Girls Camp

This year we spent girl's camp with our stake up at the Heber Valley Camp.



It was the last year that I will be at camp with both my girls. It's kind of sad to think that Courtney won't be going up with us next year.

We had tons of fun, the weather was perfect and other than a bear in our cabin on the first day, nothing really exciting happened. (One of the rangers took a picture of it, I am not sure where the picture ended up... it was just a baby bear... apparently you are supposed to close your cabin door before going down to the pavilion.)

Our theme was: Daughter of a King, Your happily ever after. Our princess was Ariel. Here is a picture of our flag... apparently SOMEONE didn't listen when they were giving out dimensions of the flag. Okay, so that someone was me but we totally had the biggest flag up there, it was awesome!



We ate tons of food, hiked some pretty big mountains, canoed all over the big lake and crafted our little hearts out!

















Me and my BFF - Jana and I have been camp directors for 4 years now. We have had such a blast together. I love her to pieces!



Here is a picture of all the leaders that were able to come to camp.



I was thinking that this would be our last year, but that is apparently not the case. I think I have another year in me ... We're going out with a bang Jana.

Senior photos

I took Courtney, and her friends, Kadee and Bayleigh over to Murray Park a few months ago to take their Senior pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

















I am really developing a passion for taking pictures. Sean bought me a really nice camera a few months ago. I mostly wanted a good one so I could take decent pictures of the girls during soccer games, but I find myself pulling it out more and more often.

These pictures are at Gardner Village, of Courtney, Katie and Hana.

A letter from Courtney

I was going through some boxes the other day and I ran across this letter.



It reads:

Mom,

I think that I should be able to go to the movies tomorrow. I didn't do anything wrong last night. Katie just started kicking me because my feet were in the way, even though I told her to stop and I admit that I shouldn't have said it so loudly that I woke you up, she still kept kicking and crying and telling me to stop because she didn't want to be grounded. I think that grounding us until 12:00 tomorrow is enough punishment. Plus, remember how good we were when dad forced us to go on that 5 hour hike? We were miserable, but we still behaved! Please let me go to see that movie tomorrow!

PS. Please!

Love Courtney

PSS. WWJD?
(What Would Jesus Do)


I wish I could remember what movie she wanted to see so badly, and if I un-grounded her in time to see it. Knowing me, I probably did. I am a big softie when it comes to my kids. I imagine the only reason she was grounded in the first place was because my sleep was disturbed. You don't mess with the few hours of sleep I get.

And, just a disclaimer, we never forced the kids on a 5 hour hike. I am sure the 20 minutes it took them to climb up that little mountain seemed like 5 hours, but it wasn't!

PS. Nice job on the coloring Courts, I love all the different colors you used. The flower on the top is especially pretty.

Cruise

For Courtney's graduation, we took her on a cruise. She invited her two best friends to come along. We all had a blast.

We drove to Vegas on Sunday and stayed at the Stratosphere that night. We did a little sightseeing and of course, a lot of picture taking...









My girls LOVE having their picture taken.





We left Vegas at 5am Monday morning, met up with Cadee and Baileigh, and boarded the cruise ship.



Dinner the first night.





Funny story: Right after dinner ended on the first night the girls all decided to go back to their room and take a little nap. It was about 7:30 pm. They all snuggled up in their cozy little beds and slept for THE NEXT 12 HOURS!!

I walked out of my room at 7:30 the next morning and they were all coming back from a jog on the outdoor track. That is when they told me what had happened. They just couldn't believe that they had slept through the first night of the cruise! We all had a good laugh over it.

Our first stop was Catalina Island. The day started off a little cloudy and overcast, but by noon it was sunny and beautiful.













This was just a little boat tied up to the dock, the girls thought it would be fun to climb in it and have their picture taken.

We booked an excursion to go kayaking, so, after a little sight seeing and a lot of shopping, we headed down to the beach.











This is Frog/Gorilla rock. I didn't get a picture of it from the other side, but one side looks like a frog and the other looks like a gorilla. If you look really close you can see Sean standing on the head of the gorilla getting ready to jump. He jumped off twice! Crazy guy!

Our second stop was Ensenada. The girl's had a blast shopping, taking pictures and bartering. Katie said that that was one of the best parts of the trip. She loves to barter.





They took a break from shopping and did the "Cupid Suffle" right in the middle of Ensenada.



We had to take a picture with this construction worker. He wanted to know why an athletic, buff guy like Sean would ever wear a shirt that says "I Love Unicorns". Sean explained that his daughter bought it for him for his birthday as a joke. (Earlier in the year, Sean decided to tell the girls a unicorn joke everyday for two weeks - that's a story for another time.)







Here is a picture of the girls sporting their new outerwear.





We had such an amazing trip. I love cruising with my kids!