the many adventures of Z: 2008 Summer Fun

The summer of 2008 for me started out with a bang. Our summer activities for my church start by going up to Melcher Mine and having a BBQ and 4-wheeling up to the mines or down to the creek, which I thought was fun until one year when I ended up on the back of a 4-wheeler that my brother was driving. I hate being on the back of 4-wheelers because I have no control of what will happen or where I want to go. Any way to finish the short story that ended in disaster a few times in the summer of 2007, it all began enjoying a ride down to the creek with my brother driving and me on the back were cruising down the hill with some friends when Abram noticed the fence to the creek wasn't open and had almost hit it so we waited until he opened it and proceeded down the path to the creek. When we got to the creek we turned around and headed back up the path then we came to the fence again and this time our friend Liza and her friend were tangled in it because they didn't see it and hit it head on. Abram decided to help the get untangled and Wes and I decided to head back up to the Mansion. On our way back up we hit the trail (that was already uneven and at about a 30 degree slant) wrong and lost control of the ATV and flipped it. Lucky thing there was a seat on the ATV that prevented it from flipping any more or it would have been more serious. I was holding the ATV up with my feet and Wes was trying to push it back up onto the trail with no luck. I suffered a dislocated shoulder and some scratches due to falling in some sage brush. Wes, well he was the lucky one with no injuries. We waited for about 10 minutes before any one showed up and I walked the 50 feet or so back to the Mansion with Sis. Hobson. That little incedent scared me pretty good. So when I learned that we were going to start our 4-wheeling activities again this summer I was pretty nervous.

Here is Sis. Jones and Jessica preparing for our BBQ dinner on the front porch of the mansion.

Some of the people opted to go 4-wheeling before dinner and missed out on the nice hot hamburgers that had just come off the grill and the other delicious food we had. Thanks to our wonderful feed the flock committee. I think Crystal had had wonderful time eating.

Here is Brother Barker taking the opportunity to teach some of the newbies on how to play some pool down in the basement of the mansion. Brother Barker could play pool for hours down there. We actually had to force him out of there for dinner.

Awe the Mansion itself, notice the smoke? No the mansion is not on fire. Pres. Jones thought it would be nice and BBQ just outside of the basement door and it filled the front side of the house with smoke. That was just wonderful because people had to get their food and suffer watery eyes (due to the smoke) at the same time.

After eating a really good dinner, my brother Wes, my friend Mindy and I thought it would be nice to take a hike and see how close we could get to the last remaining patch of snow before the summer heat melted it away.

However, we quickly discovered it was farther up than we had anticipated, plus, the remaining mountain was way too steep to climb. We did have a wonderful hike though.

Then one day Mindy found out that she will be co-hosting a dance group from Siberia for our annual International Dance Festival. Boy was she in for the long haul. She did things she only dreamed of doing. She even let them smack her with a horses tail during a prayer before dinner one night. In the pic below they were teaching the kids on of the traditional dances. I decided to take 2 of my neighbors kids to it so they could get a feel for the different cultures around the world. Aren't their costumes pretty?

This next picture is the Russian Cussacks. We learned that they start dancing at the age of 3 and they are very talented. Just watching them spin around the room made me dizzy. I have to admit these Russian boys were actually kind of cute.

In the picture below is Johnny see how much fun he had with the Cossacks? Oh, we can't for get Jacob, he is the one sitting by the Cossack with the blue shirt on. They learned so much form these guys.

Before luch we kind of missed the performance by the Chinese, but we did mangae to sneak in and get some autographs and pictures of them. They have really pretty costumes and some even speak really good English. I was surprised to see that they were even promoting the Summer Olympics by hanging up some Olympic flags next to their Chinese flags.

Before we saw the Chinese we were so busy learning how to dance the Dutch way Johnny and Jacob stayed in the back and had trouble learning the steps to this dance. I think the reason why Johnny had trouble learning it was because he was watching one of the Dutch girls (who is not in the pic.) Later he said she was not bad looking. I told him that she was probably at least 5 years older than he is.

Jake and Johnny really enjoyed learning how to be on the Dutch flag team and leaning how to fly the flags and spin them in the air.

We also got to see the French. This picture is Johnny wipping is face at the end of one of the dances they learned. At the end the girls kissed the boys on the cheek. Johnny just happened to be dancing with a really old French women who looked scary beyond all reason. Lets just say he wasn't too impressed with the French.

The picture below is Johnny dancing with the lady mentioned above...before the kiss.

This is the French teaching the kids a song about a duck, I think.

Ah, India. They were a really fun group to see. In the picture below, they are doing the camel dance. ( I think that is what it is called) In order to make the camel they took 2 boys and put them back to back then layed another boy on top of them using his feet as the head and neck.

Aren't the girls costumes pretty?

Seeing India, gave me a more clear background of the culture of my friend Tarjani who is originally from India. (well at least her parents are)

Finally, to wrap up our summer FHE activities we had one last boating extraviganza at the Hobson's dock. Here is bro. Hobson doing what he does best pulling the water weinnie and trying to put people in the water.

HOLD ON!

Poor Josh. he now has to swim back to the weinnie.

Climbing back on for another go at it.

Ready to go for a wild ride on the weinnie

This picture below is a very rare one. It is Brother Barker Water Skiing. He has really good moves for an old guy.

One last run on the weinnie. This time it was Sam, Jordan, and Tom's turn for a wild ride.

Here we go. Hold on.

Here is the branches most eligible bachlor Josh and Sister Barker going for a boat ride with Brother Barker. Bye. Have fun. Don't get wet.

Climbing back on.

This was our last summer activity. The branches annual campout at Steadman's in Raft River. Wes and I din't get to stay the night and enjoy the other activities, so we got in as much as we could before leaving. This is Allison, Jessica, and Kendra going down on the tube. Hold on.

Here is Mindy enjoying a jump on the trampoline and getting some excercise in before she embarked on the long ride to Utah to see her sister.

Sister Barker and her grandaughter trying to pull the tube up a slightly steep hill after enjoying a wild ride down the slip and slide. See the wet grass? That wasn't from the water off of the slide. Earlier we had a rain storm move through the area and I really thought that our campout was going to be canceled, but it wasn't.

Here is Wes daring to go head first down on the tube. Hold on and don't get hurt.

Mindy was so conviently conned into attempting something she would never do to get hurt, but Allison and Jessica got her to go any way. Have Fun.

Later, when brother Hobson got there, they pulled out the all popular Potato Gun and let everyone take turns shooting potatoes over everyone who was on the slip and slide.