GIRLS CAMP 2016

This year I was asked to be the Camp Specialist for our ward.  Planning it was stressful-ish, just because of everything that was going on this summer, but being there was awesome!  I hadn't been to girls camp since I was a girl, so this was pretty fun :)

Our first Open Assembly

The Stake Camp theme was 

University of YOUth

Every ward had to pick a university name, mascot, and motto.  Also every ward was given a value color from Young Womens, ours was Yellow for Good works

Name:  University of Prosser

Mascot:  Snipe

Motto:  Hunting for Service

Bro. Yetter REALLY wanted to come help us set up, and I'm not going to lie... I'M SO GLAD HE WAS!!  He knew what he was doing and it would have taken us forever to get things set up if he wasn't there.  He totally knew what he was doing :)

Cami and Jenna Buttars

Halle Wright and her mom Sunny.  One of my favorite things at camp was that the leaders were my friends!!

We budgeted for matching pajamas, upon the girls' request.  At first we thought we could have the girls make them, but then soon realized that was more than we could handle at the time!  Luckily for us, we found these awesome pj bottoms on amazon and it was within out budget! Score!!  They looked so cute all matching :)

Jill Durrant (YW pres) and her daughter were our go to cooks!  Sis. Durrant planned for everything, and we never went hungry :)

Kim Hunt, Mikayla Hunt, Aubrey Muun, Casilda Redman, and Persephone Redman playing games in the tent

Nini Merrick, her smile and giggle melts my heart every time!

Sabrina Bosted, Mikayla, and Aubrey helping set up our drinking cup system with clothe pins.  Clever!

On Skit night everyone got dressed up as their character

Kamille Giles as our Park Ranger (minus the stache she sported on stage ;) and Meg Hartley as our contemporary dancing dear!  Seriously, every time I watched these girls perform their skit, I was laughing so hard

Kelli Munn as our Snipe, and Makaylee Clark as our old man Mr. Fredrickson off of up.  They rocked their characters!

Our trees were phenomenal, our Rock Vanessa Yanez was adorable.  Our hunters were Cami, Jenna, and Aubrey.  Nini was our sign lady, Zami Blanco as our bear, Kate Munn as our random Waldo, Halle as our Santa (who through candy at the crowd at the end.  That was a hit ;)  But seriously, they were awesome that night!

Friday night, our new bishop, Bishop Buttars, and his wife Arlene dressed up along with us on our spirit day theme (Homecoming day) and joined us for dinner and commitment night.  They were too cute to not take a pic.

Bishop took his daughter Jenna on a little one on one walk.  Cami wanted to snap a pic and I'll have to admit.  It's pretty sweet.

Sis. Durrant put on a Luau for us that night, and it tasted delish!  Sweet Tina Smith and her husband drove all the way in to deliver dessert. 

Being there with Cami was exactly what I needed.  I am grateful for these opportunites to be with her on these fun adventures.  I don't always get those chances with all the kids and younger little ones.  So spend the week with her up at camp, will be a priceless memory. We even went polar plunging together at 6:15 in the early morn!  Love this little lady of mine.

Lesson, Life, Love

It's been hard to adjust to life after my brother's passing.  It's easy to just want to huddle in a corner and hide for awhile.  The difficulty is, like keeps moving.  I have found that looking up, instead of down, is what keeps me going.  In our backyard, we have a constant reminding of looking up.  As they grow, they follow the sun, looking up.

Also, seeing the good in things.  Though Alex may have ripped one of our limbs off our tree by accident, a lesson was learned.  One thing that I love about Jeremy is that he desires to TEACH you.  We learn from our mistakes and life.

I've also been touched by the immense love and support from family and friends.  Just before I was leaving to go somewhere, flowers were delivered to our door from my Mother in law.  Thank you, to all of you, for your love and support during this difficult!

Grandma even got a little something for Audrey to make her feel better from her ER visit. So sweet

We've been having a lot of family time at home too.  I love it when my kids get along so well.  Watching them play sorry sliders was a highlight of my week

In September, Jeremy and I are going to do a tough mudder run.  I had expressed that, I may not make it!!  I've never been able to pull my own weight very well when it comes to pull ups.  So what does Jeremy do??  He builds me a pull of system :)  He's the sweetest, and the kids love it too.

So much, it has wiped some of us out ;)

Hood River

Recently we were able to go to visit our Auntie Launa :)

It is always such a treat to be with her

We went the local farmer's market and enjoyed trying cheeses, breads, and fun food

We also went blueberry picking!  Oregon berries always seem to taste the best

We also met up with Josh and Amie while we were there.  They have recently moved to Hood River so it was wonderful that we could all be with each other!  We headed to the river :)

Josh, Amie, Launa, Jeremy

Tanner thoroughly enjoyed the sun, sand, water, and attention :)

I love watching the kids explore and enjoy the outdoors.  Do you see little Craig?? ;)

But we also had a sad event.  After coming home from the river I was chasing Audrey around to get her clothes on.  On her run away from me, she tripped and hit her head on the edge of a futon.  I know head wounds bleed a lot, but that was A LOT.  You could even see the skull :(  Launa and Jeremy took her to the emergency room right away.  Josh and Amie came to get dinner for the kids and watch them when Launa came back for me.  

She was smiling when I got there, but the wound looked awful

The poor thing had to be given a sedation drug 3 times.  None of them worked.  The doctor was young and inexperienced, so it seemed.  The doc took forever too.  So by the time we actually got to the stitching her drugs and numbing had worn off some.  Audrey wouldn't sit still either which made it difficult for the doc.  After a couple hours, Audrey was done and was getting mad. We ended up having to papoose her and hold her still for 15 minutes as she screamed through the whole thing.  THAT was hard. 

When it was all done, we all ate popcycles and Audrey waved to the doctors and nurses saying 'Good-bye!'

It's going to be a decent scar