First Official Week of Summer

Just a quick update . We are headed to the beach for our "Week at the Beach" today and don't have internet at the house so will update you a week from Sunday.


Our first real week of summer was pretty uneventful. Cali started her job. She's going to have a great tan by the end of the summer because she spends most of the time with the boys at the pool!


Tessa was big help to me this week around the house, taught her how to make freezer jam and she made 7 batches! 3 of the batches were using berries from our own garden.


Jim and Leigh Anne spent most of the time at their computers working. Jim has a couple of big proposals going in (keeping our fingers crossed) so doesn't come out of his "man cave" much.


Clark arrived home Friday morning - yeah! He has taken up residence in the red leather chair in front of the TV. He went in for his drug test so he will be able to start work at Costco the Monday after we get back from the beach.


Logan flies in this evening. The kids and I will head to the beach as soon as we pack up half the house and Jim and Logan will come this evening. We are having great weather - 80's so hoping it is a good week at the beach!


Becca arrives Monday evening - Logan will drive back into town to get her.


So not sure anyone really reads my blog posts....but if you are reading there's the update.


I started this blog for purely selfish reasons - a way to document our family history. I'm not sure how many people really read my weekly updates but I know a few friends do once in a while because they are kind enough to leave a comment occassionally. My mom reads it because she tells me but does anyone else??? My boys will leave a comment once in a while so I guess they are reading it.... And there is that "anonymous" commenter (thanks Wynn!)


If you do read my blog- I hope you will leave a comment some day to let me know. For those of you non-bloggers - FYI - Bloggers LOVE comments and when no one comments they think they are not loved...:(


Just a quick - hi - great post! or love the pictures of the girls or wish we were there - really anything will do!


So if it sounds like I'm begging for comments, maybe I am but I'd just really like to know you are there and that someone is READING MY BLOG!!!! And if you have a blog and send me the URL - I will visit it and I WILL COMMENT!

Garth Returns Home

We have someone new at our house - his name is Garth. I am not sure how he got the name of Garth but he did. You see Garth is a dinosaur - I think he is a stegosaurus if I remember my dinosaurs correctly.

Garth was the KIT (4th year girls) mascot at camp this year.

He went everywhere with the darling cave woman!

Garth became quite popular at camp - and as happens to most mascots he was kidnapped a time or two by rival cabins (mainly the 3rd years). But the camp adult leaders got into the fun too and even kidnapped him one night!

Garth always reappeared though - usually at the top of the flagpole!

Garth was so popular that he even received his own KIT sweatshirt and camp name. Here is the explanation for his camp name that was read when his sweatshirt was presented to him one morning at flag call...

Gartholomew is a very important member of girls camp. He's never one to say an unkind word. He loves Destiny and has a very strong testimony. He still has his glad bracelet on. He only eats veggies and he loves fruit leathers. He loves to climb trees and swim in streams. He loves to sleep with a blanky and when people like the Adult Presidency take him and don't give him a blanky it breaks his very sensitive soul. He's popular with other campers, and throughout the week has had many up's and down's, high's and low's. With all those amazing attributes we are continuously wanting more of Garth and his spirit, so we give him the Kit name...ENCORE.

The last day of camp he disappeared again and was sited - poking out of the sunroof of Sister Atack's car. The girls were a bit sad but were hopeful they would see him again.

Saturday evening Garth returned home - to our home. We found him eagerly awaiting us at the front door. Whoever returned him (Thank you Tracy) also had fun "spotting" our house with dozens of green spots - just like Garth's sweatshirt!

The girls were not about to let him out of their sight again so on Sunday they even took a nap with him!

I am not sure but Garth may have taken up permanent residence at our house - how do you boys feel about sharing a room with Garth?!

Girl's Camp 2008

We're home - and with 12 hours of sleep in my own bed under my belt I am feeling much better!

I now know why my girls come home from camp each year exhausted and hoarse! They get no sleep and they scream ALOT!!

Despite the no sleep and the screaming we had a fabulous week at camp. We had perfect weather - no rain and temperatures in the 70's.

This was Cali's year to be a KIT counselor (kits are the 4th Years) and Tessa was one of her girls. Cali and the other 4th year counselors had spent hours the weeks before camp preparing and they did a fabulous job.

Their theme was cavemen and dinosaurs - their name was UGH! The first day of camp they all ratted their hair and wore their cavewomen dresses and looked darling! They were definitely the hit of camp - the stars of the week!

Their cabin was decorated with cave woman, dinosaur bones and jungle vines. Each of their girls received their own cavewoman outfit too!

KIT night is the highlight of camp where the 4th year girl's receive their official camp name. The adult leaders go to a tremendous amount of effort and work to come up with a name that fits each girl perfectly. They make quite a production out of it. Each year there is a new sweatshirt color and it is quite the secret. This year the sweatshirts were darling - went right along with their dinosaur theme. They were green with green spots all over them!

Each girl is called up to the stage individually and a description of each girl is read, an explanation of why their name was chosen and then the name. Tessa's name is Class Act -

KIT night is just one big party. They take a swim in the camp pool - fully clothed, sumo wrestle and basically stay up all night and eat junk food!

I was one of the Destiny leaders at camp this year. Our theme was Daughter of the Divine. I worked with three other wonderful woman and we had a great time. We transformed the weathered, wooden structure we were given into a beautiful place where the spirit was really felt.

We used the song "What Heaven Sees in You" as our theme. If you are not familiar with the song you can log onto www.snappynewday.com/ywc. We had a sister in our stake record it and the kids can download it from the website. We used three White Dresses as part of our presentation as mentioned in the song and also the "Parable of the Princesses" a wonderful story by Jenny Phillips (available at Deseret Book)

We also had a lady in our stake draw an original piece of artwork using the three white dresses that we were able to copy and give to each of the girls. Each girl received a Destiny bead (a mirror with crystals surrounding it) and a white pencil box filled with handouts from each day, the picture of the three white dresses, the box had a beautiful pink ribbon tied around it - the following saying was on the box 'Each day comes bearing it's own gifts...untie the ribbons" We encouraged the girls to make good choices, to make the most of what their Heavenly Father has given them and to "Become the Woman of their Dreams" as President Hinckley said in a recent YW talk.

We also had a darling full size cut out of "Destiny" our camper who joined us for the week.

Jim was home all alone for the week except for the two days/one night he spent at camp. He worked hard in the kitchen helping cook and doing dishes both days.

Part of the fun at camp is the crazy outfits the girls put together. Tessa and her friend Kristin had a fun time shopping at Goodwill and putting together some fun outfits and we even made them matching KIT shorts!

My favorite picture of my two girl's from the week!

Boy Update: Yesterday the boys had a double date to the Strawberry Day's rodeo - Logan really enjoyed the strawberries.

Clark has finished with Spring term and will spend next week working a little, relaxing and playing golf before he flies home on Friday.

Logan has been working at his PR internship and also as a counselor for some BYU camps. He flies home next Saturday and then Becca will fly in on Monday. We are excited for all of them to come and for our week at the beach next week.

I still have a bit of sleep to catch up on and some major laundry to do!!!