The Donut Shop (Montpelier, ID)

This is the Donut Shop - they also sell corn, hamburgers, smoked chicken and fresh cut fries;

but everybody knows this is where you can come to buy "fair donuts".

This booth is run by the cheerleaders, the cheer coaches, and the cheerleader's parents.

Linda got to visit this little hot edifice for 6-7 hours a day.

She alternated between the morning shift: 10 - 4:30 and the night shift: 4 - 10:30.

When a cheerleader had the night shift, a parent had to come to work with them!

Since Darin and Jakob went camping - that was me!

Linda worked the counter or the donut line - I worked the donut line.

For the donuts, we had 2 frying pans and 2 deep/commercial fryers.

During busy hours we were using them ALL.!

We went through cases and cases of powdered sugar for the glaze -

and over 17,000 refrigerator biscuits for the donuts!

I used to like these little guys - not so much anymore.....

Fair Parade and Entries in Montpelier

We had FAIR WEEK!!! We always love it when we are in town to participate!

We were pretty inspired by this giant-sized grocery cart ... you've got to understand we don't get a whole lot of variety in our parades - mostly trucks pulling flat beds, horses, and people walking.

Linda was able to march in her first parade as a Bear Lake High School Cheerleader!

She did really well on the dance they did (especially considering she had to learn it quickly, and on her own, because she was gone when the girls learned it in cheer camp).

Jakob went camping with the Young Men on the day of check-in; so, I confiscated all the pictures I could find and entered them! (He never lets me enter any of his art.) Anyway, this little beauty won the Best of Show! Hooray!

This one didn't win anything but a participant, but it is one of my favorite ones!

Jakob was mad that I entered this one because it was just one of his "really rough, quick sketches", but I think it is uproarious! Check out the little skateboard going down his throat!

All of these won a prize too! Yea Jakob!

Sarah had a whole box of stuff she had made throughout the year to enter. Now for you mothers who haven't had a lot of practice with entering fair items. You always look for a category with less competition to assign your entry to. For instance, Sarah made a little lighthouse out of a cup - I could have entered this under a miscellaneous craft, but there were thousands of kids entering under that category, so we put it under "garden decor"! Get it!

Sarah scored with about $30.00 prize money this year! The money is why she does this. She says that it is the only way a kid her age can make any money - and be appreciated for her creativity at the same time. I agree!

From left to right: Sarah's kite, Sarah's paper doll, and Linda's owl - Linda entered this guy, and the rabbit and octopus below. She got $7.00. She was good with that!

We loved visiting the different venues at the fair. We visited the dog show, some music shows, the hypnotist, the animals sheds on the grounds, and, THE DONUT SHOP (see next blog).

Island Park

Mom set up a super fun vacation for us at Island Park!

We got to stay in 2 really fun little cabins that Uncle Joel and Aunt Linda own.

They were in a beautiful area with their own private yard and outside eating area.

Because our family fit just right, we got a cabin all to ourselves!

(Actually, we adopted Stokton Smith to fill the bed that Linda was to have;

she couldn't come because she had missed a lot of cheer practice while she was in New Jersey.)

The girls LOVED the loft and Darin and I had a comfy bed on the main floor!

We went over to check out Big Springs and ran into a Ranger giving the "low down" on bears!

My family all loved the presentation and thought it was very interesting.

The Ranger was very well versed and actually pretty entertaining - as far as Rangers go.

What he didn't know was that there was a grizzly sneaking up right behind him!!!!

We had fun looking off Big Springs bridge and finding the BIG fish that peruse there. There weren't as many fish as we have seen on previous visits; we think they come back to Big Springs during certain times of the year to spawn.

We did, however see some great wildlife! This moose was grazing just downstream from the bridge.

There were many baby ducklings swimming about hoping for bread crumbs,

and an elusive muskrat munching on watercress.

We aren't sure who these guys are! They just showed up at the cabin one afternoon!

We visited the beautiful Mesa Falls! What a sight!

At the Mesa Falls Visitor Center there was a fun little nature center full of animal furs!

My kids thought they were wonderful ... especially Sarah!

Later, when we came out of the Visitors Center, Sarah spotted a mother bat, with her baby clutched to her belly, flying down from the rafters, to the grass. As we watched, the mother got nervous and left the baby, hanging on to this piece of grass, as she climbed down and hid among the base of the grasses. The baby just clung there. We left so the mother would not be afraid to climb back up and get it. It was SUPER tiny - We had never seen a mother and baby bat before!

Very COOL!

We took a short hike up to Johnny Sack's cabin. This cabin was hand hewn by a bachelor in the early 1900's. The man was only 4' 11" and lived with his dog. He did some of the most amazing contrast work with bark and wood I have ever seen. He made beds, chests, tables, and chairs all winter and then sold them to make his living. His cabin had amazing "log cabin" designs in the fir floor, light fixtures that had been made with up to 76 different pieces of wood. His designs were intricate and his skill was evident through the whole cabin. It is on the National Historical Registry now and people can go through and admire his work. By the way, his dog died in the winter, so he buried his beloved friend in the basement!

We didn't have time to raft the river, but the kids had lots of fun playing in it!

Jakob found a few killer-skipping-rocks too!

A man was there with his dog and Maggie Smith and Sarah had fun trying to make the dog return a stick to them. In the picture below the dog took it to the middle of them, and they both grabbed an end! It was beautiful country!

That evening we had a marvelous time going to the Mack's Inn Playhouse.

We didn't know Whitney was part of the cast until we arrived!

Surprise!

As we waited Emily and Jakob posed in the "cut-out"

while Megan and Sarah rested on the log fence.

The show was called "Home School Musical" a parody of "High School Musical".

It was really well done and absolutely hilarious! We are still laughing about it 4 days later!

During one scene they came into the audience and grabbed Darin by the arm and said

"We need you." They pulled him up on stage and had him join their "demonstration".

Anybody that knows Darin will know that he was REALLY hating it at this point

- he is not a "lime light" kind of personality.

Anyway, one of the actors said to Darin, "Give us the CHEER!" He had no idea what cheer they wanted, so he tried to play along and be a good sport by yelling, "Whoa Baby!" The actor, said, "Not that cheer!" and told him another one to say. It was funny. They asked his name and when he told them it was Darin, they said, "That will NEVER do!" and they made up a name that was more prominent from the Bible - and maybe referring to his stature a little - they called him "Goliath".

It was really funny and Darin was a good sport on his part.

We had a great time and have great memories from our trip to Island Park!

Olivia goes to Girls Camp

Olivia had her first year at girls camp this year! Linda could not go because

she was in New Jersey, but Mom was there to give moral support!

The wards were each assigned a value from their Young Women's handbook .

Choice and Accountability - represented by the color orange - (Joshua 24:15) : I will remain

free by choosing good over evil and will accept responsibility for my choices.

Our ward has a great big army tent that holds ALL the girls (the leaders have a seperate tent). They had orange polka-dot tote bags that were labeled with their names and little journal notebooks (that they had made). Each day the girls would write something nice to another girl in her journal. By the time they left camp, each girl had written in every other girl's notebook. They also had a secret sister who would leave them a prize each day they were there. On the last day they got to guess if they had discovered who their secret sister was ... if not, it was revealed!

Each girl in the ward was included on a poster, even if they were unable to attend camp.

Some of the activities they did included Zumba (toned down version), self defense,

and cooking (using two different methods).

Olivia tried the camp stove and open-fire ... she didn't like doing either one. Heat is scary!

They played a game called "Camp Curse". Each girl was assigned a curse by the other girls. The girl shown above, left, was given the curse that if anyone said the word "fire", she would have to run to the pit and immediately start a fire dance! Olivia's curse was connected to another curse. Her leader was cursed to do a cheer each time an individuals name was yelled across camp. So if someone yelled, "Hey Emily?" across camp, the leader would stand and do cheer moves and say, "Emily, Emily, yeaaaaaa, Emily!!!" When Olivia heard a cheer, her curse was to run over and give that person a hug!

She was hugging people the whole time we were at camp! It was great!

To pass off a requirement Olivia had to lead the group in a game. She chose "Tooty Ta".

There is a tube that the girls play around and in. Olivia liked it a lot!

A group hug with the leaders!

They liked to do the slapping game that you do with your hands and a flat surface when ever they sat down to eat!

Olivia tried to follow along and didn't do too badly! It sounded cool!

The girls learned sign language to their theme song "We Believe". It was really neat.

They got to perform it at a devotional that the whole stake attended - it set the tone for a really good speaker.

Camp was great! Although we didn't sleep over (because of various problems),

Olivia really felt a part of the group and had a wonderful time!

Hello from Aunt Linda/Uncle Len

So glad to see the post up and going. What a BUSY summer everyone is having! We are currently in Olney, Illinois, attending a family reunion of the Legans/Admires. Any of you who have done sealings with us will recognize the "Legan" name. It is Len's grandmother's line.
We have been in Upper State NY at one of the "thousand islands" where we vacationed with Andy and Aly. We also attended the Palmyra pageant with Linda and all, and enjoyed the beauty and spirit of the sacred grove. Then we drove to visit with Abbey and her little ones. Abbey is expecting her 4th the first of December.
An August get-to-gether sounds wonderful. We are good for either date.
Len and I are enjoying retirement. We are planning to have Mabel (Len's Mother) come and live with us again in September - but that will be up to her. She's pretty independent.
We miss the busy activity of our mission, but love being able to work on Family History. Perhaps Julene, Dave, Mom and Dad Campbell can help us from the other side of the veil. Glad everyone is having a great summer. Please let us know if we can be of help to any of you in any way.
Uncle Len and Aunt Linda

Hey guys!!! Thanks for posting, it will be so fun to see what everybody is up and where they are living. So on the 13th we will be driving home from disneyland so that wont work for us, but if that is better for everybody else I say go for it!! The more the merrier right???? Hopefully more people will get on and say if that date works for them or not. Talk to ya soon!
lindsey
ps: audrey, I had no idea that you were living so close to bear lake, we might just have to take you up on that offer :) now maybe you"ll rethink that offer ;) love ya!

Go Lindsey!

Lindsey this is awesome! I will get a post up soon. If August 13th works for anyone we are already in town. That would be a super week. If not we will try to work for the 20th. Thanks for getting things together! Amy