Summer Wrap Up

I have been terrible about posting this summer - so I will do one big blog posting wrapping up our summer fun.

Alicia turned 12, which means pierced ears at our house. She has been waiting impatiently for the last several years.

 We like to have it done at a piercing shop down in Salt Lake, if you are wondering why the guy is loaded up on tattoos.

 

To celebrate her birthday, we had cake, presents,

 

 

and a party with all of her friends.

 

Natalie had a lemonade stand, and spent her money on a mask-making kit.

 

 

We went up to Pineview, a local reservoir. Our friends brought kayaks, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.  

 

 Kim and Megan

 

 Natalie

 

Megan learned how to ride her bike without training wheels this year. John spent weeks working on it with her. She was a little fearful, to say the least, but she conquered it.

 

We still have to get her started, but then she is off and going...

 

 

 

Speaking of bikes, the week before school, they had an open house at the elementary, so Natalie and I rode our bikes, slightly over 3 miles round trip with 4 whopper hills - and I am not kidding when I say they are doozies. Natalie was a trooper, though I may not be able to talk her into doing that again.

 

 

The Friday before school, Kim and Alicia went with their friends Kylee and Jessica, who are sisters, to the mall and spent some of their hard-earned babysitting money from tending several neighbor kids.

 

 

 We have been having a ton of rain and lightning storms, so the girls just put on their shoes, and head out to play in the rain. 

 

 

 

 We had some fun times with John's family. One of them was our annual Bear Lake trip - no pictures though.

 

We had a reunion at Keith and Delores's new place where we made covered wagons with Grandpa.  

 

 

 

 

 

Now the kids are back in school, Megan included in preschool, and I get to enjoy several hours of blissfully peaceful quiet several times a week. ....aaaaahhhhh....

Our Gals

 

 We decided to use our own camera and do our own photos of the girls before school. Our neighbors let us borrow their incredible yard, and here's what we came up with:

 

Kim - age 14

 



 

 Alicia - age 12

 

 

 

Natalie - age 7

 

 

 

Megan - age 4

 We managed to get a shot of us in there too.



Up

 

A few months ago, I was asked by the bishop in my church ward to accept a new calling, that of serving with our youth group, specifically the 12 and 13-year-old young women. To say that I was not excited was an understatement. I have never been one who has desired to serve with the youth. I have been happily serving away in primary (the young children), and in Relief Society (the women in the ward). Well, with four girls, I knew my time would probably come to serve with the youth, and the time has come.

I have been teaching Sunday lessons hear and there to these girls, and have slowly been warming up to the opportunity, however, three weeks ago was the week-long girls camp, and guess what that meant? I was asked to participate. Not that I don't mind camping, because I actually enjoy camping. I  just wasn't necessarily looking forward to the week with a group of young women.

I actually was trying to think of ways to get out of it, up until about two days before hand when the three of us - Kim, Alicia, and me, set off to buy our camp supplies. We actually had a lot of fun together, and I slowly began looking forward to the adventure.

I was not disappointed. I had a wonderful time with these gals -

 

So much fun, that I sure as heck didn't take a lot of pictures.


Thanks to these pictures taken by the other leaders.
Here I am with a couple of the leaders on a hike we checked out for the girls, which sadly we weren't able to do because we got rained out.

Oh, I just realized I have a treat for your eyes - us leaders and the bishopric rocking it to Shania Twain's "Up!" during the evening skit program.

 

Uh, if you couldn't tell, that's me in the middle with one of Natalie's dress-ups I found the day before camp. I was a tad envious of Hope's cat suit there to the right. As the story goes, she bought it when she was 13-years -old for her sister's bridal lingerie shower, thinking cat pajamas would work out perfectly for her sister. She wasn't surprised when her sister gave them right back to her.

 

I digress.

The best part about camp?

Spending time with these lovelies: 

 

 

 

It dawned on me mid-week that I have been placed in this calling for several reasons, one of them being the opportunity to be with my girls in a setting away from the typical ones we experience at home. I will forever cherish these memories, and as John predicted, I have come to like this calling (not yet at the love stage, but at least I'm past the complete dislike - progress folks).