Scott left me for 3 whole days and went to Scout Camp.

 Chasetin told every body he met that "Mom's happy Dad's gone because she gets to watch what she wants on TV."  I was totally kidding when I said it, although there is maybe a small amount of truth in there. (I even rented "The Vow" (which I thought was just "ok") because he refused to watch if with me). 

This was kind of my prayer for the 3 days he was gone:

I told Scott that if he gets a call from the County Jail to just leave me there, I'll need the break:)  

But I joke, and no such call was made. Fortunately, he's back now and we all survived! 

(He's just not allowed to leave again!)

Wolf Scout

So proud of Chase!  He earned his Wolf Badge, 3 Arrow Points, and 2 Belt Loops at his pack meeting yesterday.   In just a few short days he'll be 9 and moving on the Bear Scouts. Woo Hoo!

Bear Canyon Lake

I think I found my newest spot of heaven on earth. Bear Canyon Lake is so beautiful and when you don't have kids with you, so very peaceful!  Scott & I took an over night trip to check out this lake where he wants to take his scouts. The kids stayed overnight with their cousins. They had a blast, we had a blast, it was really a win- win!

Unfortunately,  about 100 yards from the campsite, we blew a tire. (A BRAND NEW TIRE)  Since the truck is fairly new we spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how to even get the jack out. Another 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get the spare out. So about an hour later, now in the dark, we got to pick out a site. Here's the funny thing:  Scott didn't tell me this at the moment (thankfully) but the spare was (a) a bigger tire, and (b) completely rotted, even had chunks missing from it. But the blessing in this is that it had air in it, and got us back into town the next day, with just minutes to spare for closing time of the ONLY tire shop till Phoenix, where they then raped us on the price of a new one. Such is life!

 

We went exploring the next morning away from the lake and found this quiet, little meadow. It was so peaceful. 

 

We borrowed some Kayaks from some friends to enjoy the day on the lake. The internet said that boats are allowed on the lake but that they have to be "carried in" a short .2 mile walk down to the lake. What the internet didn't mention is that it's more of a HIKE down to the lake and that you would have to practically repel down at one point, while carrying a kayak.   The nice thing though is that there were no large/speed boats disturbing the peace. At one point we were the only people around.  ONCE we were down to lake it was very peaceful. The climb in was rough. The climb out was brutal!

 

We tried fishing, but didn't get a single bite. I could have probably had better luck with a net. They were popping up all around me feeding off the surface, but wouldn't even pay attention to our poles.

Because we needed to get back to town at a decent hour, we didn't get to explore the surrounding of the lake very much, but this is a place I definitely want to come back too.   It's completely primitive (meaning no bathrooms)  but that means it's also FREE:)  Can't complain there.