Girls Camp

The highlight of June was going to girls camp.  I love having a daughter in Young Women's with me!

I was assigned a fun group of girls in my van.  One of the girls gave us all nick-names.  Mine was Kool-aid.

We went to Stake girls camp this year.  The stake has some property down in Ephraim that we stayed at.  The orange tent behind us is where Lily stayed, the green one to the far right was my tent.

We arrived Wednesday, or should I say Winds-day, it was so windy!

They did different stations and the girls were all in different groups.  The camp was well planned and the girls really got to know one another and make new friends.  Can you spot Lily in this group?

Lily has a love of nature and found this perfect thinking spot.

The girls helped with setting up tents, dishes, making dinner, etc.  I felt like I didn't have to worry much because of all the leaders and girls helping out. 

S'mores selfie

The girls put on skits.  Lily's group did a Dr. Phil skit.  She was Oscar the Grouches sister.  See her holding the green garbage can?  They all had to incorporate the camp theme "Press forward like a super hero" (or something like that).

All of us leaders had to sign up to be in charge of something.  I signed up to be in charge of the get-to-know-you games because it sounded fun and a lot easier than some of the other assignments.  I had some of the laurels from my ward help and we broke the girls up into three groups.  Each group played a game and then they rotated.  We did "Never have I ever",

Do you love your neighbor", and the "sheet game"- who can say the other one's name first.

Although my throat was raw from enthusiastically yelling over the wind, I felt the games turned out to be quite fun for the girls.

That night the wind was so loud, the girls were so loud, and my bed was so uncomfortable because my air mattress had a hole in it, I barely slept.  No problem, we had to get up at 5:45am anyway!  Good thing I don't mind getting up when camping.  We got up early and headed to Palisade's Lake.
The lake was gorgeous early in the morning and although we wore sweatshirts, the weather quickly warmed up.

My worst nightmare... tiny little fish swimming around your legs!  Lily didn't seem to mind.

The girls had fun swimming, paddle-boating, and paddle-boarding.  Lily got the hang of it!

Since I didn't sleep well and I knew it would be a long day and since the girls could sleep in the car, but I couldn't, I decided to take a nap while at the lake.  Although it was the cooler part of the morning, I took a two-hour nap in my van and woke up quite hot and sweaty.  But the sleep was so nice!  Then I borrowed some shampoo and went up to the camping showers and took a nice shower.  We were at the lake most of the day, and although I was not in the sun much, I managed to get a bad sunburn on my neck!  I was helping to make some quilts for our refugee service project and was sitting in the shade.  However, the shade moved and I didn't realize until it was too late that I had been getting burned.  Most of the girls were pretty burned by the end of the day.  That's what we get for not putting on sunscreen.

Lily's favorite thing to do at the lake was hike up the big hill behind our picnic sight.  At one point, she was so high up, we could barely make out her blue shirt.  The leaders were worried about her and we were getting ready to leave, so they started blowing the bear horn at her.  As we tried to wave her down, she thought we were just waving at her.  It wasn't the first time Lily went off exploring and her group was worried about where she was.

After the lake we went into Manti.  We ate pizza on the nearby seminary lawn and just relaxed for a bit.  Then we walked up to the Manti temple.

We were excited to see the Manti Pageant, but a lot of the girls were feeling the affects of being in the sun all day, so I volunteered to go back to the seminary and get water bottles.  Luckily, the stake president and some other leaders were there and helped load up coolers to wheel up to the girls.  And while I was there, two of our beehives showed up!  Kensie and Livvy (daughters of my friends Tiffany and Chris) had to come up late.  I was glad I was there to help them load up their stuff and show them where the group was.  Lily was excited to see them too.

The temple was so pretty.

Since I knew the girls were coming up late, I asked Tom to set out a different mattress for Chris to pick up on her way down.  That night I slept much better on my four different pads!

The pageant went until late, then we went back to the seminary for donuts and milk.  We then had to drive the hour back to camp.  All the girls in my car slept.  I listened to my audio book and ate Hot Tamales to keep me awake.  We all made it back safely, but we had to figure out where Kensie and Livvy were sleeping.  There was a big to-do in Lily's tent when we tried to move her into Kensie and Livvy's and Lily's friend got upset.  The girls were both in tears, but we ended up not moving Lily.  By the time I got to bed, it was 2:00am!  I'd been up for over 20 hours.  No wonder I slept better that night!

The next day they let us sleep in until 8:00am.  Which was NOT sleeping in after a day like the one we had.

Friday was our last full day and the girls rotated between different activities at camp again.  One of the activities was the zipline.  I went up with Lily's group and we both got a turn.  Lily videoed herself going down the zipline.

It was a little creepy standing at the top of the tower and being told to jump off.

Another activity they did was one where they had to work together to get everyone on a plank without it touching the ground (it tipped like a teeter-totter).  I was impressed with how Lily helped take charge and coach the girls as to what to do.

Us leaders where trying to tell them what to do too, so they made us try it after to show how hard it really was.  One of my favorite things about girls camp was getting to know all the other leaders.  I had a goal to get to know all the other leaders names while at camp.  It was such a fun challenge and I really got to know so many new people and make so many new friends.  There were probably over 30 leaders at camp.  When we were doing the balance board together, these sisters and I were laughing so hard and having so much fun, I felt like a kid again!

The next challenge they did was the balance beam.  It was a wiggly beam and the girls had to get across without using their hands, touching the ground, etc.  Lily again was the leader and went across first.  She made it and they all said the first one is the hardest to do.

This is what the group looked like when we were all together.  However, most of the time they did things by age group, the Beehive's were at one camp, the Mia Maids were at one camp and the Laurels were at one camp.  I was with the Beehives.

That last night we had the bishoprics come up and we did a devotional and testimony meeting.  

Here I am with Helen (our YW president) and our Bishop 

Here's the group Lily was with the whole time, in their tent having their little devotional.

And these are the girls and leaders from our ward. It was so fun to be with these girls that I've grown to love so much.

Saturday we got up early, took down the tents and headed home.  When Lily and I got home, Tom was helping his sister, Maren move and the other kids were at his parent's house.  Even though I was excited to see them, it was nice to have a quiet house to get cleaned up in and take a nap in.

Tom's 40th Birthday Surprise

 On July 4th 1976, my Thomas Jefferson hubbie was born.  That meant, this year he was turning the big 4-0!  We'd decided to have a no kids, stay-cation for a night.  my step-brother, Travis and wife, Natalie were willing to take the kids for us.  The plan was for them to take them Friday to Saturday.  However, the Wednesday before, I got the idea of surprising Tom and taking him to St. George for the whole weekend.  I checked with my aunt to see if their vacation home was available, and I checked with Natalie and Travis to see if they could have the kids all weekend.  Both were available and willing.  The only catch was, I was in charge of watching my step-grandma Friday night.  We were just going to take her with us on our date, the plans were dinner and the temple.  So I figured we'd leave after that, but it wouldn't be until after 9pm.  Well, things worked out well.  My dad and Suzy got their mission call while on a trip in California, so they decided to hurry home a day early to open it so we could all be there.  They also offered to take my boys since Natalie and Travis were in the process of selling their house.  So we still went to dinner with Grandma Kay, then picked up the kids (I already had all their stuff loaded in the car.  Since Tom thought they were only going for one night, I didn't want him to question why I'd packed so much stuff).  We headed over to the dairy pool for the big announcement (I'll blog more on that later).  From there, we were able to leave the kids with the families as well as Grandma Kay and headed home around 8pm.  We'd talked about going to a movie or something, but hadn't made any set plans (at least, that's what Tom thought).  I'd been busy all day packing for us, but I needed a way to get Tom out of the house for five minutes so I could load the car.  I had my neighbor, Neil help me.  I texted him on our way home from my dad's and told him to call Tom in ten minutes.  He called him just as we were pulling onto our street and asked him if he could come help him with something for a few minutes.  I told Tom I wanted to get the dishes done (which was true), so I went home while he went to help Neil (he had him move the tramp and asked him some questions about the water line or something).  I quickly grabbed the bags from under Cedric's bed, packed the things I left out, in case he saw (such as our toothbrushes) and threw them in the trunk.  I also fed the fishes and turtle, turned up the AC and closed all the blinds, locked the doors and started working on the dishes.  I texted Neil saying the cost was clear, but he did such a good job keeping Tom there, that I was able to finish all the dishes before he got home.  When he walked in he said "I'm here for my surprise party".  I told him there was no party, but he was joking about maybe Neil being a set-up for some surprise (ha ha).  I asked Tom to take the milk bottle out to the cooler and quickly finished turning off the lights, locking the door to the house from the garage (I realized I didn't want him to see me do that, because it'd be obvious we were going somewhere) and was just locking the side door as he came around.  I said "I know what we can do".  And I asked him if he had his wallet, phone and sunglasses, then we got in the car.  I started driving, and that awkward silence lingered in the car.  We turned on some Brian Regan to break the silence and a few comments were made.  Tom said "If we are going to St. George or Wendover, I won't make it far without using the bathroom."  Another time, I remembered I left the snacks under Cedric's bed and made a big sigh.  Tom said "Did you just remember something you forgot?"  He knows me well.  Another time, I was fixing my hair in the mirror and made the joking comment "I just want to look good for all the party guests".  Other than that, we drove on to Lehi without much said.  I pulled into the Swig there and he said "there are a lot closer Swigs than this one".  I just said "surprise!"  He asked if I had his refill mug and I went to the trunk to get it.  I told him I had one more surprise in the trunk and when he looked in and saw all the packed bags I said "we are going to St. George for the weekend!"  He said "Really?!  Are we really going to St. George?!"  He asked a few more times and was totally surprised!  I then proceeded to tell him the story of how I planned it all.  He asked if I'd packed this or that and the one thing I forgot was his new retainer.  I felt bad I didn't remember, but it was ok.  (There's a joke in my family about remembering your retainer and Cetaphil lotion because one time we were on our way to the airport for a family trip and on the way there my mom remembered she left her retainer and Cetaphil at home and made my dad turn around and go get it.  So it was kind of funny that's the thing I forgot.)

We arrived in St. George about 1am.  We had to run to the grocery store to pick up some food for breakfast, so it ended up being a late night.

Then next morning we slept in and then headed out to the Outlet Malls.

 It was a nice day and not too hot for St. George, it only reached to the high 90's that day.

 We went a little overboard buying clothes for the kids and me.  The birthday boy was the only one who didn't get anything new.

 We ate a late lunch at Mongolian Bbq.  The workers there were quite friendly and talkative and made us feel like we were really in Mongolia.

 After shopping and lunch, we headed back to the house and relaxed, watching TV.  It was so nice to really feel relaxed, stress-free and enjoyed just being together.

 Later, we went to the pool and swam for a bit.

 We then went to Walmart and did some more shopping, buying more things for the kids.  Then we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant in St. George for dinner.

We went to Swig a few times that day too and bought some snacks at Walmart.  We went back and enjoyed watching the new Mission Impossible while pigging out on our treats.  

Sunday we woke up and got ready for church.  We went to the local ward for Sacrament meeting, then went back to the house, changed and went for a walk.  It's so pretty and although it was hot, we enjoyed the walk.

 This cute guy just enhanced the view I saw out the dining room window. ;)

 We picked up some lunch at Iceburg and enjoyed watching some more TV.  We also did a game of Play 9.

We spent some of the afternoon planning our hotels for the to and from drive for our upcoming cruise.  We went to Harmon's Grocery store to buy some food for dinner, came back and enjoyed another movie, The Fugitive!

 The next day we got up a little earlier and finished cleaning the house (we'd cleaned a bit of it every day since it was just the two of us).  Then we headed home.

We did another stop at Swig.  

I was debating on packing patriotic shirts for the 4th or the black 40 shirts we got for his friend's 40th birthday.  The black shirts won.

(Tom's shirt says "In dog years, 40 is dead".  Mine says "40 isn't old if you're a tree".) 

We got home in time to join the family at the pool for a party.  I'd forgotten to get Tom a cake, so I put a candle in a bowl of red, white and blue M&M's and we sang to him.  

 Later, we gave Tom his other presents.  The kids gave him a filtering water bottle for hiking and I gave him a golf pass to Top Golf and some golf balls.

 It was such a fun weekend and I was glad I was able to do something special for his big, 40th birthday.  I love the time Tom and I get to spend together.  I'm so lucky to  have him as my forever man!

I'm grateful too for those that helped me pull the weekend off, especially Natalie, Travis, Dad and Suzy that watched the kids.  

The girls had so much fun doing make-overs, going out to eat, playing with the dogs, etc.

 The boys had fun going swimming, touring the dairy plant and going out to eat too!