Last swim met

Tonight was Cruz's last swim met.  It was a fun met where they did relay races passing off wet tee-shirts or swimming with inter tubes on.  He has had a really good time swimming this summer!

Pioneer Day 2017

This year Pioneer Day fell on a Monday.  We went downtown with Grammy to watch the parade. It was nice a stayed a bit overcast for a bit.  We didn't stay the entire time, but enough to see some good floats and bands.  We went to breakfast/lunch after at the Pancake House.  Then on the way home (grammy went on to downtown to work her shift at the Joseph Smith Building) we stopped at dad's work to say hi.  In the afternoon we went to the Whippermans pool and Alegra was being a goof ball!!

Back home with my Family

I was so  happy to get back home with the kids and Shawn.  I missed them ALOT!  On Friday night Shawn and I took the girls up to Solitude for a little ride and to eat dinner at Silver Fork (in Big Cottonwood).  Cruz wanted to stay back and play with Manny, so I let him.  On Saturday morning, Shawn and I met up with Jeff and Monica, and Doug and Terena and did a ride up in Park City.  It has been a LONG time since I had done a group ride that was longer but it was so fun!  Saturday night we had tickets to go up to Deer Valley to watch/hear the Symphony play the music to the 1st Harry Potter movie outside on the ski hill.  It was so much fun!!

 On Friday Alegra did a little lemonade stand.  She is trying to earn money for when we go to Jackson Hole next!

 READY TO BIKE!

 While we were biking on Saturday morning Geogria came to babysit.  She drew this cute picture of our family that I love!!!

Harry Potter!!

Girls Camp 2017

I was asked to go to Girls Camp as the Girls Camp director this year.  We came home from Idaho Sunday afternoon and unpacked and then I packed the truck up to leave the next morning for girls camp.  I had been laying stuff out for the last month-of things to bring.  It ended up being fun and I learned a lot about setting up tents, building fires, making camping meals, etc.  I have never been so sweaty and dirty either.  It was a fun time and I really enjoyed the devotional speakers talking about the theme of Reflect the Light.  I had to give a talk in church today so I am going to copy my talk into the blog too! :)

My report on girls camp will focus more on the logistics and activities side of things. 

This year the girls camp was a stake girls camp up at Camp Shawnee in Liberty, Utah.  It was a beautiful campsite at the backside of the Ben Loman mountains.  There were fields of tall wildflowers and beautiful meadows to walk through.  We met at the church parking lot on Monday morning at 8 a.m. to start our adventure.  We got up to camp at about 11, found our campsite, and worked on setting up the tents.  We had 3 tents to set up.  A 12 man tent for the Beehives and  Mia Maids, an 8 man for the Laurels, and then a leader tent for Natalie, Christy, and myself.  I have never been so sweaty just setting up a tent.  

Some of the activities that we did while we were up at camp were a certification jamboree where the girls learned about cutting wood, starting fires, setting up shelters, purifying water, learning about poisonous plants and animals, and other camping skills.  I believe in the past our stake and ward have not focused on the certifications in the camping manual, but our stake went back to the camping manual this year. It really teaches some good camping skills.  

On Monday night the Mia Maids and Christy were in charge of dinner and we made tinfoil dinners over the fire that turned out super yummy.  The stake leaders that were from our ward joined us for the ward meals: Ronnie and Lisa Romero, Jen Dyer, and Denise Osterloh.  Denise was in charge of food for all the other meals for the entire stake and between her and Jen they did more chopping, cooking, and cleaning than I bet they care to remember.  It was great getting to know each of them better.  

On Tuesday morning, the Beehives were in charge of breakfast and we made Monkey bread and hash browns in dutch ovens.  I was a little nervous about the dutch oven cooking method since I had never done that before but luckily we had Ronnie there, and he is the master at anything camping.  The meal turned out really well.  

Tuesday was probably the hottest and the sunniest day, and it also happened to be the day we did our hike.  I was so proud of all our girls. They did complain, but they all did the hike. Emma and Natalie even continued on to do the entire hike to a waterfall, which unfortunately didn’t exist at this time!  

The girls worked on a service project of sewing dolls that we are sending to kids in refugee camps.

We had daily cleaning duties around the camp that the girls did willingly.

Tuesday night, technically Wednesday morning, we had a hair raising experience-literally!  There was a HUGE lightning and thunder storm that came through at about 3 a.m.  I did the counting thing between the thunder and lightning, and I couldn’t even get to a 1 count.  Our tents would light up like crazy and the thunder was booming.  I said lots of little prayers for our safety during the storm.  After the rain and storm passed, I went to check on the girls. It was so cute-some of the younger girls had run to the older girls’ tent for comforting.  

Wednesday was a little more overcast and it happen to be our lake day, but it was still warm enough to have fun in the water.  The stake had provided some kayaks, paddleboards, and this big floating island thing.  It felt nice to get cooled off and play in the water.  That night Bishop Peterson and his wife, the Meeks, and Brother Osterloh came up to eat dinner with us and have our ward testimony meeting around our campfire.  

The theme of our camp was “Reflect the Light”.  The theme was based off the scriptures Proverbs 31:10-31.  “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies”.  We talked about virtue and what it is to be virtuous.  One of the speakers said virtue is light and power.  Virtue is a word we don’t hear often in today’s society, but the Latin root word virtus means strength.  Virtuous woman and men possess a quiet dignity and inner strength.  We also talked about how all of us are different gems-some are rubies, some are saffires, some are jade.  We all have different qualities and talents to contribute.  How boring this world would be if we were all rubies.  These girls that were at camp are all so different and unique. I loved getting to know them and their different personalities.  

I saw them be talkative, determined, logical, theatrical, inquisitive, easy-going, corky, friendly, courageous and kind. Some were  caregivers, helpers,  non-conformists, and peacemakers.  These are just some of the qualities I admired in each of these beautiful girls.  

On Wednesday night before our ward testimony meeting, we had a lady from the stake come and share her thoughts about chastity and worth.  The spirit was very strong and she delivered a powerful message.  She talked about how our WORTH is different from our WORTHINESS.  We are always VALUED and are of  GREAT WORTH to our Heavenly Father.  He loves us no matter what.  She played  an exerpt from a talk by a man with the last name Lund (that was all I caught).  He said,  “Our Heavenly Father has 2 programs.  An I love you program-which is that our Heavenly Father loves us no matter what.  And then he has an I trust you program where he gives us commandments and this is where our obedience and blessings are.  Lots of times we make mistakes in the “I trust you program” and think we can’t pray to our Heavenly Father because we feel shame, guilt, and worth-less.  But that is exactly what Satan wants us to think.  Our Heavenly Father will never remove himself from us.  Because we made mistakes in the “I trust you program” doesn’t change anything about the “I love you program”.  There is never a point of no return with our Heavenly Father because of our Savior and the Atonement.  Satan does a great job to try and trick us into thinking our Heavenly Father won’t love us.  

Our VALUE and our WORTH are based on nothing else other than our identity as CHILDREN OF GOD. And that thought gives me great HOPE.

When I first was asked to go to girl’s camp as the girls camp director, I felt a bit out of my comfort zone.  With my own young children, I am still in the “play-date” stage of life, but actually Cruz just informed me that for him I should call it, “hang-out”.  I am not as familiar with parenting that teenage stage of life yet.  

I was overcome by watching the love these girls have for each other, for their young women’s leaders, and for me.  After only being at camp one day I sat down with a bunch of the girls, and Hannah said, “I love you Kelly.” And then they all chimed in.   I think as adults we are more reserved in sharing our emotions and feelings, but these girls are so accepting and loving.  

My favorite thing was watching the girls interact with each other.  They braided each others hair, they read scriptures together, they laughed together, they worked together, they encouraged each other, they battled each other in the lake  for “king of the mountain”, they hugged each other, they cried together,  they talked and consoled each other, they protected each other in the storm, and they did come up with a few good jokes to play on the other wards-which were all in fun.  

These girls are in such good hands with the young women’s leaders in our ward.  I had the opportunity to watch both Natalie and Christy interact with the girls, and you can see how much the girls look up to both of them with love and admiration.  I told Natalie and Christy that I was taking notes on how they interacted with their own daughters that were at camp and the girls in our ward.  The love the leaders have for the girls is amazing, and it is exemplified in their actions towards the girls.  

If the girls remember anything from this past week, I want them to know they are so loved-by me, by their young woman’s leaders, by their ward, by their parents, and most importantly by their Heavenly Father.  You girls are loved for the precious gem that you are.

I want to thank my own family-Shawn, my mom, and my kids-for watching the kids and for my kids being good while I was gone.

My experience at camp is one that helped buoyed up my own testimony-for my love for my Heavenly Father.  My gratitude for my Savior and the desire to live better and be better so I can be known as a virtuous woman. 

Cruz's swim meet and then Back up to Idaho

 Cruz's swim meet!

We went back up to Idaho on Thursday July 13th.  Shawn had driven up that morning to take Zefr guys out on the lake.  Grammy, the kids, and I stayed in Idaho Falls on Thursday night and then drove  over to Swan Valley Friday morning.  The kids love the pool and the kiddie layout chairs at the Driftwood Inn in Idaho Falls.  We love to stay there because my moms friend Teny's parents owned that hotel when my mom was growing up.  Plus it is close to the falls and has a pretty boardwalk to walk on.  

We got the cabin cleaned up and made some time for lake time!

 This little lady was so tired she fell asleep on the boat.  She hasn't taken a nap in a while.

Alegra learned how to drive the little razor this trip and she was LOVING IT!!!!

Santa Fe to Celebrate the Life of Uncle Dave

On Friday afternoon Shawn, Grammy, me, Rich, and Katie flew from Salt Lake City to Albuquerque, New Mexico (Rich and Katie had just driven down from the cabin the day before).  We arrived in Albuquerque at about 5 and drove straight to Santa Fe (about an hour and a half) to a location in the mountains for a dinner with friends and family of the Curtis's.  It was a nice smaller gathering where we were able to chat with most family.

Saturday morning this group (besides Grammy) got up and hiked Nambe Lake.  It was a beautiful 3 hour round trip hike.  My mom spent the morning with Susie and then Rich and Katie.  We picked up Grammy and then went to this fantastic lunch that hit the spot!

We had time to shop for a bit before we had to get ready for the Memorial Service.  I found this bracelet and now I am kicking myself I didn't buy it, dang it!

The Memorial Service for Uncle David was at the Presbyterian Church in town and then when it was over people walked over to the Cooking School for dinner and to talk.  It really was such a special service. Uncle David was a remarkable man.

 This is the front and back of the program.  His service really reminded me that I want to live life more fully.  He was so good at observing the beauties right around him, jotting down his thoughts about these beauties, and communicating with his children both verbally and written about all the ideas going on in his head. It made me want to make some changes in my life.

Sunday morning we got up to have breakfast with the Curtis's and Toliver's.  Shawn and Garrett saw each other in the lobby with the same shirt on.

Russ, David, Rebecca, and Farrah flew in Saturday afternoon just in time for the Memorial Service.

Our breakfast group.  Rich and Katie didn't make it and Farrah was still sleeping so Dave stayed back with her-otherwise this was almost the Toliver side.

Photo Session and Uncle Ryan in town

 Last week we came back from the big family reunion in Swan Valley on Wednesday evening. Ryan and Sasha flew back to Salt Lake City from Vegas.  On Thursday Uncle Ryan took Sasha, Isla, and Alegra to Lagoon (on a heat advisory day).  Cruz had a really fun birthday party and Cowabunga Bay and to go see Spider Man and Lexi and I hung out and did wash.

 Sasha had a photo session with the girls in the backyard on Thursday night.  On Friday I was busy packing up to leave for Santa Fe.  Ryan took Sasha, Isla, Alegra, and Lexi to Cowabunga Bay when Shawn, Grammy, and I were leaving for the airport (Cruz had another birthday party at Cottonwood Rec. pool with all of this friends).

 Uncle Ryan picked up Cruz after Cowabunga Bay and took them to In-N-Out for dinner and back to Grammy's house to watch Baby Boss in Grammy's bed.  The kids slept at Grammy's house that night.  Saturday morning, Uncle Ryan took the kids to an 11 a.m showing of Despicable Me 3 and then over to Willow Creek Pool for lunch and swimming.  To say it was always a party is an understatement.  So glad Ryan is generous with the kiddos and likes to have fun.  Macy took my kids home from the pool yesterday afternoon and fed them dinner at home.  She took them to her ward today in the afternoon and then Shawn and I got back from the airport at about 2:30.