June Joy

We had a little less than a week with all of us home together before Scott and Ben left for their huge adventure at Philmont.  I'll do another post for that, but here's a sampling of what we did while they were gone and after they got back.

We missed the blackberry season again!!  We'll have to go during school to catch it, I guess.  We did make it for the last week of blueberry picking, but there weren't many to choose from.  It was fine--we got enough to make some blueberry popsicles, which is now a family summer tradition!

Father's Day was on the Sunday Ben was gone for Philmont, so we just sent texts and hoped he got them.  (We did celebrate after he got home.)  But it was a big day here anyway, because Benson chose to wear a tie to church--on his own--and he wore it all day!  He never would let us put one on him before (and he has worn one every Sunday since).  Also, Benson's injured fingernail finally fell off.  We're hoping for a normal recovery!

We took a trip to the Perot Museum

(New exhibit to test reflexes)

Benson celebrated the return of his brother by challenging him to a game of X-Wing.

Benson started swimming lessons.  The first day was pretty much a failure (I had to grab this picture, because I thought it might be the last one of him in the pool), but the second day was a complete turn around, and by the end of the two weeks, he was swimming the front crawl and breathing to the side for short distances.  I was impressed with the talent and patience of his teacher!  He could use more lessons, but that's all we did this summer.

Tessa got to take a cooking class from a friend of mine.  She LOVED it!  Her final class was decorating a cake she baked.  They also made cookies and brownies.

We also began The Great Room Swap of 2017.  Tessa moved into Caytie's room and Gracie moved into Emma's room, and we took the bunk beds apart for the older girls and bought and assembled some new furniture (a LONG trip to Ikea was exhausting but successful in the end) for both rooms and cleared out all the drawers and closets and under beds for everyone and handed down clothes and toys and books and had to organize everything in their new places and decorate the walls and hang curtains and shelves and pictures...  It was a HUGE project, but the girls are happy with the results.  (Mostly.  Tessa is not thrilled to be on a top bunk, but she gets her turn for now.)  Oh, and we moved Benson's clothes and toys from my room to his/Scott's room, so there was some organization there with moving in a dresser and taking out the drum set.  I also went through the playroom to decide what I'm keeping for preschool and what was ready to be donated, now that all our kids are moving out of the preschool toy phase.  In striving for a House of Order, we became pretty chaotic for a while, but things slowly got put back into place.

Stake Activity Days Luau

Our Stake theme this year is "Get the Water to the End of your Row," which is a farming metaphor about making sure the Living Water is reaching all the way to the center of your soul.  We used that to plan our Stake Activity Day--and what goes better with a water theme than a luau??  (The activity was held the Saturday morning after I left Friday night from Girls Camp, so I arrived home about 2 am, and got to the church at 7 am to start setting up!)

After making leis/nametags and a brief intro/welcome by me, we had four rotations:

Water color class

Water slide

(slight hiccups here with no hose and electric cords not reaching, but My Hero Ben brought bucket loads of water from the church to the slide until the hose he went home to get was enough)

Decorating labels for water bottles which were donated to homeless people

And a Hula lesson!

(Again, slight hiccup when our instructor didn't show up for the first hour--she thought it was in the evening!  Some talented leaders stepped up and improvised!)

We then fed them all lunch at the pavilion and they got to play on the bounce house until their rides came for them.  According to my two attendees, Caytie and Tessa, it was AWESOME!

Emma and Gracie got home during the activity.  After we got the church all cleaned up, I joined them in a loooooong snooze that afternoon!  I was grateful to be able to participate in both Girls Camp and this Activity Day activity, but I was Worn. Out.

Life is good.

Gee, Mom, I Wanna Go to Camp--Girls Camp!

It all started at Book Club...

A couple weeks before Girls Camp, I was chatting at Book Club with the Assistant Camp Director Annette and said I hadn't been to camp since I was a Young Woman myself, and she said, "Well.....would you like to go?"  The other assistant just found out she'd be moving before camp, and since we had 30 girls from our ward signed up to go, they wanted 3 leaders there.  I mentioned the conversation to Ben, who said, "Tell her you can go!"  I did.  I got the official calling the following Sunday.  And that's how I got to go to Girls Camp with my Third Year Emma and my First Year Gracie and 28 other fun young women and two other amazing leaders and 9 other wards full of awesome young women and leaders in our Stake.

Our Camp Director Torrie and Assistant Director Annette had both been to Girls Camp several times, and had everything prepared.  I stepped in to help get everyone where they needed to be when they needed to be there--and to help with some of the inevitable drama that arises.

We left on a bright Tuesday morning.  Camp is about a two hour drive away from us.

Bunks all set up and ready to go!  We had a whole cabin with four bedrooms for our ward.  Two of the small rooms had air conditioning.  Guess where the leaders stayed?? 

I was so happy to be able to experience camp with these two!

Time for cheers

Putting the flashlights to good use before lights out

Mornings were for service and certifications.

Crossing a stream on the First Year hike

Most of the "hike" was through the horse pasture!

Our 8 first years survived!  (The sashes were to collect badges through the week, since the theme of camp was "Look UP!" and they were being Wilderness Scouts, like in the movie UP.)

Downtime in our cabin's breezeway is good for games.  (Just don't drop the cards through the floor.)

In the afternoons, everyone rotated through free time, the pool, the lake, and crafts. 

Time to swim in the freeeezing pool!

Lake time--this picture was taken just as the stow-away ants began biting her feet!

Water slide photo montage  (I had already had my turn!)

Roper swing--uh, I mean rope swing!

Time for stories

Dance night!  First years (including Gracie in the pink hat)

Third years (including Emma in between the grey shirt girls)

Everyone together!

Hiking with the Second Years!

The girls wrote anything they wanted to let go of on a balloon and released it as they Looked Up to the Lord to take their burdens from them

With my favorite campers ❤

How we wait for food: cup games!  (Yes, it is LOUD.)

Third Year hike  (Why yes, I did get assigned to go on every hike!  Great step counts for the week for me.)

Orienteering  (And Emma's friends are not mad--just in the sun. ☺)

Friendship Tag

Yikes!  Rescuing victims of a plane crash!

Their very favorite activity of camp--tubing behind a SeeDoo.  (I got to ride with them once, and I was the only one to fall off.  Where did my upper arm strength go??)

I had to leave after Friday night's Testimony Meeting for an early Saturday morning Primary activity (see post to follow).  I took a couple leaders and a girl who had an early ACT appointment home with me, which helped keep me awake on the two hour drive home.

It was a great couple of days at camp, and I have a greater appreciation for the work my mom did in preparing Girls Camp when I was a youth and for those who work with my youth now.  We saw a snake, horses, cows, and dogs, dealt with no hot water in the showers, tried to avoid ticks, chiggers, flies, and mosquitos, made new friends, and got a bit of sleep, too.  Who's ready for next year?