Eagle’s Nest

I’ve been pretty depressed this summer because we haven’t vacationed anywhere. I have this opinion in my head that a vacation has to be some elaborate adventure… a cruise, a European tour, a high adventure trip in the Appalachians, New York City, Disney Word (I could go on and on… and if you were a fly on my wall at home, you know I have).
Thankfully, I have wiped those unrealistic thoughts from my mind. A vacation is anything that takes you away from the monotony of every day life. And it doesn’t have to be exotic (and can’t be with 4 kids). My favorite ‘vacation’ this summer has been our camping trip to Eagle’s Nest. 
We camped there once before with some friends. I didn't bring my camera with me during that trip, so we had to visit again, to take pictures. No, actually we came back because it was one of the best camping experiences we’ve ever had. And, it only cost us $1 a person to stay, which beats a Disney World trip any day.

Eagle’s Nest is owned by the church. It’s used for girls and boys camp, but when wards aren’t using it, they open it up for families.
It was the 4th of July weekend when we went, and we were the ONLY people there! We had an ENTIRE camp to ourselves! It was my dream come true.

We were all happy! Look at our smiles… everyone is in Heaven. Grant is so happy he can’t even keep his legs still, and my smile is so big it’s about to jump out of my face!

They have a game room packed with a ping-pong, air hokey, and foosball table, games galore, slingshots, bows & arrows… everything!
There’s a team building course and a rock climbing wall. A playground. Nature walk. BB Gun range.
And canoes! The boy’s favorite….

These canoes were in the water non-stop.

Shawn and Jefferson. Isn’t it beautiful?

It rained on and off, so it was difficult to start a fire. Luckily Shawn is a super Eagle Scout and worked his magic.

Reagan and Kennedy waiting for smores…

When we weren’t canoeing, or shooting bb guns, or playing ping-pong… we were swimming….

Reagan has a way of making sure every good picture I take ends up in an album instead of on the wall.
You know what? I just decided a split-second ago…. this IS going on the wall. It actually is a very accurate picture of her character!

The water was a weird red color that frightened me…. I just didn’t trust its cleanliness.

But Shawn teased me long enough in front of the kids, so I finally got in. I couldn’t have them thinking I was a sissy. I sat at the top of the slide counting down from 3 about 20 times before I went down. Once was enough for me. But these guys did it for hours….
 

Shawn, flying in

We played in the water until it started to rain. The kids got out and ran for shelter (heaven forbid they get wet). Shawn thought it was relaxing and decided to wait (or wade) out the storm. He looks mad in this picture. I think he was just too relaxed to smile.


This really was one the best vacations ever!


This face says it all…..

Vietnam

I have been meaning to share pictures of Shawn’s trip to Vietnam… and here they are, finally.
Shawn told me he was volunteering for this humanitarian trip and that it would only be for 1 week. FALSE. And yes, his pants did catch on fire! I guess he didn’t totally lie, because in fact he was doing eye care for 1 week. But he was also touring the country, spending time on the beach, and I forgot that it takes 2 days to actually get there and back.
So, 15 days later, he came home with some interesting souvenirs and great pictures to share. And I am going to share the pictures with you because I know that’s what Shawn wants me to do. He secretly loves when I talk about him. And I’m sure when he said “oh, I don’t care about those picture, you can just delete them,” he really meant, “please put them on the blog.”
You’re welcome Honey!

Anyways, here we are, about to embark on a wild adventure to the exotic land of Vietnam.
Traveling there and back was torture for Shawn. I think he sat in the airplane for 589 hours (I’m sure it felt like that), but it was closer to 30. Poor guy. He sat next to this door with this “remove before flight” tag, which was never removed. He took a picture of it to be used as evidence if the plane crashed.

This is the fancy airport and the plane. Ohhh, Ahhh

Lets take a look at where he stayed.
At a 5 star resort!
This was the view outside of his room. Not Fair, I know, I was thinking the very same thing!
  

He spent time on this beach, and in this pool. It was very very hard, laborious work!
There was even spa services! for $30 you got a 45 minute massage, a manicure, and a pedicure. He was crazy and didn’t take advantage of it though.
 

He really did have a purpose for coming besides lounging on the beach.
He, and this team of Optometrists and assistants helped the eyes of exactly 1,402 people. Shawn is in the back right, if you can’t pick him out of the group.
Strange factoid… the second man from Shawn’s right actually grew up in Shawn’s hometown of Placerville. And they met in Vietnam, weird!
Oh, and the man on the left with the dark blue scrubs was Shawn’s roommate, and LDS.

They set up their mini office in a school room.
before, and after

These shelters were set up each day by crazy people who have no fear of heights,
 

Washed down,


Then set up again. Then the Vietnamese people started lining up,


Literally, mobs of people…. all there to see Shawn (because he is the best eye dr on planet earth, and they wanted to see him). Kidding. They also had the best Physician, Dentist, Physical Therapist, and Pharmacist.
But I wasn’t kidding about the mobs. One morning Shawn was arriving at the same time they opened the gates for the natives. He was pushed, shoved, and totally trampled over by these people desperate to get into line.

The team worked non-stop all day seeing these patients.

Here he is with a little girl. She was pretty thrilled about her new glasses. Or maybe it’s the sticker.

Not bad for a days work, if you ask me. And who wouldn’t want to look out and see this while they’re working?
That cement box is the bathroom. You walk in and urinate in the corner, simple as that. Shawn didn’t use the bathroom once, and I’m a little disappointed. It would have made for a good story. Speaking of good story…. this bathroom actually reminds me of a similar bathroom story (but Melissa, you should really be the one to tell it!)

Shawn saw a lot of interesting eye balls. I don’t know what exactly is going on in these pictures, but it looks pretty serious! Luckily Shawn was there and not me… he knew what to do.
(I hope it’s not illegal to post pictures of these men without permission).
 

I think serving the people of Vietnam was a very rewarding experience for Shawn.

But onto another great part (at least for Shawn)…. the food.
Did I mention that he forgot to take a camera with him? Luckily he bought a new camera in Korea.  And aren’t we glad he did, because now we have tons of pictures of what he ate! Yes, Shawn spent the bulk of his memory card on pictures of food.
Lets take a look….

These look like eyeballs!
I think they were some sort of fruit, and he really liked them. “you know, you can actually buy them here in the US” he said. Um, I’ll pass.

This looks like vomit. I think it’s some sort of rice mush.

Is this seaweed? I can’t tell if Shawn is giving a thumbs-up because he really likes it, or he’s lifting his hands off the spoon because he didn’t like it enough to even touch it?

I hope I’m not offending anyone who eats Vietnamese food. Honestly, my appetite is ruined looking at these photos, but believe me, Shawn eats anything. He loved it all!
I might be able to handle this…

But this chicken…. No thanks. The head is the deal-breaker…. and is that a 2 headed chicken?!?

This was an entire meal. That’s it….

I could go on and on. There are at least 30 more pictures like these. How many times did he eat? He even took pictures of drinks, I kid you not.

He took pictures of people… mostly on motorcycles, and wearing face masks, both really common things there. Shawn even brought a stylish face mask home for Reagan, she wasn’t quite sure what to think of it. She uses it in her doctor kit.  


Houses too… mostly blocks.

One day the group went to visit some famous caves in these mountains

They were breathtaking. I can say that and I wasn’t even there. I’ve seen caves before, but these were MASSIVE!
First he went down some stairs…

As in, lots and LOTS of stairs…

Here he is in the cave. I get the feeling he was missing me right about now. I mean, who enjoys being in a dark cave without someone to kiss? It brings out the vampire in you! I for 1 like to kiss in caves.


I don’t think we can really grasp the size and scope of these stalagmites. Shawn said they were huge, so we’ll just have to believe him. 

Okay, now we believe you…..

Speaking of huge… check out this frightening spider

Then he visited the Presidential Palace and the War Remnants Museum.
 

Here’s a few pictures from his tour there….

I hope you enjoyed these pictures from Shawn’s trip. He is a man of few words… that’s why I’m here. But I did ask him,
Shawn, would you go on another humanitarian trip? Yes
Would you go to Vietnam again? No, Never
.