Girls' Camp - with my OWN girls!!!

So I got the call about 6 months ago. The call from the bishop. The call that I had never gotten before even though I had served in the young women organization during the past decade for 7 years in a row in some capacity or another. The call that would let my inner teenager emerge.

Would you please serve as ward camp director?

Color me giddy...

a little nervous, but mostly waaaaay giddy.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!! Yee haw - no 11 or 12 year old boys would be in sight during the entire week. No boys trying to be funnier than the other 11 in the group. No boys diverting attention from the lesson with a silly joke or comment. No boys playing around in their seats. No boys involved in this! Oh, wait, I still had my calling of teaching those boys... Well, no matter, I could handle them plus camp no problem. In fact, camp would be my distraction for the summer. Yesssss.

Another plus to being the camp director was the fact that Kourtni and Lindsay were going to be there! Yay! A chance to be with my two girls in the mountains for about 5 days. Let the planning and fun commence.

I had great help with this years' camp. From my two teenaged daughters to my college aged daughter who told me what to do and definitely what not to do. Thanks, girls!

I had great ladies to work with! Wow, we were literally the "dream team" of camp if I do say so myself! We all got along great, laughed into the wee hours of the morning, ate lots of good food, crafted, cleaned up very little since our awesome young women pitched in tremendously, laughed some more, bonded with the girls, got dirty, got wet, and laughed some more!

Thanks to everyone who made Girls' Camp 2010 such a positive, memorable experience!

Redfish Lake with the fourth year girls - Kourtni was a fourth year this year!

The fab four! These girls were basically inseparable! And so modest!

Just look at those one-piece suits! haha

Gettin' ready to jump off the point at Redfish. Fire powah!

You gotta love the burst feature on your camera!

Refreshing water at 9:30 in the morning! Brrr...

I was happy to stay in the paddle boat and be the photographer! Nice and dry was I! haha

Some of the cutest young women Ever!

Day 3 of no make up, filthy feet, and greasy hair. Wish I looked as good as Lindsay!

Yes. We did the horsey face game. And yes, I am posting pictures of it 'cuz I have no shame after spending 5 days with these ladies! Love 'em!

Beau-dilocks and Leslie

When I first met Bill, his nephew Beau was just a little guy, about 4 years old. He was so cute and had such darling curls. He said funny things, too.

Beau and Bill in Bill's red Toyota Celica. Bill stopped on the side of the highway. Pulled over for speeding. Again.

Beau: "Uncle Bill, that policeman he has a gun and he'll shoot you."

Bill: Speechless.

Fast forward about 20 years to July 19, 2010, in the Draper Temple:

One of the most good looking couples I've seen emerge from a wedding. What you can't see is Beau's fist pumping and Leslie's strutting! Priceless.

Lyss and me (with my fresh color and cut - aahhhh, thanks, Teressa) waiting in the wind and rain for the bride and groom to emerge.

Lexi and Lyss in front of the golf course that I thought was a cliff. This was where the reception was held - complete with a ring ceremony, photo booth,

dancing,

more dancing,


a beautiful view of the Salt Lake Valley at sunset time (my favorite time of day! and with my favorite person in the whole wide world. ahhh.),

and all my kids together again - it felt so good to see them all together - dressed up and happy to be there. I sleep better when my kids are all under the same roof.
Oh, yeah, right beside Payton is Beau's hand. heehee

And what wedding wouldn't be complete without beautiful flowers and a beautiful 19 year old who definitely IS NOT ready to get married ANY TIME SOON!
(I did that just for you, Alyssa, even though Kourtni wants to marry you off soon so she can drive the Corolla...)

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Beau-dilocks Murphy!

Fun at the wedding reception

Forget the dancing, the food, the photo booth, the mints, and the family reunioning...

Payton just wanted to leap over the fence.

Clothed in his church pants, shoes, shirt, and tie.

And what a fine leap it was!

(The reception was delightful for the rest of us non-leapers...)

Thoughts on chicks leaving the nest

I'm missing my twelve year old boy. I miss munching on his cheeks to wake him up in the morning. I miss his little crooked teeth smile. I miss seeing him in the bathroom each morning "doing" his hair with that gu stuff he likes so much. I miss hearing the Disney Channel for about 5 hours of the day. (Did I really just say that???) I miss sneaking up behind him and smooching a kiss or two or ten from him. I miss that dang Wii being used each day and the sounds of Mario Kart coming from the living room.

*Sigh*

I have felt like an almost empty nester this summer. Each of the kids has been busy with activities, friends, camps, etc. that there have been many days when I've had several hours of alone time. That's weird. I'm not used to it. I don't know if I like it. I'm too young (I think) to be an almost empty nester. I'm not ready for Family Home Evening for empty nesters! I'm not ready to shop at certain retailers to get the senior citizen discount! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!!!

Am I getting ahead of myself? Probably. Most certainly. All because of missing my 12 year old boy.

I think I'd be ok if it hadn't been for a call I received from the scout master's wife earlier this week. I was in the shower. She called Bill to relay the news. Payton had barfed. He had had one (or maybe four) too many smores before bed on Tuesday night. He found his way out of his tent and managed to find the scout master's tent to inform him of the disgusting news. Bless that man's heart. He was an angel to help clean up a barf fest in the dark. At 1:00 in the morning. Not even his own flesh and blood's puke. Using his own towel. Yeah, that man deserves a medal!

Oh, Pate got another fresh sleeping bag and pillow from home - delivered via another leader. I hope he learned his lesson. I hope he's at least trying the camp's food. I hope he's cleaned all the crud off of his face (or at least I hope it's cleaned off before I get to smooch on him Saturday...). I hope he misses me as much as I miss him...Nah, I really don't - that would be way WEIRD.

Anyway. I'm not ready for my children to be gone all the time. The oldest has already flown the coop and taken part of my heart with her. Nope, I'm not ready for all the stuff -or lack of it - that comes with an empty house. I'm definitely not ready for the end of an era of raising 4 children. Nope. So if you're reading this and you have a house full of young children in diapers, scattering toys about, throwing tantrums, or refusing to take a nap and you wish for them to grow up.

Don't worry - They Do.

And I don't think you'll be ready for it either.

The Ball's Went Over the Mountain

Remember the song about the bear going over the mountain? I loved it when I was a kid! Maybe it was because my family lived at the base of Maple Mountain and my dad owned a great pair of binoculars. There would be many days where I would use his binoculars to look up at that mountain to determine if I could see anything up close! Never really did see much but a bunch of bushes and trees, but I sort of felt like that bear...

Fast forward about 25 years and here I am with more great mountains around me. (Technically they're called foothills but I still consider them mountains.) The Boise foothills are gorgeous - for about 4 weeks of the year when they've been washed with spring rain and have had ample amounts of May sunshine they are a beautiful sight to behold. I'm sure my kids are sick to death of me saying,
"Just look at those foothills! They're so green!"
And,
"Someday we're going to climb up to the top of that mountain and see what's up there!"
Or,
"Just look at how the sun is hitting those hills. Wow."

Yeah, I'm sort of weird like that.

Bill has been telling me for awhile that he would accompany me up to the top. We just never had a good 4 hours to do it - you know, scout camping trips, fishing trips, and more scout camping trips taking place on a Friday night and Saturday morning. Grrr. This "bear" wasn't going over any mountains!

However, last Monday we found some time to actually accomplish this highly anticipated hike. Bill was off for the fourth of July vacation so we gently coerced the kids to join us. Wow. What a great morning of hiking, talking, amazing views, and good old family time. Now we know what's on the other side of that mountain - excellent views of the other side! Hah! That bear was right.

There's my "mountain" - to the right of Kourtni's head is where we were headed.

Bright and early on July 5, 2010

Notice how Kourtni is no where in sight - that's because she BOOKED it up that trail! Yeah, I thought for sure she was cougar bait! Yikes.

Once we caught up to Kourt (really the cows scared her and slowed her down) we tried to pick out the landmarks of Boise.

Had to go through a bit of forest to get to the top - saw lots of cattle. Weird but good for us since cougars might like beef more than human...

We made it to the top in about 2 1/2 hours. It was FREEZING up there and extremely windy. We took several pictures and kept moving to keep warm.

Pretty wildflowers on the way.

He's such a good sport to hike all that way! Say it with me, "Awwww..."

"This" is what's on the other side of my mountain! Isn't it gorgeous? Totally worth the hike.
And, yes, Griffy made it. He kept up the entire way - pretty good for a 13 year old dog!

Girls in the back singing Dragon Tales songs... they got sort of loopy on the way down.

Bill and Pate tried the rope swing at the end...

Good thing he didn't land in a cactus...

Griffy's not as young as he used to be - he gets by with a little help from his friends. Hah.

Sweet relief - now let's go get some pizza!

And that's what happened when the Ball's went over the mountain.

Wordless Wednesday - Posted on a Thursday...

What do you do in the summertime?

So what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Well, this seems to be my summertime:

Get up around 5:45. Check Alyssa's blog to see if there are any updates. (Hey, she's 8 hours ahead of me, I can wonder...) If there are no updates, go to FB and check her status to see if anything has changed since before I went to bed. If no change in status, get to the gym so I can be home by 7:10 to wake up kids for swim team.

At 7:10, wake up Lindsay and Payton. Check Lyss' blog and FB status. Run kids to swim team practice.

At 7:50 hike 1 1/2 miles up Table Rock with 2 girlfriends, then run the 1 1/2 miles down. Get back to the swimming pool to pick up kids.

At 9:00 start oatmeal on the stove while checking Lyss' blog and FB status on laptop on kitchen table. Eat oatmeal and check a few other favorite blogs for new posts.

At 10:00 get in the shower - well most days it is 10:00 - today it was 2:00!!! I love summer.

Putter around the house after shower making sure kids are doing their jobs. Do my jobs. Try to get my piles of stuff organized. This may take the entire summer - blech.

Around 1:00 eat lunch while checking Lyss' blog and FB status. Nothing new on either site. *sigh*

Do whatever the kids want to do - provided I don't have to take a loan out to do it - for the afternoon.

Around 5:00 check Lyss' blog and FB status. If I'm lucky I may hit the jackpot and she will have posted something to let us know that she is ok, or that she has a drunk naked man as a roommate in her hostel (don't worry, she has 3 "men" with her to protect her... ahem. I hope they are doing their "job"...), or that she had to pay an extra 50 or so American dollars to the train police in Italy, or that she has a touch of heatstroke since she didn't eat or drink anything during the day. Whew! It's always a relief to be able to read something she has actually written that day! What would I do without the internet to connect me with my daughter who's halfway around the world.

Around 6:00 think about cooking dinner. Wonder what to cook. Check several cooking blogs to see if there is anything that is quick, won't make my pants too tight, is appetizing, and that I have the ingredients for.

Around 7:00 clean up the dinner that will probably make my pants too tight, and solicit help from the kids (if there are any around - sheesh) to get kitchen cleaned up.

Around 8:00 think about going on a walk with Bill for our decompression/nightly date/hand holding time.

Around 9:30 return from nightly walk with Bill. Check Lyss' FB status to see if anything has changed since the last time I checked it. Watch the last of any TV show that might be on. Watch the news. Get ready for bed so we can start it all over again tomorrow.

Oh, the joys of summer.

SIDENOTE: Lest you think I am obsessive about checking up on my daughter: well, I'm not. I consider myself very curious as to her whereabouts and travelings and I will continue to be a little curious until she safely arrives back on US soil next Wednesday. There. She'll be back next Wednesday - wow! I think Alyssa's blog will get a lot less hits from me, and my little laptop may or may not collect a little more dust once she is safely home.

That's what I do in the summertime - at least for the next week.

The many uses of duck tape

Well, summer is here. Kids need something to do. Something fun. Something economical. Something that won't make the mom (who is helping the kids out) go ballistic. That really narrows it down, huh?

We checked our calendar, invited a few friends, and headed out to the craft store for a "free" duck tape wallet demo.

Here are the numbers we had to endure:

There was one small table.

One employee who had to keep looking at the directions to see how to make these things. Seven kids crowded around the small table.

Four kids I brought with me waiting to make a lovely (free) Father's Day gift.

One mother (me) who had about had it with 2 of the 4 children she brought (they were not my own children either...).

Fifteen minutes of torture and impatience that passed before I wised up and decided I was getting out of there before heads were going to roll.

I marched back to the duck tape aisle. Commanded the children to choose 3 colors and 3 colors only. Marched up to the front of the store. Paid for 3 colors and 3 colors only. Drove home and made our own duck tape wallets. Whew.

After I had regained my composure, I took some pictures that I thought I'd share.

Three colors and three colors only..

.

Measure, cut, fold, repeat...

Concentrate...

Help out a friend...

Put on your finishing touches...

Display your work of art...

Now I expect all those wallets to be used every.single.day.

Anyone interested in a free lesson on duck tape wallets???

I promise I won't go ballistic.

Well, maybe.

Spring happenings

Wow, where has the time gone? It was spring, now it's summer vacation. I've blogged next to nothing, took a million pictures, posted some of them on Facebook, but have so many more to share. Unfortunately, due to my lack of patience, Blogger's "problems" loading my pictures, and fat fingers on a laptop, there are not as many pictures as I had hoped to share. Sigh. Oh, well, here are some photos showing what has been going on in and around our house and family. Enjoy the pictures.

DISCLAIMER:

(Lori, I am totally copying you on this, and I want to thank you for YOUR inspiration. You get all the credit for this update!!!)

This spring was a:

First place time of 13.22 seconds in the 90m for Payton in the city track meet taking,

Lindsay triple jump leaping,

Blue ribbon showing,

12th birthday celebrating,

Kiss stealing,

Air soft war preparing,

Baby chick feeding,

Race for the cure walking,

New coop making,

Griffey exploring,

Table rock hiking,

Payton, Seth, and Ben posing,

New baby Brock holding,

Cemetary visiting,

Kourtni 9th grade photo student award winning,

6th grade tie-dye graduating!

Farewell to Freshman Dance attending,

Crappie fish catching,

Kind of spring.

Wow. Sort of summarizes everything up. Until next time...