{7.12.2021 - 7.18.2021}

We were getting the kids ready for bed tonight and Eli brought his pillow and blanket over and curled up on my lap/the stairs. He can make a bed anywhere!! 

These guys had a successful fishing trip, I'd say! 

I spent this week at one of my favorite places...girls camp! 

We had so much fun this year!! I really love my calling so much! 

I wish I had a group picture of our ward, but I forgot all about taking one! But I love these girls and I am so glad I got to spend the weak with them! 

{7.13.20 - 7.19.20}

We snuck down into Dad's new room and watched a movie while Dad was out of town! 

Don't tell Dad, thought! // While I wat at girls camp the kids got to go play with their aunts and grandparents! 

Grandma and Grandpa's neighbors down the road had a new baby horse this spring! She's so cute! 

I love my helper!! 

I took the kids back to where we had "camp" this year and we explored the area a little bit! 

I love these goofy kids so much!! 

Girls camp this year was a little different! (Thanks Covid) We were only able to get together for a day, but I think we made the best of it! I'm just grateful we were able to get together at all, especially with all the young women! I thought we'd have to break up into smaller groups! We just had a relaxing day up the canyon, played games, opened packing taped gifts, had a cornhole tournament, roasted hot dogs and still managed to have a nice testimony meeting! It was short and sweet but I am so grateful we were able to do it - thanks to my right hand/brain, Steph! 

 

{7.8.19 - 7.14.19}

This photo was actually taken in June...I was able to go on a hike to Kanaraville Falls with some of the young women. It was so fun! We only had a couple of falls but no one was hurt too bad. It was beautiful! And Matthew and I actually went under a waterfall!! It was so cool!  

Some of the awesome young women leaders I get to serve with!  

We had a chalk war with the bishop at girls camp. It was very fun and it was very fast! The chalk was gone in just a few minutes! This group of girls is awesome and I am so glad I have been able to go to camp the past few years with them!

He picked out his own outfit today. Overalls, long sleeves, his Pooka shell necklace and ball cap! He is just too cute! 

{6.25.18 - 7.1.18}

This sweet boy is pretty great!  

He always needs the necessities when he goes to sleep: Baby, Cuddle Bear, Puppy, Owl and his soft blankie! 

I had girls camp this week so the big kids stayed with my mom for a week. They had so much fun. Axel is showing off his tricks on Nana's swing set // The girls got to help with the bird show at the zoo! They loved it! They couldn't stop talking about how a bird took a coin out of their hand and dropped it in the money box! 

Eli was such a champ at girls camp with me. I'm glad there were lots of hands to help me and he loved hanging out with Grandma Stephanie (my co-camp director) in her nice air-conditioned trailer! 

The big kids were SO happy to see Eli again after camp!  

When we got home, I feel like Eli slept for a whole day straight! Camp must have worn him out! 

{7.31.17 - 8.6.17}

The last few months leading up to this week have probably been some of the most stressful months of my life! In February (I think) I was called to be the young women girls camp director for our ward. I have not been to a girls camp since I was a teenager, and I had no idea how much effort my leaders put into camp until I had to do it myself! I was really only able to focus on planning girls camp while Axel was sleeping and then when I was planning, it seemed like that's when my girls wanted or needed me for something. I would sometimes get so frustrated because I really only had at most 2 hour chunks of time to plan - which was probably plenty of time, but I felt so clueless that it didn't seem like enough! Many times I felt like I was either being a horrible camp director or a horrible mom...it felt like I wasn't doing either job to the best of my abilities despite my best efforts!

We all survived and I'm sure my kids still know how much I love them and I think - I hope - that girls camp was a success! It's so much different going as a leader than as a young woman! There were times that it was honestly really hard for me to feel the Spirit because I was either trying to get ready for the next activity or I was dealing with some drama within the young women. I will say that we have some awesome young women in our ward/stake!! They were so nice and accepting of each other and, other than a few hiccups, I was so impressed!!! We also have some awesome leaders and I am so grateful for their help in the planning and throughout the week! There are some things that I would do differently next time, but I really do think girls camp was a lot of fun and I really hope that the young women could feel the love that I and their leaders have for them and more importantly, the love that their Heavenly Father has for them!

The them for our stake young women camp this year was "It's A Jungle Out There" and each ward chose an animal to represent them at camp, then we each got to decorate a bucket for a totem pole that the stake leaders put together. Our ward was assigned the value of Faith and we chose to be a white lion. I asked one of my young women to draw our lion on our bucket and I think she did an amazing job!! One of our crafts at camp was to make flower crowns (because we are daughters of a king...so it was like our princess crown! Also because we were lions and lions are kings of the jungle...so, ya know! We got creative!) So we put a flower crown on our lion and I was very happy with our bucket and I'm so grateful for such talented young women! // I got to pull the trailer with all of the girls' luggage, etc. so I had Matthew take me to the church the night before we left so that I could practice backing it up...and I'm glad I did because I had to use those skills when we got to our campsite! I backed the trailer up into this little space with trees on either side of the trailer and trees on the passenger side of the truck! It was very tricky but I was so excited, so I had to document it! 

We had some awesome priesthood holders/camp cooks!! One of our days at camp our priesthood went down and cut a bunch of firewood, so we made the girls hike down and load all of the firewood into the truck. They were hilarious and worked so smart to get this job done quickly!  

I learned that teenagers are much like three year olds when it comes to listening to instruction and cleaning up after themselves! Haha! We made flower crowns, we made mason jar lanterns, we sang some beautiful songs by the light of flashlights, we did a really fun hike and Bishop brought his horses for the girls and leaders to ride while we hiked, we played, we sang karaoke and we had some awesome devotionals and a wonderful testimony meeting. I grew to love our young women even more than I did before! I am really looking forward to planning another camp - hopefully everyone is okay with that!

While I was gone for the week, Lyla and Alya went to Idaho with Grandma Sorenson and Axel got to hang out with Nana and Daxton! They all had so much fun and I am so grateful that I can go in the mountains and have no service and have very little stress about how my kids are doing! The girls got new swimsuits, they swam and went to Walmart (haha!!)...they got very spoiled! Axel went to the zoo, he went to Seven Peaks and swimming with cousins! I hope they were okay with coming home! 

The girls were asked to draw a smiley face in primary on Sunday...Alya did a pretty awesome one!! I am so impressed!! Lyla decided not to draw a smiley face... 

...and drew a camel instead! But how awesome is her camel!?

"If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be!" Alya tasting the raindrops!! I love this picture! I love the rain splashing off her tongue and the water pooled up near her eye! So cute!