i'd rather see her

I have a million posts I want to do, but no time.

"No time. There's never any time. I don't have time to study, I'll never get into Stanford. . ."

Who knows it? Anybody?

Anyway, I'm already sick of that camp post, so until I have more time here's a cute little pic of my Ellie girl, digging in the rocks.

back to camp

Just got back from Girls Camp last week. Here are a few pictures from my bad camera and some thoughts:

• The theme for our stake was PBS Kids Shows. PBS for Pray, Book of Mormon, and Smile- the challenge for the young women of the church this year. It was such a fun theme. Each ward picked a different kids show as their theme.

• We were Curious George. This was my first time sleeping in a cabin. Pretty cozy. And luckily the girls were so dead at the end of each day that they actually slept at night. I was pleasantly surprised.
• It was fun to go back to where I had spent a week every summer when I was younger.

• There were several phrases that our girls were really into. "Epic failure," "I hate my life," and "I know, right?" were among the most frequently used. I love teenage girls!
• I don't have cute camping hair. I need a flat iron and a round brush or I'm not okay. It was a hard week.
• People get very emotional very easily at camp. It's just all those female hormones in such close proximity.
• I tried banana boats for the first time ever and they sure were yummy. If you haven't had them let me tell you: You peel one side of the banana, scoop a little bit out, and then fill it with chocolate chips, marshmallows and reese's. Close the banana back up and then wrap it tightly with tin foil. Stick it on the hot coals and wait a few minutes. Then grab a spoon. I can't wait to try it again!
• I learned how to play big booty. I totally love it.
• I had major allergy issues in my left eye. My dumb left eye. It watered constantly for two days and my skin was swollen and red and raw. I was dying. It was one of those things that isn't really a big serious deal, but it was just so very annoying and painful at times. And I just kind of like to complain about it. I do.
• I love beehives! Ours were so cute. I loved watching them do all the camp things for the first time. So cute.
• All the songs they sing are new. The only one I recognized was the Noah one. They are much more annoying when you didn't learn them yourself at camp. But guess what? I've been stuck on them ever since I got home. "Now Tarzan has a tan. . ." Ahhhhh.
• On the second day we got up at 3:30am to go on a sunrise hike. That day was the longest day ever. But the sunrise was so beautiful.
• Another beautiful thing that I made sure to look at every night was the sky. So many stars. So many. The night sky was breathtaking.
  

• We went on a snipe hunt. This was so funny. Most of the girls had never been on one before and I almost peed my pants a little because I was laughing so hard. Our camp director outdid herself on this one and should get an Oscar. She even skinned the "snipe" that she caught and cooked it up in a frying pan. It looked and smelled a lot like a twinkie with salsa on it. Hehe.
  

• We cleaned the Biffy. Well, the girls did. I helped supervise.
  
  
  

• It was actually really fun to spend a week with these cute girls. . .although I'm really glad it's over. I loved going back to Shalom- it's so beautiful up there and it was so great seeing the girls have those fun camp experiences that I had when I was their age.
  

• The group of leaders. It was really fun getting to know these ladies better.
  
• I am having a lot of mixed feelings about leaving these girls. I am so ready to move to Oregon and start living our new life. It seems like we've been waiting forever. But I also feel like I didn't get to finish what I started here in this ward. It will be hard to leave.

better late than never

Our 4th:

Parade in the morning.

We sit in the bleachers.

Perfect temperature.

McKay wants to be a police officer.

Ellery is still wiggly.

Cracker Barrell for brunch.

I guess we can call it a tradition now.

Blueberry pancakes.

Browsing the general store.

Rockin' on the front porch.

BBQ at Grandma's

Jumpin' over a rainbow.

Swinging in the hammocks.

Yummy food.

Being together.

And of course, fireworks. This year in PG.

I don't love fireworks.

Brian says I'm not American.

Gotta do it for the kids.

They loved it.

me and him

We turned twenty eight.

For Brian's birthday I didn't take any photos- my gift to him.

I had some guilt that I didn't get him any other gifts, well, besides allowing him to get his bike a few months ago. So. . .

We went shopping! It's the only time Brian buys clothes. It's becoming a tradition. Funny because Brian doesn't like to shop.

Then a yummy dinner at Olive Garden at 4:30pm. We felt like seniors citizens, and were surrounded by them.

To end the day we had cheesecake, Brian's absolute favorite, made by his Mom.

Then it was my day. And I took lots of pictures, naturally.

My birthday request- garage sale-ing. But I like Brian too much to have dragged him along. My sisters joined me, and we loved it.

I came home to a wonderful breakfast of french toast and homemade Magelby's-style syrup. I was spoiled. Spoiled enough that Brian also accompanied me throw pillow shopping, and he didn't even complain.

Jana was nice enough to host the whole family at her house for an ice cream party. I always prefer ice cream over cake, unless it's the Costco chocolate cake- I like that one.

After that, the Lehi Roundup!

Mack loved it, and has consequently been a bucking bull nearly everyday since.

This one was pretty good, but got really wiggly about half way through. It's hard to keep an almost-two-year-old in bleachers for hours at a time.

It was fun to spend a night with my family- even though our seniors and a few others didn't want to rodeo with us.



And that's it! Another year older. Another pair of birthdays together.

And Brian is getting wrinkles. I'm not, because, you know, I'm younger.

thoughts on a sunday

• I really like blogging. I am dedicated to keeping up with it because I want to be able to remember each little detail of life right now. I don't scrapbook, I don't journal. This is it. And it really works for me.


• Today I realized that my face is fat. And some other places too. And then I ate an ice cream sundae. And then I told Brian I'm going to exercise tomorrow. And then he laughed. And then I jumped on him and told him to hug me because I had just discovered that I got fat. And then he made a sound like I was too heavy. And then I laughed. But- I'm kind of really upset by this discovery.


• Ellery wore a little dress that Lindy brought back from Jerusalem. She looked really cute and really like she was in a nightgown or getting baptised. McKay wore an outfit that earned him the nickname Lumberjack. I was in a Hawaiian muu-muu type dress. Brian was about to put on his suit and then saw the three of us and decided to go more casual to match his multi-cultural clad family.


• We had a really great holiday weekend but we are tired. And the kids were in bed by 6:45 because of all the late nights this week.


• We showed our house three times this week. We are getting more used to keeping it clean all the time. McKay gets tired of me saying it's a cleaning day. And also, for some reason selling our house is making me a little obsessed with keeping our car clean. If only I had some time to myself to get in there with a toothpick and some lysol. Soon.


• We got a big little blow-up pool. All the moms around here have been talking about doing it all summer. And we finally did. And it is a huge success. It finally feels like summer.


• Ever since we went to the rodeo Ellery's favorite sentence is "horsies are awesome." It's just about the cutest thing I've ever heard and she tells most everyone.


• Ellery is into saying "I love it" for lots of things. My favorite conversation of the week:

Ellery: "Fireworks?"

Brian: "I love 'em."

Ellery: "No! Fireworks?"

Brian: "I love 'em."

Ellery "No! Fireworks?"

Brian: "I like 'em?"

Ellery: Yes "I like 'em!"

happy sunday!

how sweet

For about a week or so every time Brian left for work McKay would say, "Dad! Are you going to bring me some sweet roles when you come home?!"

We have no idea where this came from. We have no idea why he calls them sweet roles.

We have no idea why he associated Brian working with sweet roles.

but . . .

. . . yesterday Dad delivered.

And his boy was thrilled.