72-hour kit

Now that I'm back from Girl's Camp, it is time to get my 72-hour kits updated.  Somehow, one of them got lost in our Indiana move.  So, I wanted to replace the food in the one good kit, and put together a second kit.  I like to have one in each car, especially if we are going to San Diego or Orange County.

This post will focus mainly on food.

If you read about 72 hour kits, some people don't want ANY food that must be prepared.  They want food that can be eaten while walking or moving.  Although I have included some meals of this type, I figured I would be able to stop long enough to eat no matter what I was doing.  Although I didn't want to prepare anything extravagant, some of my meals required you to boil water or heat food.  I included a mini "Wing Stove" in both packs.  I also put 1/2 of a mess kit in each pack to have something to heat water or food in.

Food is something I worry most about.  I don't know how many I'll have to feed, or how long I'll need to live on my backpack food.  I've planned good sized meals that will be nourishing and filling.  If I have to share, I should have enough.

DAY 1(Actually the days are in no particular order)  BREAKFAST:  oatmeal (really fancy), 1 c. milk, fruit roll up.  Last time I just used instant oatmeal packets.  But then I found these and they have pieces of apple, nuts, and all kinds of yummy stuff.  You add boiling water in the cup and let it sit.  The milk is just enough to make 1 cup.

LUNCH:  I splurged and bought these tuna/lunch kits.  They have tuna, mayonaise, relish, and crackers.  1/2 c. raisins.  I didn't rotate the photo.  Sorry.

DINNER:  Ravioli, (can be heated or not), fruit strips, and Oreo cookies.  Oh yeah.

SNACKS:  Each day has two snacks.  Today we have: Granola bar and a Tootsie Pop

Then, each day's food is put in a Gallon Zip Lock with a list of contents.  That way I won't eat it all for breakfast and have nothing left for dinner.

DAY 2 - BREAKFAST:  2 Pop Tarts, cup of peaches, hot chocolate.  Mind you, I NEVER buy pop tarts, but I figure, hey, they have fruit so they must be good for you, right???  The hot chocolate is made with hot water.

LUNCH:  Cup of Noodles, dried pineapple rings (nice and sugary) and some crackers and cheese.

DINNER:  Again, not rotated  :-(  Stew, applesauce, and cookies.

SNACKS:  Goldfish and Jolly Ranchers.  Last year, I just tossed the candy into the backpack.  It melted everywhere and made a huge mess.  This year, I vacuum sealed them.  Really, a snack baggie would do just as well.

Into the gallon bag they go.

DAY 3 - BREAKFAST  At Winco you can buy individual servings of cold cereal for pretty cheap.  We are having cereal, milk, and Orange Juice mix.

LUNCH:  Beef jerky, fruit roll up, and granola bar.  This is a great "walking" meal.  No prep.  We probably don't need an entire bag of beef jerky, but I didn't want to unseal the bag.  I could have vacuum sealed it into smaller portions, but I was lazy.

DINNER:   Beanee Weenees.  (The cans pop open and can be heated right over the flame.  Then you can wash out the cans and use them to heat anything else you need.)  Pretzels, 1 cup milk.

SNACKS:  Trial mix and butterscotch candies.  I actually opened the trail mix and divided it for both backpacks.

Into the gallon bag.

When i took out my food from 2 years ago, it looked a little worse for wear.

But, the raisins were still soft, as was the fruit by the foot.  The crackers were generally in one piece, even the milk was good.  You can see that I used baggies, and this year I vacuum sealed.  

If you pack school lunches, you probably have a lot of stuff you can use.  The instant milk I bought in bulk at Winco.  You need 1/3 c. instant milk for 1 c. milk.  That works out to about $.23 per cup.  Not bad.  I also bought the orange drink in bulk.  You need 1 1/2 TB drink mix per cup of water, about $.08.  Granola bars were $2.64 for the box of 6, that's $.44 each.  Raisins were $1.90 a pound.  That's about $.36 for 1/2 cup.  The Ravioli was $.98 each.  Applesauce was $1.06 for 6 or $.27each.  The pineapple was about 1/2 lb for the four pieces or $.34 each piece.  Crackers and cheese were in the bulk section for $.41 each.  The tuna lunches were $1.65 each but the cup of noodles were only $.32 each.

You are welcome to come vacuum seal anything you want.  

The food takes up the most room in my pack.  But, again, I don't know who I'll have to share it with.  I have left-over fruit cups, pop tarts, cookies.  I might just throw them in for fun.

In my next blog, I'll talk about the other necessities in my packs.  By no means do I have a complete and wonderful kit.  You can find all kinds of lists on line about what to include.  But I'm happy with mine and feel confident that it will sustain me in whatever situation may arise.

Girls' Camp

I had been asked to attend Girl's Camp this year, to help with driving, hauling camping gear, and generally supervising.  Then two weeks before camp, I hurt my knee.  I told Craig he would have to go in my place, after all there were four other men going and he wouldn't be alone.  He told me that was never going to happen and that I would just have to get well.

So, on June 15, we set off for Zion's National Park.  I was still on crutches.  We set up our tent.  OK, so Brother Bradbury set up the tent.  I was on crutches, remember???

Lisa Payne had the cot, I was on an air mattress.  We had plenty of room.

The girls moved all the tables into a common eating area.

The next day was a traveling day.  We went to the Saint George, Utah temple (about 1 1/2 hours away).

We also went to the Mountain Meadows Massacre site.  Such a sad time in Church history.  A few men, acting on their own, afraid and worried, caused the deaths of many innocent people.  The church maintains this site in remembrance.

We also went to Pine Valley and saw this little church which is still operational.  It was so beautiful there.  At lease 20 degrees cooler than at camp.  Surrounded by hills.

Zion's Canyon was beautiful, but hot.  I mean, really hot.  It was over 100 degrees every day.  Here is a view of the mountain from our camp.  At night the wind blew something fierce.  Brother Bradbury's tent collapsed on him several times that first night.  The next day he added some tie lines to stabilize it.  It was hard to sleep.

By the third day, my hair was dirty and sweaty.  I washed it in cold water at the communal bathrooms, then told Brenda to "do something" with it and that I did NOT want it on my forehead.

I kept it in these tight braids for the rest of the week.  Frankly I didn't care how it looked, it was cooler than having it on my face and on my neck.

On the third day, Brenda Calloway broke her ankle.  I gave her my crutches.  Such a coincidence that I would have them there for her.  Each afternoon, while the girls were hiking, Brenda and I would go to the river near the camp and just sit in the cold water for an hour or two.  Then, when the leaders and girls came back, we would hobble back to camp for dinner.  Here is our Bishop, kicking back.

On the last day, we went into town for ice cream.

We had such a good time.  The ride home took forever!!!  Maybe I'll get to go next year without the crutches.

Tucson, And Finally Home

My daughter, Amanda, lives in Tucson.  Our first day there, Craig and I volunteered to babysit while Amanda and Tyler were at work.  Why not?  I was somewhat worried about Evie.  She tends to cry.  A lot.

I LOVE this picture.  It shows how much she cries, and how upset it makes Amanda.  LOL

So I was nervous about how it would go.  EVIE was wonderful.  She was as sweet as she could be all day long.  Here is a picture of her jumping off the back of the couch.  This fun game kept everyone entertained for quite a while.

Grandma and all the kids.  

Amanda's house backs up to a lake.  We took a walk around the lake when it cooled off.  It was so beautiful.

We had traded cars with Tyler because his car had the car seats.  He called to let us know that the transmission was acting funny.  Craig went out to his place of business and traded cars back so that we could get it checked before we drove the last leg home.  Sure enough.  The transmission had totally "gone out."  The repair shop had it fixed in one day.  Of course, it cost an arm and a leg.  We decided to put the repairs on the credit card and pay monthly just like a car payment.  Hey, we were going to buy a new car when we got home anyway.  So we will now "pretend" we have a new car.  Actually, with new tires, a new radiator,  a new water pump, and a new transmission, we kinda do.... have a new car, that is.

Just as a side note, when Amanda was home the next day, Evie was back to her crying self.  Any time she was near Amanda, she was crying for whatever.  Crying for snacks, crying for TV, crying for attention, just crying in general.  Too funny.

We got home late Wednesday night and have been spending the last two weeks painting.  The carpet and new counters should be in by the end of the month.  At least that's the plan.  Even though our mission is over, I'll probably continue to blog about what's happening.  It's a good way to let our families know what we are doing.  We're so pleased to have had this opportunity to know and love the people of Indiana.  They are still in our prayers and thoughts.  We hope they always will be.

Only One State Away

Found a few more pictures to post before moving on.  This is our sweet Della in Houston.  She loves her Grandma.

 Family Fun Center in Dallas.  Here is Josiah.

Craig and his daughter, Stacie

Craig and his grandson, Josiah.  Notice Josiah is taller - and he's only in fifth grade!!

And yes, I took a turn in the go-carts.

Here is Craig in the dragster.

And here is the video.  Craig came in second place all three runs.

From Dallas, we drove up to Oklahoma City.  There is not really a direct route from Dallas to Albuquerque.  Even though the temple was closed, we found someone to take a picture for us.

We stayed in Oklahoma City for the night because we really didn't want to stay in Amarillo.  Then it was on to Albuquerque.

Here is sweet Ursula, whom I had never met.  She did finally warm to me, but it took the whole time.

Out to dinner with the family.  From left to right:  Owen, my son Austin, Chantel, Ursula, and Soren.

Ursula even let me hold her for one final picture.

The Albuquerque temple was gorgeous inside and out.  So beautiful.

It is even beautiful from the back.

On our trip to Arizona, we passed over the Continental Divide.  I didn't remember that being in New Mexico, but I looked it up and sure enough, it is.  As a matter of fact, there are SEVERAL divides.  The GREAT divide runs from Alaska down through South America.

We also let Sam out of the car.  

All was fine until Sam jumped down into the basement of an abandoned house.  Then we had to resort to shaking the "treats" bag to get him out.  Most of New Mexico looks like this:

But Flagstaff, in northern Arizona, is really beautiful:  forrested, wonderful.  Then, as you proceed south, you drop down into desert.  This is from a roadside overlook.

We decided there is something wrong with my camera.  Maybe just need to upgrade.  This is from my camera.

This is from Craig's.

Got into Phoenix in time to go to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple.  Who knew?  They have been putting on the pageant since 1927.  It was WONDERFUL!!!  There were hundreds of people there.  The chairs went WAY back, and some were sitting on the lawn.

The stage was very large, with lights and sound system.

The characters walked among the audience and posed.  Their costumes were  first class.

These guys look kind of spacey with their white eyes.  LOL

Craig being attacked by Roman soldiers.

It's the Easter story, and so tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ.  Over 400 people in the cast and another 100 behind the scenes.

It depicts Christ's birth, life, and death.

And at the end there is a glorious resurrection.  Spectacular.  Music and sound was excellent.

All this was on the temple grounds.  The Mesa temple was built in the early 1900's.  It was beautiful at night and during the day. 

We went back to the temple the next day.  It was sooooo beautiful inside.  Rich brown colors.  Gorgeous Indian rugs on the walls.  There were so many people there, we couldn't find a parking space.  In the visitor's center is a statue of the Christus.  I love this statue.

And as with all other temples, the grounds around the temple are also beautiful and peaceful.  In fact, there were several groups of people taking family photos and graduation photos.

We travelled across Phoenix to the Phoenix Temple to meet an old friend.  The temple was busy.  Lots of people there.

I took a picture of this outside column.  Cheryl says that this representation of the "Tree of Life" is repeated through the temple.  As you progress through the temple, there are more and more leaves on the tree.  Until at the end, in the Celestial Room, it is covered with leaves.  Cool.

We met friends for lunch.  In back are Cheryl and her husband, Andy.  In front, Kate.  We miss these guys.

Kate drove with us over to the Gilbert Temple.  When we got there we discovered it was closed for the Women's conference.  Drat.

Kate took this picture of us so you could get an idea of the grandeur of this temple.  Next stop Tucson and then home.  We're getting there.