UPDATES - Warning! Very long. Read ramblings at your own risk!

This summer has been oh.so.busy. I feel like I have not had a moment to just relax at home and well, BLOG! So - here goes my attempt at a more detailed update on the last few weeks.
From June 19th until July 20th (Today), I have only spent a few days at my own home. I briefly chronicled the Groberg family reunion and the first Bailey reunion in my last blog. This is basically the order of how things happened...
Greg's Ragnar relay run, Bailey siblings reunion in Park City, Maelynn's week at BYU Gym camp, Groberg siblings reunion at Aspen Grove, one week at home to prep for Camp, Hansen Family reunion (Greg's mom's side), Girl's Camp at Camp Cumorah, Bailey reunion (Greg's dad's side) in Fountain Green, UT. (Lamb Days), and now we are back home. Ahhhhh. Deep breath. Namaste.
Let me start out with Girl's Camp. It was so great. I had wonderful assisstants and the girl's that I had this year were so well behaved (for the most part). There are always a few who don't want to listen or do as asked, but on the whole, the girls were a lot more mature than last year. (I had this same group of girl's the previous year at camp). I grew to love them even more. There were a few of them in particular who were going through some really rough times at home (actually pretty sucky situations with parents that I would never want to live through). The other girls really stood up for them and looked out for them and included them and made them feel loved. So much so, that they didn't even want to go home when camp was over. =(
The hike day was quite the adventure. The caravan got split up on the way to the trail head, and we spent over 2 hours trying to find each other until we finally all made it to the trail head. I mean, who would have thought that the trail head turn-off for the hike to Caribou Mountain was NOT where it said "Caribou" on the sign? We just had to take a photo of our girls waiting near that sign to remember the occasion.



The girls even wrote a little song about "losing our priesthood" for the evening roll call!
The hike leader who had scouted out the trail previously knew that we would have to cross a stream several times. After the first crossing, he saw that the girls were not well prepared for this. So, he decided that he would just start a new trail straight up the face of the mountain instead! Seriously - we were just bush-whacking it. Can you see any trails in these photos?



Well, the mosquitoes were about 2 inches thick and even after several applications of the heavy-duty DEET stuff, they were still relentless in their pursuit of fresh blood. (I even ended up sending one girl home early due to severe reactions to the 75 plus bites all over her.) Needless to say, I had a word or two with the hike leader about not continuing all day in these conditions. He did end up taking us back down to the stream trail on the way back, but not before we had our little "spiritual message" while we ate lunch. Basically, his message to us was how we shouldn't give up and we shouldn't complain about the little trials that we have like the adversities we were currently facing on that very hike. (Mostly he looked right at me and I totally got the point.)
The rest of the week went quite smoothly overall. The new facilities (bathrooms) at camp were awesome (when we got there). Private showers and nice toilet stalls. Then came our turn to clean them. Oh.My.Gosh. I have never seen such blatant disregard for anything. Of the 180 plus girls using those facilities, there were apparently a few who have NO CLUE about proper disposal of used feminine supplies. It was DISGUSTING to say the least. After one certain discovery we made on the floor of a shower, both me and my friend were literally dry-heaving!
There were MANY spiritual opportunities throughout the week. I am not saying that I don't think that these are necessary - but if I ever had to run Camp (it will be a cold day in Hades before they call me to such a task) I would definitely tone it down a bit. Every night the girls would be crying so much that they all had headaches, not to mention the heart-aches that many of them were bringing to the surface time and again. I am personally not one for the "forced spiritual situations", but I can see how there may be girls who don't get any spirituality at all in their lives (outside of camp) for whom these situations may be beneficial. OK, enough on that one.
There were also a few pranks (I know, they are technically not allowed at all, but I just can't spend a week at camp and not pull any!) Every night they would have a little "Olympic update from Olympic Village" TV program (our theme was the Olympics if you couldn't tell.) They would hold up a long rope with names of the girls pinned on the rope with clothespins. One of the Stake youth leaders would pull one off and then have that person come up to the front of the room and tell about a friend that they had made at camp. So, we decided to steal that rope and replace the names. We replaced the names with "Bessie the Cow" (a character played previously by an adult Stake leader). Every single one of them said her name! On the last night (Yes, the Stake President was there) when they started to hold up the rope and read names, it was hilarious!



Everybody laughed when they read the first name. But when she kept pulling them off to find the same thing on every one, she got really confused. Me and my cohorts were just laughing our heads off.
The next morning, all 3 coolers that had been emptied and cleaned out and loaded into the back of my assistant's car, were mysteriously floating in the middle of the lake! (Ah, sweet revenge). Looking back on this as I type it up, I am wondering why all of the pranks are pulled off by the leaders and not the youth. Maybe they really are the "chosen generation" and not us - as we were told when we were in Young Women's! Hmmmmmmmm.
It was a great week and I learned a lot about Integrity (our levels' theme) and I learned a lot about how much sacrifice goes into Camp, especially from others who helped me. My assistants were so awesome, and my mother-in-law (bless her heart) went above and beyond the whole week as she took care of my family. They keep telling me about all of the things that she does better than I do (i.e. cooking and shopping: "Grandma always took us ALL to the store with her and she let us sit in the 2-seater carts"!) I always knew that I could never live up to such a lady. Thanks a million for everything Paula.
About an hour after I returned from Girl's Camp, I was on my way to the County Courthouse to fight a ticket that I received a few weeks ago. Apparently, the cop tried to tell me that I ran a red light when I turned RIGHT on a yellow light. I am pretty confident that I will win this one. They actually made me just enter a "not guilty" plea and then set me up for a date in September to stand before a judge. There's our tax dolars put to use for ya'. The code number that the cop wrote on my ticket is the wrong one. So, officially, I am accused of being a "pedestrian under the influence of drugs or alcohol". Only, he wrote in his writing, "failure to obey a traffic control signal". So - I will basically just ask the judge how I could have been a "pedestrian" while being pulled over in my "vehicle" for supposedly running a red light? If that doesn't work, then I am armed with Idaho Code and Driver's manual excerpts to prove my innocence. I am so ready for this one. (They aren't taking $75 bucks away from me that easily!)
A few hours more and we were on our way back to Utah. To Fountain Green, Ut. for Lamb Days.



The whole Bailey clan shows up at the farm house once a year for this event. They start the day out with a "Lamb Scram" Fun run. Greg did the 5K in 23 minutes and took 2nd in his age division. Landen did the 1 mile run and took 3rd overall of the boys. Maelynn also did the 1 mile run and placed 1st for her age division. I did the sleep-in race and took first overall compared to the last 6 days in a tent on the hard ground with an average of 4-5 hours of sleep per night.
Next there was a parade with TONS of candy. Then the park with all of the booths and "ticket" games. The kids favorite one was the "dunking booth" as they got to volunteer to sit on the chair to be dunked for FREE! After that we basically played games and ate lots of yummy food and watched the fireworks show and went to bed way too late again. Today, we cleaned up the farmhouse, went to sacrament, toured the local fish-hatchery while waiting for towels in the dryer, then came on home.
That brings you to the end of my very elongated tour of the past few weeks. I hope you enjoyed the ride. Please don't forget to wipe that drool off of your face as you are now waking up at the computer. Thank you. And have a nice day! =)