Girls Camp 2010!

Camp Theme: Daughters of a King - Campalot

Coolidge 2nd Ward - Camp Choose-a-lot

Location: Mt. Lemmon, Tuscon @ Camp Zion

July 6-10

6 first years (Bethanie, Maria, Dawnirae, Sandy, Ally, Paige)

1 second year  (Maryn)

3 third years (Tyrza, Selina, Breigh)

5 fourth years  (Kaylee, Sasha, Hayley, McKenzie, Jennifer)

1 assistant camp director (Rachelle)

What an incredible week! I am the Beehive Counselor in our ward and also the ward camp director. We have been planning and preparing for this week for so long now and it is a relief to know it is over and we now have the wonderful memories! No drama, no major injuries or illness, no fights, just a bunch of girls who are all so very different but closer because of the experience!  The Stake was so organized and things went pretty smoothly. This was my first year at camp so I could empathize with my first year beehives. Thankfully, my assistant Rachelle was a pro, being only 18 and this being her 6th year in a row. I relied on her alot to tell us what to expect and preparing for everything she could think of. We found out that we had been assigned the dreaded camp site along the stairs. I am grateful that we got it this year so hopefully it will be a long time until we have it again.

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We took these pictures on Testimony Rock when Brother and Sister Abraham came to visit. I renamed it Photography Rock since no testimonies were born there.

My boys came home from cub scouts with these shirts they had sprayed bleach on. I thought they were cool so we cut out designs on paper with the cricut and made these unique shirts to wear one day. We loved them!

Me with my assistant Rachelle and McKenzie.

I have one of my beehives to thank for showing me the flower setting on my camera to take this picture on our hike. Thanks, Maryn!

Rachelle was tired of me bossing her around and tried to get rid of me.

So one night we had a Pageant and each ward had to choose one of their leaders to be a contestant. They chose me and dressed me up in this ridiculous get up for the WOW wear portionl. We called this ensemble the modern woman's Armour of God. Helmet of Salvation was a tiara and flowers. Shield of faith was a silver handbag, breastplate was a bunch of necklaces, my loins were gird about with polyester/spandex and a pink tutu. Feet shot with black heels and sword of truth cell phone and a zebra patterned chastity belt finished up the outfit. My adoring fans asked for some pictures before I took the stage.

Much to my chagrin, there was also the dreaded talent portion and so I hastily threw together a little song that I learned as a child about a preacher out hunting and coming across a bear. I am no singer but it was silly and Tyrza helped me out by acting as the bear.

I was nervous for the question part but thankfully I was the 2nd to last to go and decided that no matter what question I was asked, I would cry and talk about the poor orphans. It just happened that I was asked what I would do if I was given 1 million dollars, so of course I would build an orphanage so they would have a home full of love. I must have been convincing because Dawnirae asked Rachelle if I was really crying.

All of the contestants. They all did such an incredible job! I was named Miss Sassy, although I can't understand why. Maybe it was because when they had us all come back up on stage together I ran in front of the all the contestants and whooped it up, or maybe it was the time when they introduced the celebrity judges and I ran off stage and shook all their hands and told them how lovely they looked. Who knows.

One day we had a royal tournament with various competitions and this is our sand castle that one the round. We won most of our challenges with the exception of the wood beam walk and archery. Blasted archery!

We used this shoe organizer to hold the girls' notes and little presents they got each day. I used the cricut to make name tags. I used the cricut for many, many, things actually. What a priceless piece of machinery when you are in young womens! I got the girls a charm bracelet and each day they got a new charm to add to it. They were a big hit!

Now that I am home I am longing for the mountains and cooler temps. We are leaving next week for Yellowstone for my family reunion and I can hardly wait!

10th Birthday Bash

After long last, we stayed in town for Carson and Jackson's birthday. With a birthday falling around the 4th of July weekend, it is hard to not be gone for the holiday. But with the Rowley reunion the week before and Girls Camp the week after, we needed an excuse to stay home! So I decided to send out an email and a text to some friends, inviting them to the party/bbq, thinking that a few would want to come if they were around. We rented this super big water slide to keep the kids cool and we hauled the dunk tank over from the Elks Lodge up the road. The kids had an absolute blast! My brother Adam and his family of 8 were staying the week and LeaAnn and her three kids were also here a few days.  So the water slide fun started for all the cousins at 9am and went until 8pm. Lets just say that it is fortunate we have a well and didn't have to pay for all that water that ran ALL DAY!  

Here are the birthday boys, with Carson shirtless. Can you believe they are 10 years old??? They are still pretty small and skinny. But they are the best kids and I love them so much! I wouldn't mind if they just stayed this age forever!

I tried counting how many people came and it turned out to be around 80 guests. Old friends came that I didn't expect to make it and it was so fun to see them. I didn't really get to "hang out" as much as I would have liked, since feeding that size of a group is a bit of work!

Here is my dear Chad on the dunk tank. Now he wasn't too thrilled that I wanted to get this brought over. He had helped haul it for the Fall Festival to the school and it is a large and heavy piece of metal. But I insisted and so he and a couple of my brothers and a friend went and got it. I thought it was worth it, since the kids played endlessly on it throughout the day. But when the time came to load it up and return it, Chad got his finger smashed and his WHOLE entire fingernail was pulled off! It is still too upsetting to think about! I feel so terribly bad about it all and wish I had not got that dumb dunk tank! His fingernail is going to take forever to heal! So now I would say it was not worth all the trouble.

My friend Sarah was so great to take pictures while I ran around. She had a tough time pinning down Jackson, but this is Carson anyway.

Please can I have a cupcake?

Here are the girlfriends who made it to the party. I forced them to gather and take a picture so I could put it on my blog. Please, Carrie, make yourself comfortable!