Girl's Camp 2012

This last week I had the opportunity to go up to girls camp....I haven't been to camp since I was a youth.

Being back there brought all the memories of my years going as a teenager. For 6 years I grew up rising through the ranks and learning leadership skills that I've used throughout my adult life. 

So fun to be a leader though, I got to talk to other ladies that I know and respect but only see in passing at church and I got to know a great group of girls. 

The theme for this year was BOOT camp or "Building Our Own Testimony"

Our cabin was France or Fort Paris.

Our cabin with our signature mustaches!

Our cabin mom was Brianna Reid, I was the cabin aunt and then we had Rachel Spencer, Alise Bradford, Aubrey, Yaretzi, Stephanie Smart, Jessie Ball, Clarissa, Diana, Asia, and Alexis.

On the side of our cabin we had this guy and he's saying "I mustache you a question...How strong is your testimony"

The week before camp a few of the older girls and us got together to work on decorations. I was impressed with the girls and their painting skills. They did it completely on their own. Way to go girls!

Here are the girls coming to camp ready to be hooked up with their cabins. 

Welcome to camp girls!

Camp was full of spiritual classes, crafts, singing at meals if you were caught with elbows on the table and a lot of the stuff I remembered at camp from before. 

I came to camp prepared to serve and help but I ended up getting a lot out of it myself. I found my own testimony being strengthened, I had just as much fun staying up and laughing with the girls and I appreciated the lighthearted pranks...luckily none that I was victim to.

I got to be able to help with camp certification. One of the relays I helped run was one where the girls had to make a stretcher out of a blanket and two boards. Every group made theirs a little different but somehow they pretty much all got them to work. 

One of the other classes I got to teach was "flip the tarp"

I asked the girls if they ever felt like life had turned upside down. Surprisingly a lot of them raised their hands. (Made me wonder what had gone on in their lives.)

I then read a story from a church magazine about a girl who had found strength in answered prayers when her life turned upside down. 

Then the group had to flip the tarp upside down without anyone stepping off of it.  

It was possible but it wasn't easy. The first group was not sure if it could be done and they kept asking me if it was REALLY possible. I assured them it was (though I hadn't seen it done) 

They kept working at it and sure enough they did it. 

After my rotation the girls got to go to the rock climbing wall. I never got to try it but it looked really fun.

One of the days we got to go to Big Bear Lake. I never got a packing list for some reason so I didn't even have a suit with me. After watching the other girls "encouraging" the leaders to swim with them in the freezing water I was glad I didn't have my suit. Sitting in the sun visiting was just fine with me.

It was a beautiful day!

On my last night there (I left a day early to get ready for our Utah trip) Jeff came up and spoke to us.

It brought back memories because my last year of girls camp Jeff came up and spoke at girls camp after his mission and I remember shaking his hand and saying thank you for speaking...never knew he would end up being my husband :)

Jeff did a great job like always. He did the speaking and I did the hand outs.

The theme for the day was Be all you can Be

The last night I was at camp I stayed up talking with the cabin mom and some of the girls in my cabin giggling about teachers in high school, hard math and embarassing moments...all the sudden it was 2:00 am!

Nothing like a way to end my time at camp like a giggling girls night.

Is it summer yet???

Our first couple weeks of summer break haven't felt much like summer. 

They were filled with doctor's appointments, orthodontist appointments, (Jacob now has braces again), more doctor's appointments, sick kids (Ashley for at least a week), pink eye, another trip to the doctors, me getting pink eye and visiting 3 different people in the hospital. Sad for all of our hospital family and friends though because their summer is much less fun than ours. 

One bright spot was a trip to the water park. It's still cool in Riverside but the Palm Springs waterpark is always nice and hot. Instead of buying passes we were only doing one trip this year but we went with friends and it was a great day. 

This is the only picture I got that day :(  

If you're wondering why most of my pictures just feature Ashley, it's because she is usually next to me and she doesn't fight me taking pictures of her :)

The end of the first week of summer I spent the day with my sister Angela at the hospital while her husband went into surgery. Her husband Robert had been having headaches and after doctors not being able to help him they finally did an MRI and found a brain tumor. 

This was shocking news. They have a one year old and just bought a home and moved in the weekend before. The up side was Angela's job was done for the summer 2 days before they found the tumor and she was able to be available during the beginning of the process of tests and hospital stays. 

The doctors are still trying to determine the type of tumor it is exactly and the best course of treatment. There are still more questions than answers it seems and more surgery is required. 

What amazes me is Robert and Angela have been calm, dignified and strong through this whole process. They are receiving lots of help, prayers and well wishes. 

Any extra prayers for Robert and his family would be much appreciated. 

The day after Robert's surgery Joel and Virginia decided to drive down from Utah for a visit so they could see Robert and hang out with him at the hospital. 

An unexpected visit from cousins is always fun!

Jacob and Scott are going to be roommates at EFY this year so they got to spend some pre-bonding time playing Monopoly on the I-pad (much less messy that way)

Ashley and Dean had fun together. 

Virginia says that Dean talks about Ashley a lot and every time he sees a blue Honda he calls it "Ashley's car". I guess every time Dean got impatient on his drive down Virginia was just have to remind Dean that they were going to be at Ashley's house soon. 

The next day was Sunday and Father's Day and the Oleson's were able to come to church with us to see Jeff be called into the bishopric! He was called to be the first counselor in our ward!

This will mean more opportunities to serve but he will still be able to work with the scouts and he will still get to work with Jacob's group. 

Part way through church Joel and family went on to the hospital to see Robert and after church we had everyone come back to the house for some food. 

Jenae holding Violet. 

Since Jeff had stuff to do at the church so the rest of the family was nice enough to step up and help finish getting dinner ready. These girls are heating up tortilla's right on the flames...I learned something new. 

Nice to have Josh and Ian back. 

JJ just found out the night before that he is going on his mission to Orlando Florida!

It's always fun to have Ryan and Cheri and their girls. 

Reuben was given some father's day love. 

With everything going on Jeff had to wait for the next day to get his. Sorry honey ;)

Trying to get a picture of all the grand kids...I think we were just missing Gage and Chase. 

Silly kids. 

My Monday was filled with girls camp meetings but Tuesday we drove out to Los Angeles to see Robert in the hospital and see Joel and Virginia again. Robert was very alert and patient with his hospital family reunion. It was nice to visit with him. We are looking forward to more visits with him along with other family that will be coming out their way.

Ian (Robert and Angela's baby) is happy and fun. Jeff likes to spoil him. 

After our visit we hit a restaurant for dinner. The boys playing more monopoly. 

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to Dean and his family. 

We'll see them in a couple of weeks when we head up their way. 

The next few days were filled a hair appointment for me, and the next day more hair appointments for the boys, a temple trip for Jeff and the boys, a late training night for Jeff and a Relief Society craft night. They did a great 4th of July themed event.

Sharla and her kids were down visiting from Oregon. Since I was going to be gone at girls camp most of the time she was going to be in Riverside we squeezed a visit in. 

Since it happened to be Everett's 15th birthday we decided to bring him to Hangar 18 where Taylor loves to rock climb.

Since I have to drive Taylor down there anyway I took a class to belay him. It's been fun to watch him climb and to be his rope to let him down when he falls. 

Amazing!

Everett likes the free climbing walls the best. 

The other day I brought Jacob and Taylor to the climbing gym and Jacob thought he wanted to try it. One look and he decided not to. I guess it was a little more intimidating than he thought :)

After feeding the kids lunch I met Sharla and her family at Orange Terrace park and the younger ones ran through the water feature. It was fun to catch up with Sharla even though it was brief. 

This last Sunday was Jeff's first Sunday on the stand. We moved to sit on the other side of the chapel so we could see him. I thought it would be easy sitting with the kids on my own since I didn't have young kids that I needed to take out. Hmmmm,  I had to referee, separate kids, referee more, confiscate a phone and one child's actions had to be corrected by looks from Jeff from the stand. 

On the up side I think Jeff will be suited to a lot of what will be asked from him. He is great with people, and counsels and supports them every day with his job, he isn't shy in front of a crowd and likes to be a part of making things happen. Along with the new things he will learn in his calling I am looking forward to this being a positive, growing experience for him and our family. 

The Relief Society president in our ward, Donna Culbertson was nice enough to plan a potluck to thank the old bishopric counselors and welcome the new ones. So she had tons of people at her house and lots of food. 

It was great to hang out with lots of church members and let the kids visit. 

Then it was home to pack for girls camp in the morning!

Last week of school

Ok so the last week of school was like almost 3 weeks ago but you can tell how busy summer is because I haven't had time to even post about the last week of school...

On Monday I had a great family home evening object lesson idea...that didn't go so quite as well as I had hoped....which sometimes happens. I had a piece of glass and I had the kids cut out things from advertisements and tape them all over the glass. 

Ashley diligently picked out things she liked...the boys were trying to be silly and tried to look for bikini girls, (you can see Ashley's gum covering one girls stomach). 

My plan was to show how hard it was to read the scriptures while all the things on the glass were in the way. I was trying to show how it's hard to be spiritual when all the the things in life get in the way.

Didn't work. 

Jacob found the littlest peep hole and read the scriptures just fine. :(

Then Taylor did the same.

Defeated my whole point and when I tried to teach what I had in mind they were just silly....trying to teach the gospel to teens keeps me on my toes for sure. 

On Tuesday night Ashley and I were at mutual and she got to learn to decorate cakes. Even though she is 2 years too young for mutual since our family is all at the building she gets to come with me and participate in the big girl's stuff. 

I knew she was growing up way too fast ;0)  The girls are always nice to her though which I appreciate. 

I subbed the last week of school for a couple of classes. 

Wow I'll have to do a whole post on subbing. There's a lot to say about it...another time.

Anyways on Thursday I got to help the fourth graders with their water day and root beer float party. 

They stood in lines and had relays, water balloon fights and then had root beer floats. It's funny Ashley's friend Kyra from Mexico DID NOT like the root beer. I guess it's an American thing. She thought it tasted very weird and just wanted ice-cream. 

There was a lot of left over ice cream so I brought it home because I was getting ready for our end of school ice-cream party that Summer and I were planning. I made LOTS of waffle cones to share....lots of time but I thought it would be fun to have something good to put the ice-cream in.

Friday morning dawned...last day of school and Jacob's 8th grade promotion!

We were so proud of Jacob. 

He got straight A's again this trimester. He had a lanyard to wear but...he didn't want to wear it. 

They had us parents on the field. They had set up a lot of chairs but they were still about 500 to 600 short so I sat on the grass as close as we could get (in a skirt). We were happy to be able to get pictures of Jacob during the ceremony. 

Congratulations Jacob!

Proud parents.

One of Jacob's friend gave him a candy lei. 

Emily Rioux from the ward.  Jacob wanted to leave the promotion pretty quickly and we were surprised that he didn't want to stay a bit and say goodbye to his friends. 

Later on he confided that he didn't want to stay because he was getting emotional and he didn't want to cry in front of them. 

Since Jacob wanted to leave so quick he was home from school at 9:15...I think that's the shortest school day ever!

I picked up Ashley at 11:45 and at 12:30 we went over to the park to have a big last day of school ice-cream party. It was great and lots of people ended up coming. Our first spot that we set up under the one covered picnic table didn't work so well, I guess we were in the middle of day-time watering cycle at the park and we all ended up getting soaked when the sprinklers turned on and we had to try and rescue all the food. 

Our next spot was in the sun so all the chocolate chips and chocolate toppings ended up being goo.

The sprinklers turned out being good for the kids though. More than one child ran through them fully clothed (including Ashley). Ashley's friend Soli then came over to go on the slip and slide. Fun last day of school.  I'm sure we'll do the ice-cream party again next year. 

Of course when I got home after over two hours of serving everyone ice-cream I found out that none of my kids had any of it. I was asked by one of them to make an ice-cream shake. Nope, they should've ate it while I was serving it. 

It's like those times we go to a church dinner and then they ask in the car on the way home "so whats for dinner" Hmmmm.

Saturday was the kid's piano recital. 

This time it was at the main library in downtown Riverside. 

All the kids got through it (I was a little worried with their lack of practicing at times) 

They did great. 

This was most likely Taylor's last recital. 

Sad but I have to respect that he's ready to move on. 

(Though he assures me he is not going to stop playing the piano)

This all feels like it happened two months ago! We are all ready for summer.