Family Pictures

So the kids decided we needed a new family picture. They chose the date, place, and what we were to where. They decided to use J-'s camara with a timer. G- and I just had to show up! I loved it! Here are some of the best shots.



It's funny that our best family picture was the second picture we took. There is something to be said about keeping it simple.

Home Improvements

We had this unsitely part of our backyard which was a sand box for a while until the cats overtook it. Then we had plywood overit for years to keep the cats out of it. But the ants liked it a lot and it looked trashy. We decided we wanted to put some cement there. We haven't done much cement work, but I thought we could learn and make it much nicer. Here's how it looked once we took off the plywood and dug out much of the sand.

Here is the finished product. We are very happy with how much better everything looks!

Not Fair! Not Fair! Not Fair!

So last September my camp director and I chose a camp site we would like to take our girls for girls camp. The site is awesome. It has bunk beds in cabins, showers and sinks and bathrooms as well as a lodge.

Last Saturday we get this call from the caretaker saying that another camp made a mistake and planned to come up to camp on the very same week we have planned and scheduled to. This stake has about 250 some people and we will have about 25. The mistake they made didn't seem to be their fault, but somewhere along the line communication failed and their schedule soon became our problem even though we have the paper trail and we had done nothing wrong!

They offered to share with us by giving us a part of the camp that is less than desireable compared to what we had planned on. I'm wondering why they are offering to share with us when the camp is supposed to be ours. Anyway, we took our YCL's and through a great deal of prayer and discussion we still felt that we were in the right and we should get to keep the camp we planned on.

Our YCL's told the lady and we thought all was settled. Then I find out later that the camp caretaker called them back and told them there was some kind of directors or authority that said we had to share. The camp caretaker did not call me back and give me the same information.

Last night my friend Suzy was going up to another ward's camp as the Stake Young Women's second counselor. Just to be nice I asked her to check to see if it was a nice camp and if it was available and suitable for the other stake to go to. Suzy came back and said that it was.

So last night I called the camp director of the other stake to tell her about it and she wasn't even willing to look at it on the internet or consider going to it. She said that her priesthood leaders told them to just continue with their same plan of going up to our camp.

Oh, I was sooo mad! Their plan was to arrive there on Monday and our plan was to arrive there on Tuesday. As far as I knew, they would have just gotten up there set up camp the way they wanted, we would have showed up on Tuesday and not even been prepared for the other part of camp that they were "offering" us as we would need tents and cooking equipment.

Now it seems that we have no choice, because their idea of sharing is to come in and take what they want just because of their size! How do we fight that! Its like a big bully at school!

There doesn't seem much I can do. I am going to call the caretaker this morning and give her a piece of my mind though. I also should get the number of this "authority" and make sure they realize that there is another camp available to this stake and that they should not be allowed to steal our camp as long as they have other options.

There are other parts of the story that involve our Bishop and Stake President who support us whole heartedly.

If they still insist that they are stealing our camp, or that we "share the two year old way" (they get everything they want while we get nothing we want). Then I'm going to tell them we need a cabin, a field and the lodge. They can have all the other parts of the camp especially the parts they were so willing to "offer" us.

Our Very Own Secret Garden

Makes a great place for taking pictures!

Have You Ever Wondered What Would Happen...

...if you left your 23 year old and your 19 year old alone with the camara while you went to get your peanutbutter bars out of the oven?

Well here is the answer to that age-old question.I love my family! We are never too old to have fun.

Road Trip!

We took the Young Women from our ward to the Manti Miracle Pageant. This is the view from our car while we were driving into the city.

We stayed in an old college dorm that was empty for the summer. I am sure that it's great money for the owners during pageant time. There were 5 bedrooms with two beds in each room. So most everyone had a bed to sleep on.

Rock on!

All the amenities.

Famous quote early in the morning while jumping around the kitchen,"I'm not even tired!"

We had a while to play games and walk around while waiting for the sun to go down.

It's almost sunset. Lots of smiles all around and were ready for the show to start.

The pageant was amazing and we had a great time.

This video was just the casual ride home in the car.

Hope you enjoyed!

Dance Recital

The girls work so hard all year for this big night. I was so proud of our girl for how much she has progressed with her dancing. She had a big smile on her face and she looked like she was really enjoying herself. I took all of these pictures the night of the dress rehersal. That way on the night of the actual recital, I got to sit and enjoy the show. No worries about getting the right pictures or videos. I actually think I should have invited more people to the dress rehersal. That way they could see our girl dance but not have to sit through the whole recital. I might remember that for next year.
After reading about my sisters experience with her daughter's recital, I really shouldn't complain. Our recital was done in about 1 1/2 hours.
Check out this video. I wish it would go bigger. I tried to center the camara on our little dancer.