A Week in Complete Paradise

Lake Chelan, Washington...complete paradise. It's true! It is one of the most fun places we visit. Part of that is because of the childhood memories, but even for Cade, Jennie and Andrew who didn't come here as a child they absolutely loved it too! It is SUCH a beautiful, clear lake, the house is incredibly beautiful, there is tons to do and the lake is right in your backyard! We had such a wonderful week and it was incredibly hard to go back home. The only thing that would have made it perfect is if Nathan and Steph's family were able to join us. Then we would have had everyone there! But with Steph's neck problems, it was no very possible to have them there. We sure missed them!!!

On the way there we left Friday night and stopped in Boise to get some sleep. Well, we learned that it maybe wasn't the best idea to stop because Reese cried every hour at the hotel so we ended up not getting enough sleep. On the way back, we drove all the way through- 14 hours. Painful towards the end, but better than paying for a hotel that we wouldn't get any sleep at anyway. Once we got to Chelan we put some things away, threw everything else into our room and ran to the lake as soon as we could :). Kristen and Andrew got there that night and it was SO fun to see them! Jaxon has gotten so big and has learned so much since the last time we saw them.

Sunday was really low key but still way fun! We went to church at the LDS ward in Chelan. In the afternoon us girls did glitter toes together while the guys all played Pickle Ball, Ladder Ball, and Cube (which we played lots of evenings). We had a good time doing glitter toes- some of us were better than others :).  A good phrase for the whole week would be "chill, relaxing, and amazingly fun!"

 

One thing I loved about this trip is each couple was assigned a day of cooking and that night you also did a spiritual thought. Everyone's thoughts were amazing and it was so good to have a time where we could talk spiritually. It's those moments where I am reminded how grateful I am for my parents and siblings who are such amazing examples to me. A few of the nights we played games together too. One game was a couple's game where everyone in the room asked the couple in the middle questions and you had to raise your own shoe or your spouse's shoe for the answer. It was pretty funny to see the answers and the reactions to the questions. And we go to know more about each other.

As you can see, we had a great time...too much fun sometimes :)... 

My cute girls :). Emma called this "The BIG House." She LOVED being there! She loved playing in the water, tubing behind the boat, playing in the little playroom with toys, climbing the big ladder up to their loft, and having attention from so many people all the time! We prayed and prayed every single night that they would be safe and nothing would happen to them. Having the lake RIGHT in the backyard is scary when you have a toddler. Emma wore a life jacket every time we went outside and that helped us to be more at peace.

One day we spend a couple hours walking around down town Chelan. It was a beautiful little town. 

We rented a wave runner two different days and I loved that! Kristen and Boose and Bud liked going on it together to try and throw each other off. I liked going on it when I could be the driver cause I'm not quite a dare devil like them :). Then Tuesday to Thursday the Murray's came and Mike took us out on the boat those days. It was so good to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Joyce. They are such an amazing couple and it was fun to catch up a little. We did some tubing, wake-boarding, and a really fun night cruise in the moon-light. It was SO much fun and we are extremely grateful for them letting us use the boat. When we didn't have the boat or wave-runner we spent time swimming, laying out in the sun, playing on rafts and tubes, and kayaking. 

 

 So amazing and worth every minute of travel time! I can't wait until we can go back again. The house is beautiful, the lake is beautiful and amazing, but most of all the memories we create are priceless. I love my family and I feel so grateful to have each one of them in my life!

GOING PRIVATE

Yes, it is time. I am going to go private with our family blog now. If you would like an invite and would like to keep following please send me your email and I will send a link so you can keep updated. Thanks!

Girls Camp 2012

Finding Light in a Tangled up World

I don't even know where to start. First of all, I can honestly say that girls camp could not have gone better than it did. No drama. No homesick tears. No back biting. No unprepared moments. Seriously- it was All fun, laughter, good talks, spritual moments, nature, staying up getting to know each other, and loving each other! As a leader, that is a miracle! I love these girls and we had such a good time together!

The first day we met at the Bishops house and drove to Duchesne to tr Bullock's cabin. We got there and it was a beautiful place! We had a low key start and played a bunch of get-to-know-you games such as "I've never" and a candy bar game that you told about yourself according to what candy you had. It was really fun to learn about each other!  That night after dinner we had a speaker that introduced our theme for camp. Then we played games until all hours of the night and talked and talked.

The second day we spent most of the day at the beach at a lake called starvation. We were blessed to have two different boats they're so all the girls could have fun doing boating activities. We also played watermelon football on the beach which was hilarious to watch!  After the beach we went back to the cabin and we ate dinner. The girls all seemed exhausted so we thought we would get an early night sleep. Jokes on us! We didn't go to bed till after midnight because the girls got a Second wind!

The last day was really fun. We drove to Brother and Sister Preece's cabin and went on a short hike. After the hike we played on their zip line and then we had a spiritual thought a couple more games and ended with solo time. Solo time is a beautiful time where we can contemplate life, read scriptures, pray, write in our journals or anything else you want to do with time in nature. It is always one of my favorite times at girls camp!

We went back to the cabin and had Dutch oven cooking for dinner that the bishopric made for us. After dinner we played some games with the bishopric which were hilarious. We got to know some funny things about them! Then at night we ended with testimony meeting which is definitely one of my favorite parts. The bishop gave a thought about sharing our light with the world and then we each had a turn to share testimonies about Gospel.

I am so grateful for each one of these women who teach me so much. They're great examples to me of sharing their lights with those around them. It was so fun to have a girls camp where we could have a lot of downtime to get to know each other! Everything seriously went so perfect and I'm so grateful to my leaders and camp directors for all the wonderful planning and help with camp! It was so much fun!!!

 

   

Beach day! So fun!

Watermelon Football- I got the honors of covering it in crisco :)...

 

 

Games, games, games- a huge part of camp and so fun to just hang out together and get to know each other.

 Okay, okay...I admit we were completely spoiled. The cabin was beautiful, we didn't have to set up tents, we had a kitchen to cook in and the leaders all had beds to sleep in. Not really "camping" I will admit, but they were going on a pioneer trek three weeks after and could get the WHOLE outdoor experience :). And it was much easier planning with it being in a cabin. It was completely wonderful!

Our wonderful Bishopric! We love them! They have been in their callings for almost 6 years...so this most likely was their last girls camp and we are very sad about that!

The Boo and Little Boo: update

 

Just another update of pictures and stories about our girls!

Emma Bentley- She is getting crazier and crazier and it is so much fun. She is talking in full sentences now and tries her hardest to carry on conversations. It is so cute to see her try to be in on Cade and I's conversations and she loves talking about princesses, movies, the park, Kangaroo-Zoo, family members, etc. She does a great job making Reese laugh and being nice to her. She just wants to be outside all the time and has finally gotten a hang of her tricycle she got for Easter. 

Reese Marie- She is getting bigger and stronger all the time. She still loves roaming the house and moving all over the place. We can't keep her away from the stairs and she hasn't grasped the going down carefully part like Emma did at her age. She has 6 teeth and lets me know when she is going to get more. Last week she drank at least 40 ounces a day and that meant she was feeling good! Now she doesn't want to drink much- just wants solids- and is much more fussy. At least she lets me know. We had Reese on a good schedule before going to Lake Chelan. She finally was sleeping 12 hours at night! But then we went on vacation and we're going to have to re-learn some things!

Emma thinks it's funny to tease Reese already. She was putting stickers on her and Reese didn't know what to do about it :).

We went and played at the park one morning. It must have been too close to Reese's morning nap cause she had a hard time staying awake! It was hilarious to watch!

 

We often times go to The Riverwoods Mall and play in the splash pad and ride the merry-go-round.  Emma just LOVES it! She always asks to "go ride the big horsie?" This time we took her friend Elliot and Elliot's mom, Emily who is a good friend in this ward. They are moving a week from today so I am very sad about that!

 

Emma loves to dress up in my clothes and wants to wear "pretty dresses" all the time. She is definitely a girl :).

 

 

Here's Emma being organized again. She loves organizing things like her princess shoes! She gets it from her Daddy- the organization that is :).

 

Most of the time Emma and Reese love playing together! This picture doesn't quite show it- I think Reese didn't feel very safe on the horse :). They are so fun to watch though. When we were getting ready for our last family vacation, Cade and I couldn't get anything packed with both girls so we put Reese in the crib and Emma was in the room with her. Eventually Emma had crawled into the crib with Reese and they were having a screaming contest and laughing at each other! It was so loud....but so cute to see them playing together! They are growing up so fast!

Nauvoo Reunion with my Sisters!

There are now only 5 remaining in Utah of our original 10 sisters that served in Nauvoo together. We got together on a Saturday night to have some girl time before Michelle Erikson (Ozzy) leaves for the East to support her hubby with grad school. I will definitely miss her! I will especially be forever grateful for the time I have had to know and serve and be around these wonderful women and best friends of mine! We always have so much fun together and can't get enough time talking about life and the future. We had such an amazing chemistry in Nauvoo and I don't know how it happened but I was extremely blessed to be in Nauvoo the same time as these incredible women. I love them so much an have learned so much over the years. We all continue to change and go on through life but continue to stay in contact and get together whenever we can. I love them so much!!!!

Boose's Birthday Bash!

For Boose's birthday this year I Wanted to treat her to a day of fun instead of give a gift. And I don't know if Emma or Boose was more excited. The night before her birthday, I got home from mutual and asked Cade, "Is Emma in bed?" He told me, "yes, she's in bed but can't fall asleep cause she's so excited to go to Kangaroo-Zoo tomorrow with Boose!" it was really cute. So Boose came over in the morning and we first went to K-zoo and Boose and I switched off playing on the bounce toys cause Emma had tons of energy!

After K-zoo we put the girls down for bed, a babysitter came over and we went to lunch and to The Chocolate for dessert. It was a fun day! Happy day of birth Boose!