The End Of Summer

Last weekend Carson had Webelos Day Camp so he and I stayed local. Sam, Parker, and Cameron went to Deer Creek to go boating with Fern's family. Even though I wasn't there, I thought I'd share the photos because a lot of fun was had!

Sam's first time wakeboarding this summer. I think his forearm muscles are still paying the price! Totally worth it though if you ask him!!



Oh man, I just love Parker! Everything he does makes me wish I could freeze time so he never grows a day older! Sam laughs at me because I say that about every stage of our kids' lives....well, except the first 2.8 years of Cameron's life. Yep, pretty sure those words were never uttered!


From the boat, Cameron saw the "Heber Creeper" train. Wait, is that the name of it? That looks weird now... Anywho, he was in heaven! Even now if I say "Hey Cameron, did you see the train from Fern's boat??" He'll get super animated and tell you all about the different cars and their names (from Thomas and Friends of course!).


Sam set a goal before he went to Deer Creek. His goal: To teach Parker to wake board. He's tried getting Carson to wakeboard before but Carson would have nothing to do with it! Carson takes after me!! Sam even told Carson he'd buy him an ipod but Carson wouldn't do it. Parker is a little more adventurous. He was happy to give it a shot. This picture makes me happy. Surprise!!! Parker was able to stay up for a few seconds and that is as far as they got this trip. Hopefully he can continue to improve each time. :)


This is my niece Melissa. These pictures of her on the tube are hysterical! How can anybody hang around Melissa and NOT be in a good mood? Look at that smile, even in the face of extreme tubing danger! ha ha! Love these!!!





Sam and Parker tubed as well. The driver of the boat was very kind and didn't get all crazy on them!


I can just imagine the conversation that took place at the moment of this picture:
Sam: Alright Parker, let's do thumbs up!
Parker: What? How old was I last year?
Sam: Yeah, thumbs up!
Parker: Holds up 6 fingers
Sam: *facepalm*


Once Parker was safely back in the boat, all considerations were off the table. The new goal: dump Sam! Another reason for the sore forearms.





Monday we celebrated the 24th of July, Pioneer Day!
We didn't do too much actually. Sam mowed some grass and we watched the parade on
TV. Our Stake's float won the People's Choice award! Very very cool! That evening we went with my parents to the park for a picnic. It was a perfect day with lots of clouds. Without involving the kids, Sam filled up two coolers full of water and brought water toys to the park. They were quite surprised when a full blown water fight erupted out of nowhere!








Yesterday was the first day of school for Carson and Parker. Carson is in 5th grade and Parker is in 2nd. I didn't get any pictures in the morning. Tsk Tsk. About 20 minutes before school let out, the clouds gathered and the rain and hail came thundering down!!! It was so funny! My kids usually walk all the way home, but I took a little pity on them and met them halfway with the van. Holy moly, they were SOAKED! When we got home they decided to just play in the rain. Their interpretation of playing in the rain means laying and playing in the gutter water. Part of me is so grossed out by this, but part of me thinks it's just awesome!







The best part: the mailman had pulled up to our mailboxes but he couldn't get out of his truck because the weather was so ridiculous. He just sat there for like 30 minutes. I'm sure he looked at my kids and thought, "where are their parents for crying out loud!".


On an unrelated note, and just so you don't think that all I ever do is complain, I am starting to feel much better regarding morning (all day) sickness and this pregnancy. I'm almost 16 weeks along and now I just get pukey feeling later in the evening, around 9pm. That's much better than feeling sick all day and every day! I feel like a whole new woman! I should be getting my ultrasound in about 3 weeks. I'm pretty excited to see what this little bambino is going to be!

Camping, Lots Of It

For the past 3 weeks I've had camping on the brain. Usually I quite enjoy camping....but whilst preggers, it's a bit of a challenge, to say the least! I desperately wish I could get the nausea under control because it's ruling my life!

Sam and I reserved a camping spot up Little Cottonwood canyon at the beginning of the month. It was GORGEOUS! We did tinfoil dinners one night with my parents and then a weiner roast the next night with our friends, the Colasurdo's. Our camping spot had huge boulders next to it that everyone hiked on to their heart's content. It was perfect!





There were these weird worms/caterpillars hanging from spider webs, from trees. They were everywhere. It was fine once I got used to looking right in front of me, but at first I kept walking right into them! Hork!



This picture makes me laugh! Looks like Mindy and I are giving each other a long distance high five, I honestly have no recollection of this moment!


Something about the mountain air makes my boys more tolerant of each other. It's a good thang!


Climbing boulders and being silly....at least Parker knows what time it is!


I'm super glad our camp spot wasn't next to this rushing river. Totally freaky!!! So many people drowned this spring due to our large melting snow runoff. We could hear the river from our camp, but you had to climb over about 50 boulders to actually see it. Phew!


I came home and slept at night, but Sam and the boys roughed it in the great outdoors. Can you see big blue eyes peeking out at you?


We took a very short break from camping and attended the 4th of July parades in Murray and West Jordan. Our Stake did a float for these parades and the 24th of July parade. It was a lot of work, but so fun to see the end result!

Cameron with his US pride face.


Cameron with his "I have salt water taffy stuck in my mouth" look. He was not pleased. I laughed.


We saw the fighter jets do a fly by:


Here comes our Stake's float! It was the Tabernacle Choir, made up entirely of animals, and the theme is "pressing forward: still singing as we go". It was super fun to cheer them all on!





We had a bunch of youth from our Stake dancing behind the float. This is our favorite babysitter, Paige! She rocks!!


Most of the parade participants gave out candy. A few gave out squirts of water right in your face. Parker learned this the hard way. He was a good sport!


Remember that freaky headless float dude that was left on my lawn? Well, we wanted to give our parade chairpeople a proper "thank you" for all their hard work. I think this worked out just great! I wonder what they thought when they pulled into their driveway to this scene? We love you Matt and Leslie!


On the 6th we headed to the annual Sweet Family Campout. Like I said before, Sam and I were in charge this year. Again, I use that term very loosely. We picked the place. :) Anyway, I was very pleased with the campground: Altamont. It's private, it's huge, and it had flushing toilets. That there is a recipe for a good time!

I was only able to stay about half the time due to the pukes, but the time I was there, I loved!

Lots of photos:























And finally, we attended Bishopric night of Girls Camp last Thursday night. Our camp leaders did an AMAZING job! The theme was "Tangled up with Integrity" and they used a lot of parallels with the movie Tangled. Our camp director has an amazing husband who even built a castle tower and a castle front gate. I was blown away!

If you've seen Tangled, you'll know that there are Wanted posters for Flynn Rider and Flynn always said "They can never get my nose right!" Well, as we were driving up to the campground, we started seeing all these wanted posters with the Bishopric members faces on them. Each and every one of them had a different nose. I was laughing pretty hard! This is only a sampling! There had to be at least 30 of these posters all around the campground!







Around camp:





This is Mike. He was wearing his Fabio wig and trying to give me his best "smolder" look!




Here's Alison. She is a good friend of mine and I'm impressed because this was her 10th year at camp as either a ward leader or a stake leader. This year she was Stake Camp Director! I am in awe of her abilities!


Getting ready for testimony meeting. We have incredible girls in our ward with very strong testimonies. We had the perfect balance of laughing our guts out and feeling the Spirit very strongly. For as long as I live, I will NEVER forget Jenny's "Goonies" testimony. My favorite quote: "...and all it took was Tyson's Chicken Nuggets to bring us back together!" Phew, that was a belly laugh moment for sure!


I wanted to get a cool picture of the glowing lanterns our girls made....but my camera skills leave a lot to be desired. Luckily, I was sitting next to the talented Tania Finn! She grabbed my camera, went crazy on the settings, and got this cool shot!


So, needless to say, I'm all camped out. Good thing too because my boys start school next week! Can you believe that?? Crazy year-round school...