Fishlake, Father's Day, & Priorities

I had such a great time with my family this weekend at Fishlake!! We played tons of games, roasted mallows, visited the lake, endured the freezing cold sacrament meeting that we attended at the Lodge, ate lots of delicious food, made some bracelets, and went on a hike with my dad and Konner. All the while we had the accompaniment of our relatives, the Jensens! The entire weekend was just wonderful and there was never a dull moment.
My familly is a hoot and a hollar and if you know anything about them, they sure can be extremely goofy. We were laughing almost all the time! It was great, laughter is medicine for the soul :)
So the hike that I did with Konner and my dad was an extreme ADVENTURE!!! We could have used snow shoes, hiking boots, rain boots, etc. to help us out along the way, but nooo... All I had was a pair of bright orange vans.
Let's just say I wasn't expecting to go on  such a rigorous and interesting hike full of adventure and fun. It was about a 4.6 round mile hike with inclines ranging from mild to slightly intense. We had to balance across many many logs to get to the other side of the trail. We had to slosh through flooded meadows, slip our way through muddy run-off creeks, and stomp our way through snow drifts up to our knees. It was insane!!!! It was like we experienced the earth in its form for every season. Summer= dry. Winter= snow. Spring/Fall= wet. It was crazy, yet very cool.
After two hours of huffing and puffing and fighting to find the trail that was burried under snow, or lost from all the run-off water, we finally made it to our destination! (PS. did I mention the mesquitos?? They were everywhere. I HATE them! We sprayed ourselves with bug spray three different times!! But I still happened to get bit... those dang buggers.)
We hiked up to a lake that was apparently in bear country, yet I didn't realize it until we were leaving because we ran into a foot print that was large and unidentifiable!! It was either a mountain lion's or a bear's. Either way... I wanted to get out of there asap! Scary!! But let me tell you... the sight of that lake was such a great feeling. We had worked so hard to get there and had been through many difficulties to the point that we had wanted to turn around and go back. Yet, we still kept moving forward having faith that the lake was near and that we would be able to find it. Just like life, I imagined that the trail and experience up to the lake is like our experiences here in this life. There are going to be soooo many difficulties, trials, hardships, ups, and downs... But we just always gotta remember where we are headed. We cannot lose sight of where we want to go or else we will get lost. Also, we gotta know where we're going or else we won't get anywhere! And once we get to the place that we strive so hard to get to, it will be such a good feeling. We will realize that those trials and difficulties made us a stronger person. And that because of them, we were able to learn, grow, and become the people we are. The ending would not be as joyous, it would not be as worth it and it would not be as sweet if we hadn't experienced the bitter or the downfalls. It was a pretty cool realization. :)
Anyways!
We packed along our fishing poles and the tackle box, we got to fish for an hour, and then packed everything back out with the addition of twelve brook trout!!! That is an average of about one fish per five minutes... except it wasn't really like that. Konner would cast his pole out, get a bite, reel it in, and my dad would take care of the rest. Then I would cast, get a bite, etc. This happened over and over again. Konner, then me, then konner, then me. hahaha! My dad hardly ever got to cast his pole because he was busy with the fish that we kept catching! It was so funny and so much fun!
We arrived back to the cabin a few hours later and my mom was so glad to see us back safe. She was so worried--she was about to send out our relatives to come find us! ha ha!!!

Well we're home now. I'm exhausted.
Relief society was about journalism today and during the lesson I was impressed that I should stop writing in my journal that I have had for the past two years and to begin a new one. Like my life, it is a new fresh start. :) It will be nice.
Now it's time for MISS RICHFIELD!!! Gotta practice practice practice. Gotta put my priorities first.. I'm also going to try harder to put God first this week and see how things turn out. I know that if I dedicate time for Him, he will bless me and be with me more than he already is! So along with that, tennis camp every morning, along with four hour long Miss Richfield practices, I gotta figure out my casual wear outfit, a formal to wear, and what to wear for interview. Plus! My friend Cody from St. George is going to come up and we're gonna go to the Mormon Miracle Pageant! He's going on a mission soon (July 6) so it will be fun to spend a lil bit of time w/ him before he leaves.

Let me end by letting ya'll know how much I love my father. He is such an amazing person. Such a hard worker, so kind, so loving, so strong, so smart, so fun, so great. I absolutely love him with all my heart and I couldn't have been blessed with a better father! He is such an amazing example to me of the type of guy that I need to marry someday. We are such good friends, we can talk easily, and we get along really well. We always have fun when we're together and I couldnt be luckier. I hope he had a fantastic Father's Day because he deserves the best.
:)