell paint thinner even during the night. Our hands may never be the same. Actually, my knees are what took a beating with all the bending, stooping, crouching and climbing. Ouch!

Here are the 3 musketeers at the close of a workday. They are hauling the trash to the dumpsters and putting the supplies back in the shed for the next day.

Church Hymns

While riding around camp several hymns come to mind: "High on the Mountain Top," "Our Mountain Home So Dear," "O Ye Mountains High," "For the Strength of the Hills," "How Great Thou Art," "For the Beauty of the Earth" etc. I truly "stand all amazed" at our beautiful surroundings.

At 6 p.m. on October 14th we will have our closing social. The next morning there will be a mass exodus of missionaries leaving the mountain. Last year when it was time to head home, nine inches of snow had fallen during the night. We are crossing our fingers that Mother Nature won't put on a repeat performance this year. We did have rain with a few snow grains yesterday. The nights are downright cold and the days are chilly. Darkness comes much too early in the evenings and lingers too long in the mornings. I do enjoy the fall, I just don't like what follows. We are in the process of planning some winter get-away vacations where the climate is sunny and warm. Yippee!

Challenge Course Host Couple

Well, here we are at the entrance of our challenge course ready for work. This is where we spent the majority of our days as missionaries at Heber Valley Camp. The camp uniform surely beats wearing dress clothes every day...jeans and a light green shirt with the camp logo.

The following three pictures were taken yesterday of Reed giving the orientation to a couple of family groups. In the last two pictures, Elder Anderson and I are demonstrating the two different spotting positions the participants will be using on one of the low course activities.

I love to go a-wandering along the mountain track...

This morning we awoke to a few deer outside our window. We have watched the deer change from their last winter's coat, to a golden brown in the summer and now they are a darker, grayish brown. We had a couple of families on the challenge course this morning. We can't work on refinishing cabins when they are occupied so we went on a hike this afternoon. There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails within the camp. We passed a pretty little lake where ducks were swimming and fish were jumping. The following pictures were taken on our hike.

A New Baby Girl!

This afternoon, September 17th, about 3:15 p.m. at Salt Lake LDS Hospital, Candace gave birth to a baby girl. She was the smallest of Candace's kids, weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Mom and baby are both doing fine. Her name might be Brooklee. She is a cutie with brown hair and blue eyes. This new arrival was born on her Aunt Jill's birthday. (We tend to get a lot of repeat birthdays in our family) With our new work assignment at camp our p-day is now on Wednesday, so we were able to be at the hospital when the baby was born. Shortly after the birth we went to West Jordan to pick up the three big brothers who had returned home from school. After a stop at McDonalds to eat, we took the boys to the hospital. They were so excited and couldn't wait to hold her. Jory has taken a week off from work and Candace will probably be home for a couple of months. Congratulations to the VanWagenen family!

Here is the new little bundle of joy being held by Grandpa Conlin

She is a very alert baby and she has not cried yet!

She has 10 fingers and 10 toes...just perfect!

This is a picture of the boys with baby sister being held by the doctor who delivered her. The doctor delivered all four of these kids. I know, she hardly looks old enough.

Proud brother, Mason, holding his little sister for the first time. He is going to be a big help to his mother.

Tanner finally getting his turn to hold the baby. He was concerned about whether or not his mother had any band-aids or stitches.

Here is Landon holding a yawning newborn. He has been the baby for 5 1/2 years so this will be a real change for him. He asked me if Brooklee had the pink ribbon in her hair 'when she came out.'

The nursery, all newly done in pink and brown

What a change after having three boys!

We went to the VanWagenen household with our canning supplies a few days ago to bottle their pear crop. Here is the finished product...and they all sealed! The boys were very interested in the canning process. Their favorite part of helping was using the melon baller to scoop out the seeds. Mason is going to remind his dad to spray the pears more often next year so there aren't so many worms!