To Eternity, and Beyond!

I left on Tuesday for girls camp. It was a really neat experience. We camped at "Temple Hill Resort" which is located right next to the Manti Temple. From our campground we could see the temple, it was so pretty when it was lit up at night. We would sit around the campfire and it would be lit up in the background. All of the activities we did were centered around the temple. We did baptisms for the dead, we did a service project where we weeded the flowerbeds on the temple grounds. We sat on the temple steps and talked with the girls about living worthy to enter someday to be sealed to their spouse. We hiked in the hills just behind the temple. Our theme for the camp was, "To Eternity, and Beyond!"

The leaders got to sleep in a Yurt, which is a permanent tent. It's a little more stable than a tent. It was really unique and different. As you can see from the picture, our yurt was raised up a bit off the ground, and the girls slept in 5 tents below us. It was a great set up. We had six adult leaders in the yurt, and about 26 girls at camp.

We spent Thursday at Palisades lake. The camp director rented 3 canoes, the girls jumped off the docks, and went in the canoes, they swam, and sun tanned, and had a really great time. I think most of the girls would agree, this was one of the best girls camps we have ever had.

THANKS ERIN!

I was packing up Monday to go out of town when I got a call from Erin saying my blog was a mess. I was in a little bit of a tight squeeze trying to pack up for girls camp, and jumping on a lot of things so I wouldn't be too far behind in my work when I returned. Fixing my blog was not on my list of things to do. Erin was so sweet, and willing to fix my background, and I really think it looks cute!!! Thanks so much Erin, you saved me a lot of stress!!

Update

I haven't written in a while, I had a hard week. Jessica moved out last Monday. Steve and I drove her up to her new apartment, unloaded the car, put her furniture in her room, and left. Steve gave her a father's blessing before we left, and I cried all the way home (Well at least until we got a little ways out of town). I keep hearing how she's doing from Kaylea and Steve, and Zach...the neighbor down the road. I guess I'm out of the loop because I'm not into texting and instant messaging. But I did get a phone call from her today. She went to her new Ward and was asked to give the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting her first day. She met a couple of new friends, and I think life for her is good. Our house is a little quiet, but I want Jess to know that Kaylea is picking up where she left off. Really...she's literally picking me up and hugging me before bed. I seriously think all of my kids are stronger than me now. It's a scary place to be.

Steve Jr. has been working really hard. He leaves at 7:45 every morning and works until about 4 or 5:00, and sometimes even later. He has class for 2 1/2 hours 3 days a week too. I really don't see a lot of him at all. He's getting really strong, and tan, and rich (he doesn't spend any of his money). Steve and I have encouraged him several times to go to the movies or Lagoon, or on a date...ANYTHING... but he's tired. I can't complain at all, he's great.

Kaylea has it in her mind that she's going to be the fastest runner in the County, and possibly the state. She runs morning and night (usually a total of 8 to 10 miles a day). She gets up early in the morning and runs, then goes back to bed for a couple more hours. Her determination when it comes to running reminds me of her dad. That's a good thing. She is always so bubbly and happy, she's so fun to be around, and always makes me laugh.

Conner has had quite a fun summer already. He spends a lot of days swimming, we have an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. The indoor pool is only $1.50, quite a good deal. Last night he got to go with his friend to a Demolition Derby, it sounded like he had a blast. I don't know any boy who wouldn't LOVE watching cars crashing into each other. He also spends time with friends playing basketball, riding his rip stick, and just hanging out on the computer. He has started mowing the lawn for us each week, he really does an excellent job and doesn't even complain.

So far summer is great, I only have one complaint. I have a bird's nest right above my garage. There are at least 4 baby birds in it. They are sooooo cute! But mommy and daddy bird are FREAKY!!! They dive bomb your head when you go outside and make such a racket. I went out a couple of days ago and was attacked 3 different times in the same day, twice they made me duck and scream. I've had Kaylea come running into the house asking me to "KILL THE BIRDS!" because they won't allow her to clean out my car in the front yard, and Conner who for the first time didn't want to mow the front lawn because he was afraid of being attacked. There was a nest there last year, and I remember babies, but the parent birds never attacked us. I'm wondering if we were out of town during the most "important" time. It does make our lives fun and interesting.

Our Vacation

We had an amazing time in California and Mexico. Here are some pictures of us on our drive up there. We were surprised that it only takes about 10 hours. We stopped in Vernon for some amazing nachos (at about 10 am), and stopped again in Cedar City. All in all we stopped for about an hour and still made it there in 11 hours. When we arrived at David's house, he took Steve and me out for sushi, and the kids got to hang out with their cousins and have some pizza delivered. Thanks for a great meal Dave.

On Thursday Dave took us to Disneyland. It's been a few years, and was really nice this time because the boys took off together, and the girls took off together, and Steve and I got to go on the nice relaxing rides, and enjoy time together. We bumped into Steve's brother John and his family while we were there, we went on "Soaring over California" with Molly, Chloe, and Clara. It was fun spending some time with them. We actually bumped into them 3 times, I didn't think we'd even see them once unless we contacted each other on cell phones. The day at Disneyland was perfect! The weather was sunny, but not hot. The lines were short, we got to ride on everything we wanted, and even though there were fast passes to the most popular rides, we didn't need to use any. It was such a fun day! Thanks so much to David for taking such good care of us. You're AMAZING!!!

On Friday we started our cruise, there were so many fun things to do on the ship. There was a basketball court, which is where Steve Jr. and Conner spent most of their time. Jessica participated in a free throw contest, she won a keychain (by missing all 3 shots). There was a rock climbing wall, each of the kids climbed it at least once. These are pictures of Kaylea and Conner on the wall. The sun was out on the days we wanted to be tanning and swimming. Jessica, Kaylea, Conner, and me enjoyed the pool on Friday and Saturday.

I don't have pictures of our shore excursion on Saturday, I was afraid of ruining the camera, but we went out on Kayaks on the ocean. We went from a beach to "La Bufadora" which is the blow hole by Ensenada. We saw it the last time from a lookout above, but seeing it at sea level was really neat. There were 2 people per kayak, Steve Sr. took Conner (lots of work for dad), I went with Jessica (lots of work for Jessica), and Steve Jr. went with Kaylea. Kaylea kind of paddles her own way (lots of work for Steve). We had to be careful because the waves were pretty big, and we didn't want to flip the kayaks. There were places where rocks jutted up out of the water that we had to stay away from, the waves wanted to push us into them. But it was well worth the work to get to La Bufadora.

We then got to do a little shopping at the local flea market. Jessica and Kaylea wheeled and dealed for 1/2 hour and came back with some amazing neclaces, sunglasses, and purses. Conner got an amazing deal on a neclace, and baseball cap, and Steve, Dad, and I got some churros, and tacos. Much better tasting than American made. A very fun day in Mexico.

This is our last evening on the ship, we had nice dinners every evening. Our waiters always put on a great show for us. On the last evening our waiter came out with a cake on his head and danced around, then he put the cake on Conner's head, and they danced around together. Then they brought out a special cake for Jessica that had candles on it and had "Happy Graduation" written on it.

By the time we got off the ship on Monday, we were definately anxious to get back home. We left at 7:30 right from the pier, and made it home by 6:00 our time. We of course had to stop at In-N-Out one more time in Las Vegas for an amazing hamburger on the way.

We're off!

Our family finally gets to go on vacation! We will be spending a couple of nights with David, my brother in California. I got to take Kaylea there last year, but the rest of the family hasn't seen Dave or his family for quite a while. We will be spending Thursday at Disneyland. Funny story, Steve's brother John and his family will be at Disneyland the same day as us! On Friday we will be taking a cruise to Mexico. We took the kids on a cruise 3 years ago, it was a blast, but I think it will be even more fun now that the kids are older. They each have been saving money to buy souveniers, and are really looking forward to getting a suntan. I will not be blogging for a while... California, here we come!!