Happy Birthday Laurie!

Hey you pretty birthday girl!
We think you are so cute. We are way excited that you are no longer a teenager and we can talk to you now. Laurie is busy with school, a new job, institute choir responsibilities and her home ward calling of Beehive advisor. So she stays pretty busy, but she still has time to talk to me and make me laugh. I love that. Keep having fun even while you are working hard girlfriend.

Isn't this the prettiest cake you have ever seen. Casandra decorated that for Laurie. I love it!

Paul's Birthday

So we didn't get to see Paul on his birthday, but we got to see him on Laurie's birthday, so I took a picture of him then. Just because this was back in July doesn't mean it is too late to give Paul his special time in the spot light, right. Right, we think Paul is awesome. He is cute and funny. He's intelligent. He's working on his masters degree in psychology up in Idaho. We really miss him and his whole family. When we have get togethers here, it feels like someone is missing. That's because three people are missing. His whole family! But we know they are where they need to be and they are not too far away.

Earley Park Girls Camp

After we got everything settled with where we were going to camp, I knew we were going to have a great one! It was just rough getting to that point.







We started out with lots of fun and games.

There were several mothers and daughters that got to camp together this year. We missed a picture of Sandy, Britny and Sierra, but oh well.









We decorated journals to donate to the Youth Justice Center and we made these awesome flipflops.


There was lots

of time for singing and dancing.

And plenty of time for being silly!
We worked hard on certification.

We went on a great hike and got to spend some time relaxing after lunch.

Laurie and I worked so hard, we never took a break. We never had time to do anything we really wanted to.

We went to the rifle and archery range. The girls really enjoyed this. The bows are much easier to use these days then they used to be.

Everyone knew how to make their own fun and we had a lot of it.










We did a couple of other service projects that the girls really had to work hard at. But the weeds in the garden and at the benches looked great when they were all done.








We had a very spiritual experience with the Joseph Smith walk. It really helped the girls understand what he went through and sacrificed in his life.



This was my great, great, awesome camp director. She is the one who made it all happen. Thank you, Thank you Sandy!








The YCL's really stepped up and took great responsibility in leadership this year. They were great with the younger girls.

Here are some of the great leaders that helped

pull it off Laurie, JuLee, Sandy, Janelle

and Kollete.

And we sure would have missed our cooks, Bishop and Debbie.

The testimony meeting was a time when all the girls bore their testimony. It was really incredible to hear each one of them talk about what they had learned and bare witness to the truthfulness of the gospel. I wish their were more opportunities to continue that sweet feeling of the spirit and have the girls recognize it.

And here is the big group. We all survived and we still look great!

Christmas Meadows

Welcome to Christmas Meadows in the fall. We decided we wanted to get away one more time before it got too cold to go camping. So G- packed us up and off we went to our family's favorite fishing hole.




It was beautiful. The fall leaves were beginning to turn brilliant colors of orange and yellow. The crispness in the air was only evident in the brisk evening and cool morning. The daytime temperature was shirtsleeve pleasant.



We saw some interesting things while we were out for our adventure. We came upon this elk while we were trying to catch up to G- as he was fishing along the river. It startled us because we were walking along in the tall grass and shrubs. Then suddenly there it was. It is a disturbing example that we were in nature and it is not always pretty.














Here is an example of people disregarding nature and just sculpting tree trunks with their chain saws. And the only thing pretty in this picture is K-.
While G- was fishing, K-and I decided to build a fairy house. This was really a fun especially as we thought of more and more things we could add to the house to make it more comfortable for the fairies to visit it.


We left grapes and chips for the fairies to eat. We also made a firepit with benches around it. We gathered fire wood and even laid a fire. We think the fairies will enjoy their house don't you?

I loved this trip and the best part about it is that MDH planned the meals, bought the food, and packed us up. All I had to do was pack myself! Don't you think more women would enjoy camping if they were treated this well. I know I was treated this time and I totally enjoyed it. Thanks honey!

I'm Sorry

You would not believe how crazy things have been lately. So I'm sorry it's been so long since I have posted anything. I do want to go back and post a lot of the cool things we have been doing but I am not going to go through the mental effort of trying to figure out how to keep them in order. So I hope you enjoy the walk back through our summer of adventure.

Excepting The Inevitable

So MdH finally decided he wanted to imbrace his baldness. He's been thinking about doing this for years, but this day he asked if I wanted to shave it off and I told him I would.

I decided to have a little fun during the process. It's a good look for him don't ya think.


I think he looks really good with the clean shaven look and now that the skin is getting tan, it looks even better. I can't say what was going on in K's mind at the time. But I'm sure she must have been thinking about Christmas for sure.
So now it's been a while since he had this look. At first it was shocking everytime I saw him. But now I am very used to it. I think he looks pretty cool. I do miss his hair too. So whatever he decides he wants to keep I will still love him. He's my man!

The Banana Skit

Here is our rendition of the banana skit so well done originally by my brother inlaw.

We did this up at girls camp. It was a big hit.

Everything was all well and good with practicing this skit until, we actually had to start eating the banana, which I am truely not a fan. It all got really gross to me. We had to cut some of the bananas out and even then I had a hard time swallowing them as you can see in one place, I just spit some of it out. Well it was really fun anyways. And the girls loved it, so that's what counts!