An update in 3 parts

Sometimes things happen in groups!  I feel like lately my life has been on near constant GO!  Most of it has been wonderful.  So many sweet things have been happening, quite a few of them photogenic but life has moved at such a quick pace that I haven't been able to post.

So, here's a quick update 

in 3 parts

First off!  I finally have pictures from Recognition Night.  One of my co-leaders took the pictures that night and gave them in a zip drive to another co-leader who didn't realize what was on the zip and mis-placed it for a while before we figured out what it was.....then it was a few months of me saying "can I pick up that zip drive?" before finally picking them up today.  recognition Night is always a special night and this year it was all about the beauty within.  My girls are darling!  Don't you think?

My sweet beautiful girls!

Next update!  Johnny & Peekaboo had the opportunity to participate in a Stake Youth Conference titled "Youth VS. Wild".  John went as an instructor.  Peekaboo went as a participant.

This conference was all about the B.O.M.  They hiked a mile into a rather isolated location to simulate the Nephi and his family in the wilderness.

(that's Peekaboo in the red sweatshirt on the end!)  Hiking!!

They had to follow a compass to find 'the promised land'

Our friend Mark B. taught the compass activity

Then they built fortresses and a tower ala King Benjamin

They also built boats!

and a rope bridge (not pictured)

 

They also had the opportunity to use bows and aarows

JR was the Range Master, teaching archery.  He set up a range of 'prey' for them to capture for food 

The kids seemed to really enjoy it.

All in all it seems that it was a wonderful 2 day event for JR & Sarah and all of the other young adults and leaders.

So, now update part 3!!

We finally took a family trip.  Just a quick short one, but effective.  We went to WA to visit my sister Christy & her kids.  We decided to treat it like a vacation so on our way up we stopped @ a place called Cabela's, a VERY large sporting goods store that Johnny has wanted to visit for a while.  Cabellas is filled with "I hope" faux 'prey'.  There is a whole wildlife scene built into the center of the store including an aquarium with live fish.

JR enjoyed looking at guns and amunition, a variety of archery supplies and fun boating accessories.  Peekaboo and I entertained ourselves by running around the store taking pictures of ourselves with some of the various wildlife AND taking pictures of ourselves in some rather hideous outfits (NOT PICTURED!!! but, funny!).   We had a good time together.

Once we dragged poor Johnny from the store we headed north to Christy's.

Christy had planned a special outting for she and I and Sarah.  We all went to a viewing of the new movie "Eclipse". 

 

I have read the book and the movie seemed faithful but since it's not my kind of book it just wasnt' my kind of movie.   But, it was fun to get out and do something just for the girls.  I enjoyed spending time with my girl.  We both got really excited about the new Harry Potter trailer!!

So, onto other fun things we did in WA.

John and I took Christy's crew to the park.  There's a darling park close to their home that the kids LOVED playing on.  John chased them and played 'Pirate' with them.  'Twas suuuuuuuuper cute!

We were in WA over the 4th of July and it was a raaaainy weekend.  Christy has a firepit thingy and we decided that we could cook s'mores for the 4th but when the 4th came it was quite drizzly.  fortunately Uncle Johnny can build a fire in just about any weather.  We pulled the little fire pit thingy over under the eve of the house and got the fire going and then pulled it back after it got going.  it worked well.

I have a bunch of cute 'marshmallow' pics but they'd take too long to show....suffice to say the kids had a blast!! Even Daddy Ryan took part!  (he's not much for outdoorsy stuff)

Now, being AUNT HOPE I have to have a photo shoot to finish off our trip!!

such cute photos if I do say so myself!!

So, that's about caught me up!  Hope this blog isn't like the longest most boringest ever!!

AG Day Camp 2010

Another year of Activity Girls Day Camp has come and gone.  I only forgot 5 or 6 things, including silverware...so, not my best but still not bad.  I am so blessed to enjoy working with my girls.  I have so much fun.  They bring out a younger, more carefree me.

This is my group.  I had 16 girls.  I only expected 11.  My co-leaders are Chery and Amy.  They're fabulous women who make this work fun!

Mr. Bill Wood of Magnus Tree farm kept the girls mesmerized on a one hour guided hike. He says he has 2 1/2 hours worth of material, easy, he just trimmed it back for us.  he talked a lot to us about the healing things the come from the woods. he taught us how to identify stinging nettle and how to treat it naturally.  It was fascinating.  The girls were literally totally absorbed!

This is the friendly neighborhood bullsnake.  He's really quite friendly.  Likes to be held.  All the girls adored him!

Emmalyn absorbed

Day Camp would not be complete without Archery and my Mr. Range Master!

We made scripture journals to follow along with the journaling prompts in the 'Friend' magazine.  I told them if they do 6 entries in their journal this summer I will give them a special journaling charm for their bracelets.

Ellie, Chery & Andrea

What awesome girls!

By far the most popular activity of the day was playing in the creek.  Here they look so cute, cooling off. By the end of the day they were soaking wet and lovin' it!

Bishop Bill stopped by for a visit.  The girls love him!

I wish I had more pics to share.  the battery on my camera died. 

DANCE Recital DAY

Apparently, June 19, 2010 is designated as THE day to have a dance recital.  I was invited to 3 today!  Only made it to one but it was the most important one.

My nieces Abi and Cedes had their big dance recital today.  It's a HUGE recital with 44 numbers being danced.  theirs was the 38th!!!!!!  It's crazy.  There's even a 15 minute intermission in the middle.  The number that they danced to is "wild, wild west".  they do tap and it's so darling, with their cute little cowboy hats!!

Abi changed out of her costume but Cedes is proud of her getup!

The girls and their Mommy!  'Cedes is the spittin image, I'm telling you it's striking!

The girls and their daddy!  my baby brother!  Abi can't help hamming it up!

Trying and action shot!

Sorry, no picture of me :( 

my camera battery died   :)

aren't they sweet!!

my day off!

I never really take the day off.  OK, so occasionally Peekaboo and I sleep in a bit more than we should or vegetate for a while but I never take it off.  I always accomplish something.  Even when John has the day off and we plan to spend it 'together' I always end up taking care of his needs, his errands + household stuff + my daughter still needs to be important.

Well, yesterday I took off my first real day in I don't know how long.  OK, so it was more like a 3/4 day.  I did do 3 loads of laundry and tidied up the kitchen and did some research and exercised and did some AG work.....BUT I was done by noon and then I took the rest of the day OFF!!!!!)

So, what does one do on  a day off?  Actually, if I didn't have my friend Chery to help me I would have no idea.  We went to lunch @ the Cheesecake factory.  Never been there.  always wanted to.  I had a good sandwich thingy with lots of avocado which filled a huge need in me.  I didn't even know I'd been craving avocado until I ate it and KNEW.  then, we wandered the mall looking at make up.  That's new to me too.  FYI I don't really have makeup any more.  Ever since sharing a bathroom with my beautiful teenage daughter while our bathroom was under construction I haven't had any make up left.  She 'borrowed' almost all of it and it never returned.  That was 2 years ago and I never replaced what had disappeared.  Chery and I look @ makeup and she kept trying to urge me to buy something but I didn't even know what to do...it's been that long!  So, she took me to Nordstroms and dragged me over to a makeup artist stand and told them I was looking for foundation and I needed a make over.  The lady who worked on me (Sybil @ MAC cosmetics) was very friendly.  She asked me my preferences and ended up trying a tinted moisturizer with sunscreen in it for me.  I love it.  It's all in one and it's pretty light.  I had a good time being made up.  I had a good time browsing.  Chery even got me to try on perfume.  something I never do.

After we left the Mall (I know...me....in a mall!) we stopped by the party store to look for some supplies for my date with hubby that night.  I was looking for fireman inspired supplies.  I did find a hat but it's teenie, still bought it though.  It was only $1.00.

I came home and spent the remainder of my day preparing for my date with johnny baby that night.  (and where was beautiful daughter you may ask?  At a friend's house!!  Actually staying there and not leaving forcing me to ground her again!!!  One day of (well, not NO worry but less worry).)  So, my date was all centered around the movie FireProof.  If you haven't seen it you should.  I had heard good things about it and saw some stuff on blogs about dating on it and had friend referrals.  So, I thought we'd see it.  I decided since it was "fire"proof that my theme was HOT!  So, I bought hot wings for dinner (Yummy!) and had jalapeno hot chips (ouch!) a red drink that I made and lava cakes for desert and then hot tamales for snack during the movie and popcorn.  My Hubby Bubby loved the date!  It was so fun and relaxing.  I love this dating thing...Just gotta keep it up!   It's so nice to have Johnny all to my little peapickin' self.  Love that man!!

THAT is my day off!  I need to do it again!!  I feel relaxed.  I feel happy with me.  My daughter had a break from me so she's happy with me again and hubby seemed happy that I was happy.

YEAH!!!!!

sayin' goodbye is hard to do!!

Peekaboo's BFF/Sister/Can't live without her is moving.

oh, the trauma!

oh, the drama!

14 is a rough age to move!!! ( I do know from personal experience)

We've tried talking to the girls together AND separately...emphasizing that they'll still be friends and they can call, or facebook or skype...

But, to these girls it is the end of the world as they know it.  They've been buddies since they were 5 years old!

As part of our effort to make this a positive goodbye we threw a goodbye party for Sym.  

A whole gaggle of giggly, teen girls swooped in our home for a day of fun, pop, archery, pizza and a church dance.  It was a looooooooong day.  I made Sym a swatchbook filled with photos of her and she loves it.  I left lots of space for her to have friends sign it and write messages and personalize it.  You can check out the book here!

I took some darling pictures of the girls right before taking them to L.O. for the dance.  I think they look darling.  I just wish my camera hadn't been wigging out on me.  I'm not happy with the quality.

Aren't they too cute??

D-O-N-E

School is out!  

Jump for Joy!

I-Am-No-Longer-A-Homeschooling-Mom

My daughter graduated 8th grade

She is now a 9th grader

A high Schooler!

We are D-O-N-E!!!!

dating for dummies

Dating has been tough for my hubby and I.  When we were first married we didn't date much because we felt it would save money and we figured that since we were together so much we really didn't need to go OUT.  We convinced ourselves that we'd date LATER after we had children.  Five years later we finally had a child and still didn't date, largely because we couldn't.  We had a challenging child on our hands who wore out her babysitters and we couldn't get anymore.  So, we did the young parent date... We waited till Boo went to sleep and then we ordered Chinese food and rented a movie.  That kind of dating worked for a while BUT we didn't quite keep it up.  Years went by and we still really weren't dating and our daughter was getting older.  Now, for some having an older child might make it easier for date.  For us it is still challenging.  our daughter seems to have a hobby of finding ways to get herself grounded.  Grounded = no mommy & daddy leaving the house together.  So, recently I discovered I'd officially HAD it with the no dating thing.  I need that time with my husband where I'm not sharing him with anyone, even with our daughter. So, I started looking for ideas.  Ideally I was looking for ideas on how to date with  your teenager still around.  nothing like that exists.  I did, however, find some really cute little blogs and websites such as Love Actually, and the Dating Divas, and Project 52.  They have so many cute ideas and Johnny and I have started implementing some of them.  We have 2 rules. 

1) one date per week with each of us trading being responsible 

2) the dates, whenever possible, take place in our room.

It's been fun.

Tonight my darling husband got Chinese food and turned our bedroom into a Chinese restaurant. he spread out a table cloth on our bed and propped up pillows all over.  he even put candles in these flat little rock candle holders on our bed (and we didn't light anything on fire!).  It was so sweet and so fun and such an escape from the world outside.