IT'S ABOUT TRUST--GRAND CAMP 2009

It was Grand Camp time again this year July 16th, 17th, & 18th. All of us were so excited! Lacey and Halle had been in town for a couple of weeks so Jessie and Sage were the only ones to fly in. Sadly, Alex and Tristan decided not to join in the fun this year. We had Mackenzie sleep over Wednesday night and got a very early morning start to LAX. Sunny uncharacteristically slept in and required a frantic last minute mad dash to the airport, but got the kids on in good order. We picked them up and headed for our traditional IHOP breakfast. The kids were so excited to be together doing fun things.

The excitement and love for each other shows in their faces.

Jessie, Lacey, Bailey, Sage, Halle and Mackenzie.
Sage didn't mind being the only boy this year. He gets along so well with his cousins.

Lots of love for Papa as we wait to be seated.

A little diversion as we wait for pancakes with chocolate chip happy faces and other wonderful culinary treats.

Being in LA we decided to go first to the Los Angeles Temple and visitors center. How were we to know the Visitors Center had been closed down and was being totally renovated? It was still a great experience. We walked around the grounds of that very large and beautifully kept temple and it became one of the favorite experiences of Grand Camp. The Family Statue was a great starting place for our adventures to strengthen this family.

A beautiful fountain with beautiful (and handsome) faces around it.

In front of the temple, too big to get all of it in and still identify faces. With the visitors center closed, no available restrooms meant three who couldn't wait any longer got to be escorted in to use the temples restrooms. We should have let them all go in to see how spacious and beautiful even the foyer is in this temple.

We found a shady, private area and let thekids ask questions about temples. They had many good ones and the spirit was strong even just on the grounds. We handed out cards with the scripture they were to memorize and introduced our theme about trust. It is:

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
With all thy heart acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths.

We talked about what that meant to them and that our Heavenly Father is the ultimate source of all truth and the Perfect One to lean on when they need important answers. They showed real insight and such willingness to put this into practice.

Halle and Mackenzie show their cards. Before we left the grounds many of them had already passed off the scripture. Such sharp kids and spiritual, too!

Our next stopping place was the Great Park in Irvine. It used to be the El Toro Marine base near our old Lake Forest Home. Massive plans to create this Great Park are underway. To advertise these plans and get people on board to further them, they offer free rides in a large orange helium filled balloon. The kids tried to guess what our next stop would be and we told them it was an example of trust and Papa said it rhymed with orange. I guess only orange rhymes with orange and they didn't figure it out until we were almost there and saw this big ballon waiting for us. We were all a little excited and a little nervous. However, there was quite a wait for our turn. While we waited we played kick ball...

...soccer and frisbee. It was fun but warm and getting close to lunchtime. After about 45 minutes of waiting an announcement came that it was too windy for the balloon to fly and all flights were cancelled for that day. Disappointed we went straight to lunch and then home for some much anticipated swimming.

On their own the kids had decided to do a Grand Camp Store. They had even created their own Grand Bucks to be distributed for good behavior, jobs done and special talents. With a little help from moms they had acquired fun things to stock their store and a schedule to rotate who operated it on which days. May I say it was a great success. I had lots of helpers, almost no quarrels, kids who fell asleep at the mention of Grand Buck rewards, and behavior that instantly improved with a suggestion.

The night before, Papa had driven our trailor to a campground about a half hour from our home in Casper Park off Ortega Highway. When we'd had our fill of swimming (is that really possible)and the food and gear were packed we took the truck and my car loaded up for a little camping.

We cooked dinner over the campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores...

...shared stories as the sky darkened, and sat around the campfire. We had lots of fun again with Joke Night. I heard Halle's joke at least ten times in the next days! We told spiritual experiences and worked together to memorize our scripture. One by one they passed it off and received their own flashlight as a reward along with Grand Bucks. Spiritual experiences topped off the evening, the first of three secret cousin gifts were anonymously distributed, and we snuggled into a still warm trailor for a welcome nights rest. We were all quickly sound asleep with only minor disturbance from a pre-dawn chill and a few squirrels who can imitate human footsteps in the early morning hours.

First thing in the morning we took a nature hike. We saw deer and their fawns, rabbits, squirrels, lots of birds including quail, windmills, horses, snake tracks, stink bugs, bobcat tracks and mistletoe to name a few. We had check-off lists, but discovered somethings not on the lists. Papa is a good guide and tracker.

This tree was great for climbing as well as posing.

Breakfast tastes better after a hike!

The girls did some tree climbing in the great trees around our campground...

...while the men took down the camp. Sage could unhook things that Papa had a hard time getting at. He was a special help to Papa.

And then he got to climb the trees, too.

Bailey, Lacey, and Jessie got to ride in the big red truck back to our house as the day turned into a scorcher.

We hoped to accompany Papa back to the Orange Balloon at the Great Park where we keep the trailor, but a phone call revealed that they had filled all the registrations for that day. So the kids helped us clean out the trailor and load the quads back in and then took advantage of the time to swim, eat lunch and have fun. When Papa returned and cleaned up we headed for the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. It was kind of late in the day, but we missed the heat, saw a bird show and took the train around the park.

Here we are getting off the train. At this point I had lost my camera, so we used Papa's good one. Unfortunately, a setting had been altered accidently and most of the pictures from here on were out of focus and a little blue. Eventually, he changed to his telephoto lens and they were better. But many good pictures became a disappointment. I eventually found my camera left above the handlebars of one of the quads locked away in the trailor at the Great Park, but not until Grand Camp was over. Age takes its toll and leaves its mark.

Here we are looking at the Wild Animal Park's $20-a-ride balloon with our Grand Camp t-shirts on showing the orange balloon on the back that we hoped to go up on. They say at the bottom of the picture "It's About Trust."

Notice the bags of cotton candy. The vendor unloaded all he had left on us almost for free. Unfortunately, we paid for it by several not feeling so well at the end of the day. In N Out burgers on the way home help a lot, though.

When I called the balloon place on Friday, they told me if we came at 9:30 the following morning we could register early for the balloon that started going up at 10 am. So we hustled the next morning and arrived at 9:15 to find that it really started on Saturdays at 9 am. We were able to go right out to the entry and soon it was our turn. Here we are waiting. The balloon was tethered but went up 400 feet. It was not a long ride, but it was worth all the anticipation.

Next ones on!

What a view! And what a thrill!

We wished it was longer, but it was so fun. It was a little hazy this day, though we could still see so much.

Innovative bicycle parking at the Great Park

We had only a little time for the beach after that, but it was still good. What is California Grand Camp without the beach. The day was very hot and Doheny beach was very crowded.

I think this is the only Grand Camp picture we have that has all of us in it that you can see all of our faces. The extras in this picture were glad we didn't stay long since we blocked their view of the beach.

We had a 3:00 pm appointment at the stables at Irvine Park in Tustin so we had to move fast.

Here are our cowpokes ready to meet their mounts.

Here are the mounts! Ready to be on the trail!

The trail ride this year was lots more fun than riding around the arena last time. All were good riders and did a good job of managing their horses.

Back from our trail ride, we pose with our horses. Do you kids all remember the names of your horses? Even Papa and I got to ride this year.

Following a Dickson family tradition, we picked up KFC and went to our favorite park and tidepools at Laguna Beach. Unfortunately, it was packed with wall-to-wall people and tents as part of a wedding taking place right then. We even saw the bride and groom as we drove. So we headed down to South Laguna and the park and tidepools at the Montage Resort that Harmon helped build. It also had an outdoor wedding going on and was crowded but not so bad. We couldn't find a picnic table so we found a grassy corner with a manhole cover for our table and enjoyed our last meal together.

The tide was so high we couldn't even get to the tidepools.

Papa and Lacey take a few moments to contemplate the great experience of being together.

The kids loved the view, the breezes, the tides and the splashes, but especially each other. They danced and sang along this burm and tempted the tides. (See the previous blog.) We have lots of great memories and trust that we will be together again at Grand Camp next year.