Father's Day Flee 2025: Heritage of Hope

We had a great time at Father's Day Flee!  Here is the link to the Father's Day Flee Album! 

Last year Jase and Ellen were doing a lot of camping and stumbled upon this campground in Samaria, ID called "Crazy Cow Farm Adventure." They absolutely loved it! While they were there Jase learned that his ancestors were from Samaria. In fact, his 4th great-grandmother's (Anna Evans Jenkins) picture and wagon were part of the historical display there in Heritage Square, which was adjacent to the campground! Here is Ellen's Facebook post about their trip. 

During their previous trip in 2024, Jase told the owner of the family farm that his ancestors were from there. Hearing this, the owners, Luke and Shayna, took Jase and Ellen on a tour of the whole area and showed them history books that had information about their ancestors who lived here. Jase said it was awesome! They were extremely impressed by their experience staying there and Jase said that this would be a perfect place for our family to go for Father's Day Flee. We all agreed and set up dates for June. Rick put Jase and Brandon in charge of planning and carrying our Father's Day Flee this year.

We left early Thursday morning. We had a couple hiccups on the way.  One was my car tire. My tire pressure light came on and so we stopped at Costco to check the tires and put more air in. Unfortunately the air service was not open yet. So we got back on the freeway and off at the next exit at a Maverick. Welll, something was wrong with their machine and it drained our tire instead of filling it! Now we had a tire that was almost flat. We went to get some help and the store was packed. They said they would send someone out as soon as they could. We waited around for fifteen minutes, with the temperature outside getting hotter and hotter. Finally Rick went back in and they said that their machine was broken. Why didn't they have a sign on it? Or tell us that in the first place? Maybe they just didn't want to deal with us. They gave us our money back and we slowly and carefully drove across the street and filled the tire at a different gas station and continued on our way. 

I had given my dad a "lunch out" for Fathers Day, and so we decided this might be a good time to do it. We met my mom and dad at the Chuck-A-Rama in Lehi. The gluten free options weren't great, but the salad was good and it was nice to visit! 

We also ran into Jenna and Josh's former second grade chinese teacher, Mrs. Lin. They live up north now and she is teaching at a middle school. Mrs. Lin was so excited to run into us and we had a great visit with her. Her son, Joseph, used to run around with Josh when they were in elementary school. We  laughed about the time Josh and Joseph got called to the principal's office from their teacher Mrs. Paxman, for talking while a test was going on. They had finished early and were talking and got in trouble and sent to the Principal's office. And these were the "good kids," ha ha! 

We stayed for a while and Jase sent a Marco Polo saying that there had been a wreck on the freeway and traffic was completely backed up. Upfortunately that impacted most of our kids who were trying to travel up north. It even impacted us for a bit once we got on the freeway. Thankfully Janika and Brandon were staying in Bountiful and so they missed the bad traffic. It is there anniversary on Sunday and so they went to the Anniversary Inn last night while Reed and Barb watched the kids. 

After lunch, Rick and I headed to Costco to check our tires. The back left tire had already gone down from 36 to 29 and so it was apparent that there was a small leak and that the tire would have to be fixed as soon as we finished camping. We headed to Idaho and arrived at the Crazy Cow Farm. Jase and Ellen were right, it was a great place! Janika and Brandon had already arrived with all of the food. They had the big trailor with all of the ammenities since they had the food and their boys. This place has cute little trailors that have a bed and electricity (and AC)! When they were making the reservation, Jase had asked who wanted trailors and who wanted tents. I was surprised that everyone chose tents, except for Janika and Brandon, and Rick and I. But it was so hot when we arrived that Jared and Hallie decided to upgrade to a little trailor too.

I was worried and Jase and Ellen in a tent with their three small children, including baby Elsie, but they were up for the challenge! They even did a test run by camping in their backyard with the kids last weekend. Janelle and Bryton have already been camping several times and so they were fine with a tent. We also brought a tent for Jaiden and Jenna to share. After everyone arrived and got set up we had the Father's Day Flee opening ceremony with the traditional song and DAD dance. There was another family arriving at 6:30 who had reserved one of the trailors and so we hurried and did the opening ceremony before they arrived, so we wouldn't bother them with our song blaring from our large speaker. Rick instisting on bringing the large speaker, in spite of me trying to convince him otherwise. (The videos in are in the album link). 

The campground had a playground, which was great for the kids! For dinner we roasted hotdogs over the fire, even though it was so hot out, ha ha! The temperature was a little crazy. It was one of the hottest days when we arrived and one of the coldest days when we left. But once the sun went down the first day it was perfect and we were able to make some S'mores. The campground had provided some stuff for S'mores, but we didn't know how much they would be providing and so we brought our own stuff and had tons leftover! 

Everett also did a darling little cowboy dance for Grandpa Rick for Father's Day. It was so cute! (The video is in the album link too). 

Shayna (the owner) told us that everyone could join them at 8:30 to feed the animals. This was definitely a highlight of our stay there! We got to bring the kids to see all of the animals and help feed them. It was so fun! They even had brand new puppies for everyone to hold. Jenna went on and on pleading for a dog. I am not an animal person and have never wanted a dog (or any animal). Thankfully Rick is the same way. Some of our kids, like Jaiden and Jenna, are definitely animal people. I tell them that when they have their own home, they can decide it they want a pet, but not in my home. So our poor, deprived girls were in heaven playing with the cute little puppies. 

After dinner, Brandon and Jase put their boys to bed and then Jase gave a very nice lesson. We were able to share some pioneer stories, including some from Rick's 4th great grandma, who lived in this area. It was really neat to share thoughts with each other. Jase had to leave a couple of times to tend to his boys who were definitely not going to sleep. So he felt bad having to miss a lot of the stories and comments during his own lesson. 

After the lesson we all just talked and laughed for a good couple of hours! It was so fun! It was getting close to midnight when we decided we had better get to bed. The first night was hot, but we were fine in our trailer since it had AC. I had to get up once in the night to use the restroom. It was a pain having to put on shoes and walk over, but at least the temperature was perfect by then, ha ha. 

Friday morning we woke up to Jase and Ellen cooking breakfast: pancakes, bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs. The gluten free mix got left in our trailer and so Jenna and I had to hurry and make the gluten free pancakes. 

After breakfast and clean up we headed to the Lava Hot Springs pools, which were about 45 minutes away. Rick and I had to stop and add more air to our tire. The pools were packed! 

We put our towels down on the concrete in a shady area. We had enough blankets and towels that it worked okay. Rick went back to the car to get a couple of camping chairs. Janelle, Bryton, Jaiden, and Jenna did the waterslide that is long and fast. The line took a long time for that one. Bryton and Jared went off the highest platform. Janelle went off the second to the highest. Hallie went off the third one down with Jared. I got some videos of their jumps. 

The little kids played in the kids area with their parents and had a great time. We had brought food for lunch -- sandwiches and chips and so everyone ate lunch between activities. Near the end of our stay I went and swam laps in the inside lap pool for about thirty minutes. We stayed at the pools for several hours and then the parents went back to the campground with their kids for naps and Rick and I went with the the of the family to the natural hot springs. I thought the water would be way too hot for me, but the coolest one was 102 degrees and that was perfect. The hottest was 112 degrees and I couldn't go in that one. After the hot springs some of the kids went to the square ice cream place.

We then headed back for dinner: chicken tacos. Brandon and Rick had a difficult time cooking the chicken because it was windy and kept blowing out the flame on the grill. They finally got it though. During meal prep the kids played at the playground. 

 After dinner Brandon gave a short lesson and we did S'mores. It was pretty windy still and so we didn't spend much time cooking them. Then Rick gave a nice lesson on the importance of Fathers. We all stayed up and talked for a while like last night. The kids had brought a bunch of games, but we didn't really have time to play them. 

Friday night was cold and so I worried that everyone would be warm enough in their tents. They seemed to do okay though. Jase and Ellen's kids didn't go to bed until late. We were in a trailor and were plenty warm. The first night we needed the AC, but the second night we turned it off because it was so cold outside. 

Saturday morning we had a simple breakfast of cereal and milk and then started taking down camp. the kids played in the sandbox and rode the peddle cars. The owners of the campground took some of the group on a little tour and we got a family picture. All in all, it was a great little trip and we would love to return to this cute campground! 

Rick's 4th Great-Grandmother, Anna Evans Jenkins

 Here is the link to the rest of the pictures! Father's Day Flee Album 

Girls' Camp (Jenna)

Jenna's write-up: Girls camp was so fun!! Me and Clarissa had a sleepover the night before, since my parents were out of town. We all met up at the church at 8:00 in the morning (June 4, 2025). We got on the bus, which also had the young men, and then we started the drive. We made a stop at the Orem temple to do baptisms then kept on driving. We got to camp and set up our tents and I was so glad that I remembered how to do it! Then we ate dinner and talked about our plans for the next few days. 

My tent had me Clarissa, Kenzie, and Maddie. We all fell right asleep but it got so cold at night I almost died because my shaking kept me up. Then we woke up at around 6:30 and got ready. We had breakfast and had a devotional and had some time to study scriptures then we left. We planned to go on this hike, and it was horrible!!! It was so hard and uphill the whole time, but along the way were many little things that made it totally worth it. There were the most beautiful wildflowers and butterflies and once we got to the top we could see everything. It was so incredible and so that changed the experience and made it a good one. 

The way down was much easier, but super slippery so it was kinda difficult and one of the girls caught a snake. We then walked to the park and ate lunch while the young men tubed down the river. After that we were exhausted but still had a long day ahead of us. Next we went to go zip lining!!! We got aboard  this giant army truck and drove out to the middle of nowhere to the zip lining place. We did the zip line a few times and it was so fun! I went upside down and everything. Then after that we did the ninja course and it was terrifying, but I still did it. There was this part where you jump off a 5 story high forklift, it was crazy! After that, we were supposed to meet the boys at the pool, but we were all too exhausted, so we just went back to camp. Later that night we went to the hot springs, which was so fun, but they were so hot! Then we got ice cream. 

The next day we got up and made breakfast. I was helping out with pancakes and it was surprisingly super fun! Then we had a quick devotional and heard some pioneer stories and left for the river. We got our tubes and then went down and there was a huge water fall near the top and it was so exilerating and fun, but it got cold and so we stopped and then we left to the pool while the guys went ziplining. I was sad I didn’t go on any water slides. I did jump off the platform, but not the highest, super high one because I am deathly afraid of heights. Then we came back and ate dinner and had some free time and so I braided hair and did tinsel and henna and hair wraps it was funnn. Then we watched skits and they were hilarious! Then we had an amazing testimony meeting and everyone shared either a testimony or what they liked about camp and the spirit was so strong. After that we roasted s’mores and went to bed! 

We woke up the next morning early and cleaned up camp and head out to go home. We stopped at the bountiful temple and did baptisms then we also stopped at the creamery. This trip was so fun and totally worth it I learned so much and had an amazing time with my ward!