More Summer!

Happy Fourth! Jon took it upon himself to do some research and scout out some areas around for us all to gather and be together and celebrate. He and Matt got up bright and real early the morning of the 4th and scouted out a great spot up at Vivienne park. It was dark when he was gathering things to head out. I noticed a pillow, sleeping bag, jug of water and a book to read. Because knowing our family, he could be there for hours and hours. Soooooooo sweeeeeet.
It proved to be a great day. There was oodles and oodles of food, of course~ plenty of room for the kids to run and play and get filthy, card games, small hikes and just real good company. It was nice to have bathrooms nearby and it never got too hot.

Sweet cousins

 

Later that evening we headed over to celebrate some more at Mike and Mandy's. We arrived to find the Porters and Geertsen's out in the couldesac lighting up piles of fireworks. We had just made a quick stop at a firework stand and Jon was grumbling at his bill total. Apparently half off still equals too much money. Jon and Mike were comparing goods and agreeing on the crazy prices and deciding what should be kept aside for the grand finale. As I saw the pile in the road I commented that next year we should just put a pile of money in the road and light that on fire.

It was great to hang out and celebrate with some birthday cake for Grandma Sharon and watch the boys- mostly big- set off their goods and have such a good time. That Jon and Mike sure do enjoy each other, and it's fun to watch.

At this point in my summer I was in DEEP with girls camp preparations. So many planning meetings and discussions, cleaning, prepping, organizing and packing equipment and trailers~  I felt I was at the point it just needed to get here already so we could just dive in. I was grateful for my amazing Camp Director and her willingness and desire and endless energy to bring forth her ideas. I also have wonderful camp assistants and councilors and advisers who were working hard. Everyone had their own assignments and were updating me on where we were at. I thought about how we were all taking time out of our lives and families and work to make this the best experience we possibly could. We love the girls so much, but we are really doing this because we all love the Lord. We can plan and pray and fast and meet and discuss, but I wanted the girls to realize it really was up to them to make a mindfull decision to have a great experience at camp. I told them so the Sunday before we were to leave. While at church I got a text from my camp director letting me know her son had badly broken his foot and leg. She would not be able to attend with us that week. She was heartbroken, she'd been working and planning all summer, and I was sorry she would be missing out. I felt like things would be just fine, we were ready, and there were so many leaders going and willing to help. She had been so organized it was all going smoothly. I was grateful, this being my first year, I didn't have that panicky feeling.
I headed up on Monday with other leaders to get everything set up. It took about half the day. I left love notes and a treat under the kids pillows to discover that night. Jon texted me on the way up, "The kids already found their notes. Where's mine?"  He didn't think to check under his own pillow until bedtime :)
It was lovely up at Mia Shalom, the weather was perfect all week. It was a real treat for me to reminisce my time there, there were so many things I'd forgotten about, but being there brought them all back. It is run now by a missionary couple and they happened to have their camp right near us. Bro. and Sis. Spense. She told me to call him Suspense and her Expense. We invited them over throughout the week and they were able to share sweet messages with us, sing for us and join us for dinner~ and happily send them off with our leftovers. It was a wonderful week, one I'd been looking forward to the past year. I knew I needed girls camp to really form bonds with some of these girls, and I did. There was one night where I was feeling the weight of the situation on my shoulders. I suppose because the camp director was not there, and different situations with the girls~ I was surprised I was feeling that way.  After I did the cabin check and reported to the stake I took a walk in the beautiful night. I made a stop at the Book of Mormon tent the stake set up and read for a bit, then marveled at the gorgeous bright sky. It was a special moment I'll always remember. I felt my Saviors love for me and knew we were being watched over. It calmed my nerves and helped me sleep that night. Mia Shalom is a very special place.
I went on the 5 mile hike with our girls, it was so gorgeous up at the top of the rim. The weather was that breezy, sunny clear blue skies all week. We had one or two sprinkles and I was so glad it wasn't sweltering hot. We are the biggest ward in the stake~ which meant we got four cabins!

Here's the picture I texted my presidency when I arrived.

I was looking forward to our DEAR time~ Drop Everything And Read. My presidency and I each took a day and picked random topics- whatever we felt impressed to talk about. I wanted to give them a little treat to have while they read and wrote in their journals and was thinking of Abby recently telling me she'd made these little paper boxes for her entire STAKE for girls camp the year before. She'd gotten the idea from Mommy, of course, from the summer we helped her make so many little blue boxes for our stake girls camp. Abby mentioned she knew it was a lot of work, but really wanted to do it. I kept thinking about that, and decided I, too really wanted to do it. Making them is relaxing, and I enjoyed doing it for the girls. They turned out really cute! I filled them with lemon drops~ also an idea from Abby~ with the quote, "Where troubles melt like lemon drops". It went along with my lesson topic on how when we do the work and put our faith in the Lord, our troubles can be lifted from some talks by Pres. Hinkley. I shared some personal life experiences and the girls had great comments. Did I mention we have really great girls? Because we do!

I chose to keep the boxes white, since our color was white for Faith

 One of my amazingly talented laurels taught us the most beautiful arrangement of "For the Beauty of the Earth" and we'd been practicing the past couple months for our singing around the lake. It was so pretty! I had us sing it together in sacrament meeting when we returned.
It was a wonderful week. By morning #5 when I got up, and was trying to balance my soaps and potions in the precarious shower stall and dress I realized I was very tired and ready to go home.

The weekend leading up to camp we were invited to spend the weekend at Jon's aunt and uncle Conway and Carol's home in Duchesne. I was so torn whether to go or not. I kept going back and forth, back and forth. I finally realized going with them was giving me anxiety, and I would stay. I was so busy all day Saturday, and held a last minute meeting Sunday with my leaders and camp director when we received her news about not going, and then packing up until the last minute, I knew I made the right choice. And the kids had a ball with dad and the family. Aaaaaand I had a quiet, clean house. Win-win-win!

While I was gone we had one of those marvelous rainstorms that flood the street. I'm glad the kids got to enjoy it!