Ben was heading to his first year of Young Men's camp. He'd been eagerly anticipating it for months. Partly because it would be fun. But also because it meant it was finally time (per family tradition) for him to get his bedroom redo. I had so much trouble figuring out what direction to go. He's already had 2 sports bedrooms. And I didn't want to do a Lego or Gamer bedroom. What to do?
Also, I realized he'd be leaving on Rachel's birthday, a day I had been dreading and crying when I thought about for months. I was also not sure I had the energy to pull off a big bedroom overhaul. It needed a lot of work--his room was basically a bunch of cast offs from when Sarah moved out last summer, so he needed all the things.
I realized I needed emotional and physical reinforcements. So I called in the dream team. Debbi and Kelly Randall. They could be here to cry with me on Rachel's birthday--and then help me get to work on the bedroom. And boy, did we work! As a bonus, they also helped me finish a puzzle that I started during the winter too--Buddy jumped up on it and messed it up and then I got discouraged and quit. So many projects wrapped up with this crew on the job!
Here are the photo highlights of our week. (Libby and Sarah also went to girl's camp--and had a great time. I hope leaders will send me pictures!)
Dropping off Libby with the other YCLs at the church for camp. Libby's YCL name is Cronk. No idea where that came from...Apparently I didn't take a picture dropping Sarah off later in the day.
Dropping off Ben on Tuesday. There were only 16 YW and about 50 YM. Strange gender imbalance in our stake. But Ben had the best time.
I picked up my parents from the airport and we started in on the work. We stopped for Ivars with Geneva and Brion, and then got desserts to celebrate Rachel. So many tears throughout the day. It was so unreal that I wouldn't be calling her or seeing her.
Mimi remembered to take some before pictures. Yeah, it was very haphazard.
There was a little wallpaper removal. Par for the course for a job in this house (although I actually put that paper up! It came off easily--with just a little wipe down of the leftover backing.)
Starting with the bed...
Mimi wiping.
We took off and spray painted the pulls (mostly Papa handled that job.) We'll see if the gold starts to show up again...
We did take a break and go to the temple for some sealings. It was lovely!
Also the puzzle complete!
And the finished room! I decided on a workshop vibe. It was kinda hard to find just the right things. But I got black metal everything and some peg boards. I got 3 patent posters (one for Nintendo 64 and two of legos) that were the inspiration pieces. He can build anything in this room--electronic or lego or whatever he imagines! (And that doesn't make too much of a mess, haha.)
I used my cricut to make this for his door.
The shelves got a clean up. Different shelves for his different interests. I didn't put all the legos back on display, and I color coded the ones that I did.
He got a new desk chair.
Over the bed was all planned out and then we hit a roadblock--a ventilation shaft actually. That you can't drill into. But we got some 1x4s, painted them to match the room, and hung the stuff in those instead of in the wall. (We--meaning my dad with a little help from us--were able to mount those boards into studs on either side of the problematic area.) New bed, new lamp, new baskets under the bed, new rack for hanging sweatshirts.
New curtain rod (I HATE hanging curtain rods, so glad my dad did that one.) new shelf, new hat rack--and his fav, new bean bag chair.
We painted the mirror, and hung the peg boards and cork board/message board.
I love this message. He may never change it, and that's okay with me.
He's excited to have enough shelf space that Buddy can come in his room and not grab things off the floor.
A new notebook for his big and bright ideas. (I did accidentally put this saying on the back and upside down. Oops.)
The heros of this project!
They flew out before Ben got to see it--but they left this note.
I really wanted a little tool box, but I couldn't find one. So a painted this one from Hobby Lobby. Kind of a cute touch, right?
Anyway, I'm glad this little tradition is done for now. I enjoyed each of their room overhauls. But this mama's getting old for this. Haha. Thankful for the help I had to pull it off!
(Also, Derek is also glad I had help, so he didn't get roped into "my projecting." His contribution was breaking down boxes and taking them to the transfer station. Just the level of participation he likes. (Although he did fund the project in large part--so there's that...)
I added the photos backward, so we'll work backward through a magical week of camping! I got in 2 more paddle boarding times (I still can't stand very well...but I got much better at kneeling & sitting.) That brings me to 5 times. I just need one more to make my goal. It does trigger headaches pretty intensely...but I just keep thinking if I do it more... Anyway, except for the headache I had on Friday and the one I have today, it was an awesome week. I really do still love tent camping. When the weather cooperates. And it mostly did.
This is a sure sign that things didn't end as well as they started. RAIN! on the last morning. So we had to go home and set up all the tents, chairs and tables so that they could dry out. Ugh. Worst.
We also ended the trip with the annual Blue Angels airshow viewing party at Erin's house. We had an amazing Mexican food lunch. Yum! (This is Fat Albert, I didn't manage to get a pic of the Blue Angels this year--but they buzzed right over us a few times. They jump scared me at least 2x.)
Cleaning up in the rain.
More rain. It really was mostly a light-ish drizzle. But enough to be a real pain to clean up.
Ben & Jed had a great time hanging out together.
We did some great bridge jumping. I even jumped off! So fun. The weather was perfect. So warm that even I didn't mind getting wet, but not so hot that it was uncomfortable.
Maren's kayak got a lot of good use.
Ben & Jed took Grammy out in the kayak when Grammy & Grandpa came up for an afternoon.
There was also some rock jumping off--I didn't get to go over for that, not enough kayak/paddle board space.
We brought Libby's boyfriend Andrew, and he was so great. He was super helpful and fun to have around. Libby was also on cloud 9 to have him there.
I got to drive the kid shuttle back from the lake. The beach is about a mile from the campground, so we drove over and back with all our floaties and food.
Campfire nights. Burn ban meant that we had to use propane fires, but it was pretty nice to just turn on and off fire when you wanted it, and no smoke smell. (Although that is one of my favorite parts of camping--I didn't really miss it as much as I thought I would. It worked great for tin foil dinners--and even for marshmallows.)
Ben brought the guitar and serenaded us one night.
BFFs
Sarah and Carter got along great--having some good chats out in the floaties.
More kayak time.
I got in a nap one day waiting for everyone to be ready for the lake.
Setting up camp. We had a tent for me, Libby & Sarah, a tent for Ben & Jed, on for the Barretts, a hammock for Emma, a tent for Carter & Andrew, and one for Maren, Cara, Abigail & Rory. Good thing we had a double site! It was right on the river trail. So lovely!
The first night was excellent river play!
My feet in the Yakima river.
Off we go! Ready to camp. We were jammed into the van. Next year I may need a cartop carrier!
