Father's Day

I know this is out of order, but I can't forget to mention Father's day. I am so grateful for my dad. He is such a kind, patient, loving man. He is such a good example to me. He has a strong testimony of the gospel and has always shared it. He is a hard worker, but also knows how to have fun. My dad is constantly trying new things and teaching himself new things. He has learned how to make his own knives from just a chunk of metal, he learned how to make canteens from gourds when I was a kid. He has learned how to turn wood with a lathe and make all sorts of beautiful things. My dad just spent last week with me at camp. He helped me so much with everything. I am so grateful for my dad and the wonderful man he is. I love you dad!

Ben is such an awesome dad to our kids. He is so patient with them and so willing to teach them new things. My girls were excited to spend last week home with daddy, he's the fun parent. Ben loves to cook and is always good to let the girls help him, even if it takes longer. He has a good heart and is very good to help others (especially when I volunteer him). Ben is very good to play with the girls and just let them be kids. I am grateful for Ben and the wonderful father and husband he is.

The Sisterhood Reunites

Today feels like summer has officially started. My sister and I started our summer traveling series. We made our first stop this year at Bridal Veil Falls. Our trip certainly wasn't as memorable as last year, we didn't see any nudity, thank goodness! Addy and Sydnee enjoyed playing in the water. Maren didn't like the water at all. After playing in the water we went to Vivian Park for a picnic. After stuffing ourselves, the girls played on the playground and we left as the Heber Creeper came chugging in. It was so nice to spend the day with my sister and my girls. It truly feels like summer has now started.

Girls Camp 2011

I love this girl! She was finishing off the lasagna

We made everyone pose for their picture on the last night

The Huber farm

beautiful views from the crater

"nature walk"

This year our camp theme was "We seek after these things", taken from the 13th article of faith. We were pirates seeking after treasures that were virtuous, lovely, praiseworthy and of good report. We talked about treasures such as family, friends and the temple and our ultimate treasure we are seeking after is eternal life. Some of the highlight's of camp are as follows:

• Monday evening rain storm (not good) but it hit right after dinner so I guess it was good timing for rain.
• Huge thunder/lightning/rain storm during the night=super scary, but we lived
  
• Tuesday we finally officially started camp, it was a good day!
• We made bottlecap necklaces and magnets, which were a hit, and super cute.
• We went on a "nature walk" at the Homestead and walked up to the crater.
  
• Ice cream at the Dairy Keen in Heber.
• Lots of yummy food!
• Showers, need I say more
• The spider who visited me in the bathroom (not good)
  
• Playing ride that pony and Sally Walker, I even played ride that pony!
• All of the girls finished their certification!
• Wednesday Workshops, something new I tried and it worked out well. We had four different workshops that the girls rotated through. The girls even said they would like to have workshops again at camp.
• Beautiful hike (only 2 miles round trip) to Huber Grove. An old farm built by a Swiss emigrant. Mr. Huber was a mission president in Switzerland and helped translate the Book of Mormon into German among many other great accomplishments.
  
• Beautiful weather on Thursday!
• My Dutch oven lasagna turned out well (even though I couldn't taste it)
• Testimony meeting turned out really good, better than I thought it would!
• We all made it home safely with enough cars and other such transportation.

Camp was a success! I am very grateful for all of the blessings we received while at camp. Thank you to all who said prayers on our behalf!

The Zoo

So what does the crazy camp director do when she only has two more days to get ready for camp and a mile long to-do list? She pack's up her kids and heads to the zoo with the in-laws. I needed a day to just spend with my kids. We headed to the zoo with about half of the population of Utah. We parked at the back of the zoo, I didn't even know there was another parking area and gate. It was really hot that day and we had to fight crowds to see anything. All in all, it was a fun day. Maren didn't care for the animals, in fact, they scared her. She really disliked the dinosaurs they had around the zoo as well. The T-Rex really scared her. Every time we would get near it she would scream and cry and shake. She would then turn and watch it to make sure it wasn't following her. I felt bad for her, but it was funny. We had a picnic, rode the carousel and the train and people watched. It was a much needed break.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I have blogged, I don't count yesterday's post. Now I'm trying to play catch up and record some of the things that have happened in the last few weeks.
The last two weeks of school was super busy. Sydnee was the star of the week in her class, I read a story to her class and showed them pictures and told them all about Sydnee. The last week of school I helped with field day which was a long, but fun day. It was fun watching the kids play games and the highlight of the day was being sprayed by the fire hose. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera that day. Next up was the dance festival. Sydnee's class did a duck dance and Addy's class danced to music from the movie Madagascar. Both girls were so excited to dance, they had been dancing around the house for weeks. They looked so cute. Sydnee had a teddy bear picnic at school and both girls had lots of fun the last few days of school. The last day of school finally came on June 3rd. The girls went to school for an hour and a half. They came home with their final report cards and their class assignments for next year. Addy will have Miss Neilsen again which she is thrilled about and Sydnee will have Mrs. Call. Addy was in a 2nd/3rd grade mixed class last year which worked out better than I thought it would, but this year she will be in a 3rd grade only class with Miss N. again. The week after school got out went by in a blur. I was really busy getting ready for girls camp. I did take one day off and took the girls to the zoo. It was hot and super crowded, but we had a good time. I think that brings us to girls camp. I think I will do a separate post for that one. If you are still reading, my apologies, it takes me a while to ramble everything out.

Solid Ground

I feel like I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Girls camp is over and so is the roller coaster ride I have been on. Girls camp went well. It's hard to say it went smoothly when I know all of the things that didn't go right, but I think it went really well. I think all of the girls had a good time and enjoyed camp. It's hard being in charge, I wasn't able to participate a whole lot with the girls, so I just kept praying that they would be able to feel the spirit. There were a few testimonies born at camp that made me feel like "yes! she got it!" those are the ones that made me feel like camp was a success. The girls loved the activities and crafts. They even had fun doing their certification. They were given punch cards to keep track of what they needed to pass off, and they were given charms when they passed things off. I am so lucky to work with such wonderful young women. They are such good girls, it's so nice not to have fights and drama at camp. These girls are such examples to me. My YCL's took their role seriously and took charge of their tent groups. They were moms to the younger girls and helped me out a lot. I am so grateful for my dad, he stayed at camp with me all week. He was such a huge help to me and I felt calm just knowing he was there. Ben stayed over the first night and helped get camp set up and then he went home to take care of the kids the rest of the week. I am so grateful for him. It was nice not having to worry about my kids all week. A huge thank you to my mom and sister too for all of their help before and during camp. I'll share more camp details and pictures later, but for now it's just nice to be back home. I feel like summer has now started for me and my girls!